Human Health Project Member Update

Human Health Project (HHP), (www.humanhealthproject.org), is a non-profit, online social network where medical professionals of all types, around the world, help each other with cases, free of charge.

Medical professionals include conventional and alternative, nurses, doctors, practitioners and patient advocates.

Sign up takes 20 secs http://www.humanhealthproject.org/user/register

View HHP’s Clinical Advisory Council http://www.humanhealthproject.org/team_council

Members may remain anonymous on HHP, simply by choosing a username that is not recognisable.

Submitting cases is quick and easy, typically less than one minute to submit.

All cases and comments are moderated for anonymity and quality.

Is there a medical professional you can think of that might be interested in using HHP? Please feel free to forward this email.

We welcome members in the developing world, who may be helped with cases by members in the developed world or they may help each other or for example in the case of a tropical disease, a member in the developed world could be helped by a member in the developing world.

Case outcome data is collected, and added to a knowledge database, so that it will be searchable in the future, by medical professionals, researchers and members of the general public.

HHP is a volunteer, grassroots bases initiative.

Many thanks for your support, any suggestions very welcome.

Phil Harrington MD
Human Health Project/CEO
phil@humanhealthproject.org

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Ear candling is a treatment that is used to help remove hardened ear wax.  It helps a problems in not only the ears, but also the eyes, nose, and throat.  A build-up of earwax can lead to problems like a partial hearing loss, ringing in the ears, or even headaches and coughs.

What can ear candling be used for and what are its side effects?  One group found that ear candling may be good for middle ear infections. Some other reported benefits of ear candling are physical and emotional balance, improved sense of smell and taste, and less pain and tension in the jaw.  Others say that ear candling is harmful because it could lead to problems like causing burns or candle wax being deposited in the ear.

How safe is ear candling?  Are the benefits worth the risks?  Or, are the risks of this ancient treatment reduced if it is carried out by a certified ear candler rather than at home?  What other alternatives are there out there?

Ear candling is yet another treatment that might be beneficial to many people if they know how to carry it out safely.  Or, may not be worthwhile at all.  With conversation between practitioners with different backgrounds and different types of experience, issues regarding treatments such as these can be cleared up.

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Currently, frequency medicine is only used in a few conventional medical treatments.  Kidney stones are one of these cases.  The frequency of sound is used to break up kidney stones. Energy frequencies are also used by dermatologists to help repair damaged skin and stimulate hair growth.  Scientists have also used specific frequencies to eradicate tumors.

Various levels of frequency have the potential to be used for the healing and therapy of many diseases, and these therapies could potentially be less harmful, more affordable, or more effective than current therapies.  Take cancer, for instance.  Current conventional cancer therapies are damaging to the body, but frequencies may be used to eradicate the cancer cells with fewer side effects.  However, as with any treatment or therapy, care should be taken to examine all advantages and disadvantages of the frequency therapy.  Introducing certain frequencies into the body may have their own side effects.  Electrodermal Screening Devices, for example, are machines that send electrical signals to the brain and body at certain frequencies.  Some say that these machines use frequencies that are not necessarily healthy frequencies for everyone and can therefore potentially lead to severe and permanent side effects.  Like all areas areas of medicine, communication between experts and specialists is key to determining the best and safest ways to integrate frequency therapy into medical treatments.

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There are many therapies which work on the meridian system of the body.  These therapies often involve tapping or rubbing certain points on the body, particularly the chakras, the meridians, or acupuncture points.  People can also use meditation to bring the chakras into balance.  These therapies provide people with instant relief  by “balancing out” a body that is out of balance. 

Heart Rate Variability tests show that tapping and rubbing therapies are indeed instant and effective.  However, Heart Rate Variability tests show that the body will go out of balance for many people within the next 24 hours.

Still, such therapies provide amazing benefits.  Simple chakra meditation can lead to  improved concentration, improved control in stressful and emotional situations, heightened creativity, and improved concentration.  Sleep is deeper and more refreshing.  Stress reduction and improved sleep can both improve short-term health problems and chronic conditions.

Do these therapies lead to permanent health benefits after repeated treatment? Can they heal the body?  By serving as a sort of Wikipedia for medicine, the Human Health Project hopes to gather enough evidence to help clarify such questions.

