Health and Business Articles

Heel USA Applauds The New England Journal of Medicine for Featuring Acupuncture

The publication of this paper in The New England Journal of Medicine, the medical journal with by far the highest impact worldwide, is a milestone for alternative medicine approaches and shows an increased interest for alternative medicine research... Albuquerque, NM (Vocus) September 9, 2010

Heel USA, the makers of Traumeel®, said today that complementary and alternative medicine may be gaining further acceptance in the United States as evidenced by the a recent article printed in the The New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM, (http://www.NEJM.org). The NEJM is one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world. It published a clinical therapeutic titled “Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain” which appeared in its July 29, 2010 issue.

The article uses the case of a patient with a long-standing history of low back pain as a starting point for a review of the clinical condition and the research evidence for tradition Chinese medicine (TCM) for chronic lower back pain and the uncertainties and challenges associated with conducting research in this area. The authors(1) report that, “an estimated 70% of persons in Western industrialized countries have back pain sometime in their lives(2). Furthermore, patients with back pain account for more than $90 billion annually in health care expenses with approximately $26 billion of that amount directly attributable to the treatment of back pain(3)”.

Alternative medicine casts a wider net than Acupuncture. Pharmaceutical companies like Heel are striving to create more evidence in this field, said Robbert Van Haselen, Head of Research at Heel. “The publication of this paper in The New England Journal of Medicine, the medical journal with by far the highest impact worldwide(4), is a milestone for alternative medicine approaches and shows an increased interest for alternative medicine research provided that it follows certain requirements of scientific validation.” Being at the forefront of scientific research in homeopathy for years, Heel currently runs 14 research programs in multiple disease areas.

“We applaud The New England Journal of Medicine for publishing a balanced look at this therapeutic approach to pain. Our company’s founder Hans-Heinrich Reckeweg MD, created combination homeopathic medicines to improve patient care and healing by bridging homeopathy and conventional medicine. We recognize that the marriage of allopathic and alternative medicine and the discussion of both in respected journals like The New England Journal of Medicine can lead to better healthcare in this country,” said Thierry Montfort, president and CEO, Heel USA.

In the United States Doctors of Oriental Medicine and Licensed Acupuncturists have been using Heel products along with TCM for more than 30 years by combining the 3,000 year old therapy with Traumeel® for muscular pain, Heel’s Detox-Kit™for addressing toxicity, and Neurexan® for sleeplessness.

Heel USA is the United States subsidiary of Heel GmbH, the second largest homeopathic pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world with distribution in over 50 countries. In 2009, 1,300 employees at Heel worldwide generated sales of 240 million dollars . For more information on Heel and its products please visit www.heelusa.com

References
1.    Authors: Brian M. Berman, M.D., Helene H. Langevin, M.D., Claudia M. Witt, M.D., M.B.A., and Ronald Dubner, D.D.S., Ph.D.Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain. NEJM 2010; 363; 5:454-461.
2.    Andersson GB. Epidemiological features of chronic low-back pain. Lancet 1999;354:581-5.
3.    Hart LG, Deyo RA, Cherkin DC. Physician office visits for low back pain: frequency, clinical evalua-tion, and treatment patterns from a U.S. national survey. Spine 1995;20:11-9.
4.    Citation impact factor: nr 1=NEJM with 47 according to http://science.thomsonreuters.com/citationimpactcenter/

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