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In his preface to this book, Detlev Ganten has both substantiated and commended the great endeavor towards evidence-based Integrative Medicine and Health for a healthcare of the future. The book outlines various ways to maintain and restore health in a complex, global world. In marked contrast to the well-founded analyzes and suggestions in this work is the declaration described below. It illustrates just how carefully and up to date the editors Brinkhaus and Esch have selected the topics in this book. It also shows the prejudices, misinformation, and resistance that need to be overcome by fundamental developments in healthcare.

At the Annual General Meeting 2020, the World Medical Association (WMA) published a new policy statement calling for the worldwide suppression of “pseudoscience” and “pseudotherapies” (https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-on-pseudoscience-and-pseudotherapies-in-the-field-of-health/). To this purpose, the WMA offers 13 different recommendations. The terms “pseudoscience” and “pseudotherapies” are defined (“false science” and “false therapies”), regarding the lack of a modern scientific basis. Then, at the end of the text, added in small print was:

“The aim of this declaration is not the traditional ancestral medicines nor the so-called indigenous medicines, firmly rooted in various peoples and nations, forming an intrinsic part of their culture, rites, traditions, and history.”

Apart from the fact that this contradicts the self-selected definitions, it remains unclear at first glance what the WMA means in concrete terms. It seems hardly necessary to point out the danger of false science and false therapies. But then it suddenly becomes clear under demand 7, that:

“there should be a system in place to either immediately stop or substantially restrict any given treatment classified as complementary and/or alternative in order to protect public health.”

Unfortunately, the Bundesaerzteblatt has taken this up in a truncated form and published it in an unfiltered manner (https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/118235/Weltaerztebund-fordert-staerkeren-Einsatz-gegen-Pseudowis-senschaften-und-therapien?rt=a15ce1c2bcc33b57ac93ee9291a4df4a).

This typical knee-jerk-reaction, namely that complementary medicine is fundamentally unscientific, is common. It is partly attributable to the concerned empirical disciplines themselves, due to a widespread lack of research commitments. On the other hand, however, a glance at the collection of the “Cochrane Collaboration”, where hundreds of studies on complementary and Integrative Medicine are accessible (https://cam.cochrane.org), would support an entirely different perception. Unfortunately, public funding has so far been unforthcoming, although patients’ values and preferences should encourage this to change. This book has addressed this issue in order to set the stage for Integrative Medicine and Health, taking into consideration the principles of evidence-based medicine (David Sackett), including patient values and preferences. This also includes the well-founded results of complementary medicine. The effort to establish a binding definition of the theory and practice of Integrative Medicine and Health is particularly noteworthy. Whether Integrative Medicine and Health is to be understood as the addition of conventional medicine and complementary medicine, or whether a paradigm shift towards a new discipline is justified on the basis of its own theoretical framework, the future will show through corresponding basic and healthcare research. The reference chosen by the editors for the definition of the “Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health 2015” and the proposals of the “Berlin Declaration 2017” is, in my view, a promising approach.

This book facilitates this development and hopes to attract the attention its weight is due!

Prof. em. Dr.med. Eckhart G. Hahn, MME (Bern), FACP

Erlangen, March 2021