Image by  Toby Ciranjiiva Tatsuyama-Kurk

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The Neuromodulation Technique (NMT) is based on the idea that most degenerative diseases  result when the body’s immune system confuses the body’s tissues with foreign invaders.  Dr. Leslie S. Feinberg developed NMT in 2002 after studying various systems of energetic medicine from Chinese acupuncture to modern-day energetic medicine.  NMT is designed to work by correcting the erroneous signals in the body, restoring the body’s innate ability to heal itself.

NMT is said to treat a wide range of diseases.  The idea is that allergies or pathogenic organisms cause the body to attack its own tissues.  If the connective tissues are attacked, diseases like osteoarthritis, Sjorgen’s disease, fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis result.  If the nervous system is attacked, diseases like multiple sclerosis or ALS result.  If the gastrointestinal system is attacked, IBS or Crohn’s disease can develop, and if the endocrine system is attacked, diseases like adrenal exhaustion, hypoglycemia, diabetes, and hypothyroidism can result.

During treatment, a procedure called dynamic muscle response testing (MRT) is used to find errors in the body’s control systems.  NMT-trained physicians then reprogram the immune system to recognize pathogenic organisms that were previously unrecognized by the body.  NMT can also be used to correct allergies and to help the body recognize toxins that mimic hormones or prevent enzyme systems from working properly.

If NMT can really do all that it claims, then it is a truly  revolutionary new treatment that physicians and patients should seriously consider.  NMT treatment is non-invasive and painless, and can be carried out alongside regular treatment.

How effective is NMT?  Does it truly work for all people with the conditions mentioned above?  Does it at least work for some?  If you’ve had any experience with NMT, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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There are some illnesses that conventional practitioners can’t diagnose.  Hypothyroidism Type 2 is one of those.  Blood tests can only show whether or not there are adequate levels of thyroid hormone in the bloodstream.  However, in hypothyroidism type 2, the levels of thyroid hormone in the bloodstream are normal, so these tests show up as normal.  The true problem in hypothyroidism type 2 is that the cells of the body are not able to use the hormone properly, regardless of how much is in the bloodstream.

Hypothyroidism type 2 can show up as a large variety of different symptoms in different individuals.  Some of these include temperature regulation problems, skin disorders, cardiovascular problems, dental problems, and autoimmune conditions.  Patients can receive treatment for each individual condition from a conventional doctor, but, in reality, they should be treating the underlying condition, hypothyroidism,  instead.  Unfortunately, conventional physicians do not receive much training on hypothyroidism type 2 so it often remains undiagnosed.

The key to this dilemma is communication.  Communication among patients is already underway on forums, among friends, and in literature.  But the gap in communication between medics still needs to be filled.  Experts on the subject consider hypothyroidism type 2 to be a highly undiagnosed epidemic.  And, it’s not the only invisible disease occurring throughout the world.  Let’s hope the Human Health Project can garner the enthusiasm of medics and patient advocates to bring these undiagnosed diseases into the light.

Image: Photostock

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We all watched IBM’s supercomputer Watson beat his human opponents, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in the much anticipated Jeopardy match.  It seems, however, that Watson will be retiring from games shows and will be fulfilling its intended role of working in the healthcare industry. IBM has partnered with Nauance Communications to determine how the supercomputer can tap into its potential of matching medicines to individual needs by exploring possible speech recognition and analytical skills.

With the aid of the Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, IBM will combine their medical expertise and research to help identify critical issues in medical practice where Watson could contribute and offer maximum assistance. One of its potential markets would be matching medications to individual needs. With a history of past doctor visits and available drugs, Watson could provide intelligent insight to best possible treatments for customers.

Since doctors really are only able to access a small amount of medical information that they remember along with cross-references of patient charts, Watson could help by searching hundreds of years of case studies while contrasting them with current research being tested globally.

Furthermore, cost is not much of an issue as it is relatively cheap compared to commonly purchased medical technologies by healthcare organizations. IBM is projecting that, within two years, Watson will be commercially available to aid hospitals and physicians in analyzing data from electronic health records (EHRs) to determine best treatments.

According to IBM’s Press Release:

A doctor considering a patient’s diagnosis could use Watson’s analytics technology, in conjunction with Nuance’s voice and clinical language understanding solutions, to rapidly consider all the related texts, reference materials, prior cases, and latest knowledge in journals and medical literature to gain evidence from many more potential sources than previously possible. This could help medical professionals confidently determine the most likely diagnosis and treatment options.

