Effective Therapies – completely without drugs – SonntagsZeitung

What is the use – apart from drugs – for the pain of osteoarthritis of the knee? How do you lose about two pounds in a diet? And what helps if the offspring put a marble in their nostrils?

The answer comes from Handi, the "Handbook of Non-Drug Interventions". Behind, a dozen Australian scientists and doctors, many of whom work as general practitioners.

They were disturbed by the fact that almost half of the clinical trials do not test drug treatments – but practically no doctor can prescribe them to patients, some of these treatments being vaguely explained in studies and rarely advertised, unlike to drugs

"Imagine a drug that reduces by 70% the number of hospital stays and deaths in patients with chronic lung disease. Doctors and patients screamed and companies demanded high prices, "says Paul Glasziou, head of the Handi Project group. However, this treatment – a training program – already exists.

About 60 methods tested

Glasziou works as a general practitioner and professor at the Australian Bond University. With a colleague, he researched for years in six major medical journals studies on non-drug therapies. They found it 137 times. However, 61% of these methods were so poorly described that it was impossible to apply them.

Handi should remedy this. The online manual is structured in the same way as a compendium of drugs that lists side effects, precautions and other important information. Only treatments that are proven in at least two well-performed comparative tests (or qualitatively similar quality studies) are described. Until now, Glasziou and his colleagues have approved about sixty methods. "In general medicine, we need such treatments every day," says Reto Auer, research director at the Bern Institute of Family Medicine, and reveals a good method: "In young hypotensive women, they help to cross the legs and muscles. the tightening. This is more effective than the medication often prescribed for hypotension. "

Still lacks financial incentives

He believes that there is no financial incentive for the main reason why many tried and tested remedies are not not known, "It would be interesting, for example, to hire a specialist at the hospital to quit smoking. However, financial incentives are missing. It is a deficiency of our health system. "

Another aspect is continuing medical education, which has so far been mainly funded by pharmaceutical companies, which leads to doctors prescribing sleeping pills, for example, rather than refer patients to medical devices. Disordered sleep behavior therapy, criticizes Auer, so he finds initiatives like Handi or even continuing education circles of family doctors, in which such methods are discussed, "extremely important." Handi can be found at this link

Examples of Effective Nonmedicinal Methods:

• Weight Loss:

  Drink half a liter of water 30 minutes before each meal

  Result: When we l & rsquo; Used for one diet, one takes one in twelve weeks on average about two kilos more than with the diet alone.

  Attention: For all the s diseases where too much fluid can cause problems (eg, incontinence, prostate problems).

• Diarrhea:

  In case of acute intestinal infection (even while traveling), compensate for fluid loss and take probiotics for five to ten days according to the manufacturer's instructions. The most commonly used are Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Saccharomyces boulardii.

  Result: Reduces diarrhea time by about 25 hours. Approximately 60% lower risk of diarrhea persists for more than four days

  Warning: Following surgery, immunodeficiency or critical condition; can cause indigestion in some people.

• Pain in the heel:

  In so-called plantar fasciitis with pain in the sole of the foot, towards the morning of loading, stretch the sole of the foot at least three times a day. To do this ten times in a row, ten seconds each, turn your toes up with your hand. Apply for eight weeks.

  Results: More than 90% of patients in one study experienced less pain and were very satisfied, and 77% were able to resume their activities without restriction.

  Attention: Carry out carefully. Some subjects experienced a little more pain in the stretching exercise

• Foreign body in the nose:

  When tinnitus pushes a foreign object into the nose, the mother or the father pretends to give him a mouth-to-mouth respirator. , To hold the nostril free of the child. If resistance is felt, blow it once. Click here for instructions.

  Result: A foreign matter is expelled in about 60% of cases

  Attention: Do as much as possible under the supervision of a doctor; it can theoretically cause lung lesions or other complications (but has never been reported). Do not use with a battery in the nose.

• Osteoarthritis of the knee:

  First hypoallergenic strip on the skin, then closed. How to stick depends on the symptoms. The best to be shown by the physiotherapist. Click here for instructions

  Result: Can very effectively help with chronic pain, in addition to physiotherapy and weight loss. On a 100-point scale, recording reduces pain by 11 to 20 points.

  Warning: Tape may irritate the skin. Take off gently. If the skin must be shaved beforehand, do not stick the ribbon before 12 o'clock

• Cough:

  Give the children an acute infection of the respiratory tract half a teaspoon of honey at bedtime

  Result: May smother cough

  Warning: No honey for children under 12 months due to risk of fatal botulism.

• Infection of the middle ear:

  Listening to children for hypertrophied or poor tonsils after middle ear infection, because there is fluid in the middle ear. middle ear, close one nostril two or three times a day and inflate a balloon with the other – for example, with the help of Otovent

  . tympani replacement tubes. After three months, 50% of the children were asymptomatic, compared to 38% in the control group

  Warning: Some children have difficulty learning the method. In one study, Otovent children have slightly more respiratory infections.

• Parkinson:

  Dance. Whether it's tango, waltz or foxtrot, it does not matter; Until now, no dance is known that best helps in mild to moderate Parkinson's disease

  Result: The results of several studies are not consistent. Overall, however, movements, mobility, balance, and quality of life seem to be improving.

  Warning: Adverse reactions have not been systematically studied. Cases of falls, pain and fatigue have been reported.