[Non-communicable disease and their significance for dental medicine]. / Nicht übertragbare Krankheiten und ihre Bedeutung für die Zahnmedizin.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancers, and diabetes mellitus, are responsible for most deaths worldwide. In view of the rising prevalence and the long-term consequences of NCDs, their prevention is a public health priority. Dentistry plays an important role in this endeavor. Since oral and general diseases share common risk factors (e.g., poor oral hygiene, unhealthy diet, alcohol abuse, tobacco consumption, distress), preventive measures may target both oral diseases (e.g., dental caries, periodontal diseases, oral tumors) and medical NCDs. Consequently, dental medicine assumes an important medical and social role, which has been recognized by the World Health Organization and the General Assembly of the United Nations. To fulfill its mission successfully, consideration of the principles of evidence-based dentistry is a prerequisite. At the same time, the new development provides dentistry with the opportunity to critically reflect on its current and future orientation.

[Limits and benefits of non-controlled therapy-related observations]. / Grenzen und nutzen nichtkontrollierter therapiebezogener fallbeobachtungen.

In the age of evidence-based medicine, results from prospective controlled interventional studies are awarded the highest priority for determining the efficacy of a therapeutic measure. In contract, the role of non-controlled therapy-related observations is very low. This conception is due to the fact that in the absence of a control group it is impossible to assess a causal relationship between an administered therapy and the subsequent clinical outcome.Nevertheless, non-controlled therapeutic observations may be clinically relevant. Four domains may be distinguished : besides their importance for learning and teaching, such observations can contribute to evaluate which benefits results gained in controlled studies have in daily practice. On the other hand, they may point to hitherto unknown phenomena, such as the detection of new indications or unexpected therapeutic side effects. Finally, they may act as an important source for the generation of hypotheses about therapeutic measures, thus fostering further research.

Sense of coherence and physical health. A "Copenhagen interpretation" of Antonovsky's SOC concept.

According to Antonovsky's (Aaron Antonovsky, 1923-1994) sense of coherence (SOC) model, persons with a high SOC have the ability to benefit from their general defense mechanisms in order to overcome stressful situations. In a health-disease continuum, this leads to the development towards health. However, Antonovsky's global hypothesis that the strength of the SOC may influence the physical health status of a person could not be proven. Flensborg-Madsen et al. from Copenhagen were able to provide a new access regarding SOC and health. They investigated the mixture of emotional aspects and mental constructions as a possible cause for fairly low correlation between SOC and physical health. Thus, in an empirical way, they described "emotional coherence" in relation to physical health, while "mental coherence" was linked to psychological health. These authors introduced the idea of applying a shortened version of the original 29-item SOC questionnaire, but have not yet developed or tested the shortened questionnaire. Backed by their important findings, it appears to be promising to consider the use of the SOC questionnaire as standardized by Antonovsky, but cleared of the items regarding "predictability", i.e., Flensborg-Madsen et al. suggested that the items on "predictability" be excluded from the SOC scale when a correlation to physical health is to be investigated. Further investigations in this area of research will be of high impact, not only for health sciences, but also for medical practice.

Treatment of lowland frogs from the spawn stage with homeopathically prepared thyroxin (10(-30)).

The influence of a highly diluted agitated, i.e. homeopathically prepared thyroxin solution (10(-30), final concentration in the basin water 10(-35) parts by weight after the first application) on metamorphosis in lowland Rana temporaria from the spawn stage on was studied. The treatment with homeopathically prepared thyroxin solution (10(-30)) starts at the frogspawn stage. It represents a tool to learn more about the previously standardized amphibian model, where the thyroxin solution was applied from the two-legged stage on only. Lowland frogs were pretreated by immersing spawn in an aqueous molecular thyroxin dilution (10(-8) parts by weight). In later stages of development (2 to 4 legged), this has been found to speed up metamorphosis by around 15%. In accordance with the homeopathic idea of detoxication or cure, hyperstimulated animals (spawn or, in subsequence, larvae) were treated either with thyroxin that had been highly diluted and agitated in successive steps, i.e. homeopathically prepared (10(-30)), or analogously prepared blank solution (water). Development was monitored by documenting the number of animals that had entered the four-legged stage. It has been found that animals treated with the test solution metamorphosed more slowly than the control animals, i.e. the effect of the homeopathically prepared thyroxin was opposed to the usual effect of molecular thyroxin. The number of test animals that reached the 4-legged stage at defined points in time was slightly smaller in the group treated with homeopathically prepared thyroxin at some, but not at all points in time, compared to control. The results in this study sustain the previous multi researcher findings that highly diluted homeopathically prepared thyroxin is able to slow down metamorphosis of Rana temporaria.

Individual prognosis regarding effectiveness of a therapeutic intervention using pre-therapeutic "kinesiology muscle test".

