only as long as necessary. In cases
of acutely severe and life-threatening illness, the use of allopathic
or conventional drugs (like antibiotics or cortisone, etc.) is usually
unavoidable. However, whenever
possible, symptoms are not suppressed; instead the intention is to
activate powers of self-healing with
the aid of homeopathic and other
produced anthroposophic drugs and
to stimulate the body into finding
its own natural rhythm once more.
In this field, anthroposophic medicine follows a holistic and pluralistic
approach.
A well-known example of a typical anthroposophic drug therapy is
mistletoe, which is used as medicinal plant in oncology. In Europe
it’s the most common and most
investigated drugs in integrative
oncology. More than one hundred
clinical studies have proved the
advantages in quality of life when
patients used mistletoe in addition
to, e.g., chemotherapy, radiation,
or other conventional cancer treatments. Some studies even indicate
that there is also the possibility of
39
life extension.
With its synthesis of natural and
spiritual science anthroposophic medicine links the conventional
pathogenic approach (focusing on
the illness) to a salutogenic medical
perspective (focusing on health).
This produces a holistic appreciation of health, illness, and treatment – and that’s exactly what
modern humanity needs. In this
day and age, patients don’t want to
be seen merely as an illness, but as
a person with an illness.
Anthroposophic medicine is
practised in more than 80 countries around the world: in Cape
Town and Helsinki, Moscow and
Los Angeles, Hamburg and Manila,
and Sao Paulo and Santiago de
Chile. The first anthroposophic hospital for acute care was
Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus
Herdecke (www.gemeinschaftskrankenhaus.de), founded in 1969.
It has a capacity of 471 beds for
all important medical departments
with 1250 employees and more than
50,000 patients a year (inpatients