IBM is essentially using similar ideology to the Human Health Project by using technology to create a database of case studies that medics worldwide can access to search personalized and varied treatment options that cater to  individual patients’ needs. Though similar to HHP, Watson will likely not be utilizing all areas of medicine instead working mainly with conventional, or allopathic, medicine.  HHP is unique in that its scope of medicine includes all alternative and complementary medicines, bridging the gap left by Watson.

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Last week, I brought up homeopathy and some of the controversy surrounding it.  Last Wednesday, NaturalNews.com actually shared an article with some interesting points on the history of homeopathy.

The article told the story of King George VI’s treatment by both a speech therapist and a homeopath for his speech problems.  It also discussed Queen Adelaide, the wife of King William IV, publicly sharing her interest in homeopathy in 1835.  The queen had been cured from a serious malady by one of the colleagues of homeopathy’s founder.  King George V also had an interest in homeopathy, having used it to recover from seasickness.  Because tobacco can cause dizziness and nausea, his homeopath gave him tobacco in his treatment for seasickness.  It was later that his son, King George VI, established the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital.  The use of homeopathy still thrives today, with Dr. Peter Fisher being the homeopath to Queen Elizabeth II.

The NaturalNews article as well as this article at Homeopathy Home go into more history of the use of homeopathy among royalty.  Although homeopathy has a history of being supported by royalty throughout Europe, it also has a history of strong opposition.  As I mentioned last week, it has often received criticism for not being evidence-based.  Some people just want more proof that it works.  Hopefully, the Human Health Project can help build up more proof as to whether or not it truly works.

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In homeopathy, patients are given medicines derived from minerals or living things.  Ironically, the medicine used to treat a person who is unwell is a substance that would cause someone without the disease to experience the symptoms of the unwell person.  The purpose behind prescribing this sort of medication is to boost the patient’s defensive response.

This seemingly paradoxical form of medicine is not a completely novel idea.  The use of vaccinations is based on a similar principle.  In vaccinations, a micro-organism which would normally cause a person to become ill or a substance resembling that micro-organism is used to help boost a person’s immune response to that disease.

Homeopathy itself was developed in the 18th century by the German physician Samuel Christian Hahneman and is still in use today.  In 2007, approximately 3.9 million adults and 900,000 children in America used homeopathy.  People used it for a wide variety of health conditions from skin rashes to digestive disorders.  People also used homeopathy for the purposes of prevention and general wellness.

The practice and use of homeopathy has received a lot of criticism.  Recently, the British Medical Association was considering banning support of homeopathy by the National Health Service, one of the public healthcare systems in the United Kingdom.  Many argue that, although homeopathy does not cause very many side effects, it has no benefits either and is thus a waste of money.  It is also criticized for not being an evidence-based medicine.

One of the goals of the Human Health Project is to help medical professionals work together to determine the efficacy of alternative treatments like homeopathy and  to help build a database of evidence both for and against such controversial treatments.  What are your thoughts on homeopathy?

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A survey taken in 2005 to 2006 found that twenty-nine percent of adults between the ages of 57 and 85 were taking at least five prescription medications at the same time.  Oftentimes, patients are prescribed multiple medications because they have multiple chronic conditions, while other times they are given multiple medications for one condition (known as combination therapy or polytherapy).

What if these patients had alternatives to their long lists of medications?  Not only is taking multiple medications inconvenient and expensive, but it can potentially be dangerous as well.  In the survey mentioned above, it was estimated that approximately one in 25, or 2.2 million, adults between the ages of 57 and 85 were at risk for experiencing a major interaction between two or more of the drugs they were taking.

There may be alternatives to taking multiple drugs at once or ways to reduce the number of drugs people are taking.  In some cases, a person may have multiple chronic illnesses, but they may all be related.  Treating underlying conditions may be a way to reduce the number of drugs taken.  Obesity, for example, is often a condition underlying many other chronic conditions.  In other cases there may be non-drug treatments that can be used in conjunction with pharmaceutical medications to reduce the load of drugs that a patient is taking.  In this case, alternative therapies may prove useful.  What are your thoughts?

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