Since a therapy's full positive effect and possible adverse effects are individual and not predictable for every single patient, scientists have been searching for methods to predict optimal effects of a therapy. This pilot study investigated the applicability of the "kinesiology muscle test" as a prognostic tool regarding effectiveness in a defined therapeutic procedure. Each of 11 test persons with elevated total cholesterol values received a naturopathic drug supposed to lower cholesterol level on a daily basis for eight consecutive weeks. Prior to treatment the "kinesiology muscle test" was performed, where the patients' ability to maintain a flexed position in a selected joint was evaluated. The resistance created by the patient against the tester's pressure was monitored. Being in touch with healthful or unhealthful chemical substances may, according to the kinesiology literature, increase or decrease this resistance. For testing purposes, the drug was placed onto the patients' skin. The ability of the brachioradial muscle to resist the tester's pressure was determined on a subjective scale (0-100%). The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between four variables (total cholesterol value before therapy, total cholesterol value after therapy, difference of total cholesterol values before and after therapy, prior to treatment kinesiology testing) was chosen. A significant correlation between the difference of total cholesterol values before-after and the prior to treatment test was found, as well as a significant correlation between the total cholesterol values after therapy and the prior to treatment kinesiology test.

Influence of artificial sweetener on human blood glucose concentration.

Artificial sweeteners, such as saccharin or cyclamic acid are synthetically manufactured sweetenings. Known for their low energetic value they serve especially diabetic and adipose patients as sugar substitutes. It has been hypothesized that the substitution of sugar with artificial sweeteners may induce a decrease of the blood glucose. The aim of this study was to determine the reliability of this hypothesis by comparing the influence of regular table sugar and artificial sweeteners on the blood glucose concentration. In this pilot-study 16 patients were included suffering from adiposity, pre-diabetes and hypertension. In the sense of a cross-over design, three test trials were performed at intervals of several weeks. Each trial was followed by a test free interval. Within one test trial each patient consumed 150 ml test solution (water) that contained either 6 g of table sugar ("Kandisin") with sweetener free serving as control group. Tests were performed within 1 hr after lunch to ensure conditions comparable to patients having a desert. Every participant had to determine their blood glucose concentration immediately before and 5, 15, 30 and 60 minutes after the intake of the test solution. For statistics an analysis of variance was performed. The data showed no significant changes in the blood glucose concentration. Neither the application of sugar (F(4;60) = 1.645; p = .175) nor the consumption of an artificial sweetener (F(2.068;31.023) = 1.551; p > .05) caused significant fluctuations in the blood sugar levels. Over a time frame of 60 minutes in the control group a significant decrease of the blood sugar concentration was found (F(2.457;36.849) = 4.005; p = .020) as a physiological reaction during lunch digestion.

ABO blood group. Related investigations and their association with defined pathologies.

The ABO blood group system was discovered by Karl Landsteiner in 1901. Since then, scientists have speculated on an association between different pathologies and the ABO blood group system. The aim of this pilot study was to determine the significance between different blood types of the ABO blood group system and certain pathologies. We included 237 patients with known diagnosis, blood group, sex, and age in the study. As a statistical method, the Chi-square test was chosen. In some cases, a significant association between the blood groups and defined diseases could be determined. Carriers of blood group O suffered from ulcus ventriculi and gastritis (X(2)1 = 78.629, p < 0.001), colitis ulcerosa and duodenitis (X(2)1 = 5.846, p < 0.016), whereas male patients carrying blood group A tended to contract different types of tumours. In patients with intestinal tumours, females with blood group A were more likely to develop the pathology, whereas in males, the blood group O dominated. The development of cholelithiasis was found, above all, in patients with blood group O, which differed from other research where a correlation between this pathology and blood group A was found.

Pretreatment with thyroxin 10(-8) and the effect of homeopathically prepared thyroxin 10(-30) on highland frogs--a multi-researcher study.

BACKGROUND: Studies performed in 5 laboratories have shown that homeopathically prepared highly diluted thyroxin (10(-30)=30x) slowed down metamorphosis of highland amphibians. Metamorphosis of lowland amphibians, however, could be slowed down by a low dilution of thyroxin (10(-8)=8x) if animals had been artificially pretreated with thyroxin. OBJECTIVE: To combine the advantages of using animals from highland biotopes and hyperstimulation prior to treatment. ANIMALS AND METHODS: Rana temporaria from an alpine biotope were pretreated in an aqueous molecular thyroxin dilution (10(-8) parts by weight, hyperstimulation). This is supposed to accelerate metamorphosis. In accordance with the homeopathic idea of detoxification or cure, one group of these hyperstimulated animals was then treated with thyroxin 30x, and another group with water 30x. Experiments were performed by 4 independent researchers. RESULTS: As a trend, the thyroxin-30x animals metamorphosed more slowly than the water-30x animals. The number of thyroxin-30x animals that reached the 4-legged stage at defined points in time was slightly smaller at some but not all points in time, compared to control. This is in line with previous findings and can be discussed as an interesting result. Contrary to our working hypothesis, however, differences were not bigger than in the previous experiments in which animals had not been pretreated with thyroxin 10(-8). CONCLUSION: This study supports previous findings but does not prove the assumption that pretreatment of highland animals with molecular thyroxine improves the original protocol.