Homeopathy In The Real World
Posted: Friday 19th February 2010
What is now called Traditional & Complementary Medicine or TCAM (formerly known as `alternative’ or holistic health) is getting serious attention from governments around the world and New Zealand natural health leaders believe it’s only a matter of time before our government similarly catches on.
Natural health expert Phillip Cottingham is founder and principal of New Zealand’s leading TCAM training institute, the Wellpark College of Natural Therapies.
For over 30 years Cottingham has been teaching people diverse natural health skills (
naturopathy,nutrition,aromatherapy,massage,herbalism etc) and today runs a multi-million dollar business teaching domestic and international students.
In January, Cottingham travelled to Malaysia to take an up close look at how TCAM – including homeopathy – has been integrated into the national health system of that country.
What he found was the exciting implementation of TCAM philosophy and practice deep into the heart of mainstream Malaysian health clinics and hospitals.
“To date there are really only two major countries who have successfully brought TCAM into their health care systems – China and India. Of these two, only China has really integrated TCAM and modern health care. India runs a parallel system rather than a truly integrative model,” says Cottingham.
“Now
Malaysia has taken the bold step of formally integrating TCAM systems into its national health delivery and it is creating a model that could be adapted to many other countries – including New Zealand.”
Only modalities with clear qualifications are included in the integrative health system. These include degree programs in homeopathy, chiropractic, Ayuveda, acupuncture, TCAM, Traditional Chinese medicine – and diploma programs in massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, acupuncture, natural medicine, Malay massage and Islamic medicine.
Malaysia has 20 institutes teaching homeopathy; 33 teaching traditional Chinese medicine and another 21 teaching other natural health modalities.
Additional natural therapies employed include herbalism as an adjunct treatment for cancer; acupuncture for chronic pain and post stroke; Malay traditional medicine for post natal care.
Usage of TCAM is well regarded across many Asian countries. According to the World Health Organisation percentages of populations using TCAM are 69.4% in Malaysia; 45% in Singapore; 50% in Vietnam; 49% in Japan; 69% in Korea; 90% in China and 48.5% in Australia.