The C.A.M. Report
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point
  • About this web log

    This blog ran from 2006 to 2016 and was intended as an objective and dispassionate source of information on the latest CAM research. Since my background is in pharmacy and allopathic medicine, I view all CAM as advancing through the development pipeline to eventually become integrated into mainstream medical practice. Some will succeed while others fail. But all are treated fairly here.

  • About the author

    John Russo, Jr., PharmD, is president of The MedCom Resource, Inc. Previously, he was senior vice president of medical communications at www.Vicus.com, a complementary and alternative medicine website.

  • Common sense considerations

    The material on this weblog is for informational purposes. It is not medical advice or counsel. Be smart, consult your health professional before using CAM.

  • Recent Posts

  • Recent Comments

    Homeopathic remedy reduces symptoms of rhinosinusitis

    Rhinosinusitis refers to symptoms (nasal obstruction/discharge and loss of smell) of a cold or allergy that involve the nasal passages and the sinuses.

    This study (written in German) in 144 patients with acute rhinosinusitis showed improvement in those receiving the homeopathic remedy compared to patients who received placebo.

    • 7, 14, and 21 days after starting treatment, five sinusitis-typical symptoms were measured with scores from 0 (absent) to 4 (very strong).
    • The treatment group had significant improvement vs the placebo group after 7 days.
    • Homeopathic treatment resulted in freedom from complaints in 90% of the patients and improvement in a further 8%.
    • Complaints remained unchanged or became worse in 89% of the placebo patients.
    • One adverse event occurred in one patient in the placebo group.

    This is good, but the abstract leaves open many questions.

    • What homeopathic treatment was administered?
    • Was it the same for all treated patients?
    • How long did the patients take the treatment?
    • Were the improvements based on the patients’ or doctors’ evaluation?
    • Am I correct that it took 7 days before significant changes were reported?

    The researchers concluded, “The homeopathic product allows an effective and tolerable treatment of acute rhinosinusitis.”

    12/22/06 15:39 JR

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