Anthroposophic medicine

Anthroposophic medicine, also called anthroposophical medicine, is a form of alternative medicine devised in the 1920s by the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner in conjunction with the physician Ita Wegman. It draws on Steiner's spiritual philosophy of anthroposophy and combines drug preparations with massage, exercise, counselling, nursing and external applications. Many of its preparations are highly diluted, in the manner of homeopathic remedies, and are prepared according to ideas of alchemy and homeopathy rather than modern pharmacology. The first anthroposophic medical clinic was opened by Wegman in 1921 at Arlesheim, Switzerland, and in 1976 Germany regulated the approach by law as a specific therapeutic system. Its best known preparations are mistletoe extracts such as Iscador and Helixor, which are widely prescribed in German-speaking Europe as a cancer therapy although the source reports little evidence of benefit to patients. Reviewers including Edzard Ernst describe its premises, such as associations between the human body, plants, minerals and the cosmos, as having no basis in science, and the article records concern that some practitioners discourage childhood vaccination. This entry records what has been practised and disputed and is not medical advice.