RIYADH, 21 April — An international symposium on complementary and alternative medicine will be held at Hafr Al-Batin in the Northern Province from May 1 to 3, according to Sa’ad Nasser Al-Dusari, chairman of the organizing committee. He said experts from Saudi Arabia, Middle East and European countries, the United States, Japan and the Philippines as well as the World Health Organization will present papers on different aspects of complementary and alternative medicine.
Complementary and alternative medicine, which also include naturopathy and dietetics, are based on concepts alien to conventional medicine. “Indeed it will come to many as a surprise that the first recorded blind placebo-controlled trials occurred in homeopathic research over 100 years ago,” Al-Dusari said.
One of the offshoots of complementary and alternative medicine is naturopathy propounded by Hippocrates, a Greek physician, who lived 2,400 years ago. He formulated the concept that “nature is healer of all diseases.”
According to naturopaths here, many diseases and conditions, such as ulcerative colitis, asthma, menopause, flu, obesity and chronic fatigue respond to nature cure treatment without any side-effect associated with allopathic medicine.
This concept has been at the core of indigenous medicine in many cultures around the world and remains one of the central themes of naturopathic philosophy to this day. This branch of medicine is being practiced by some expatriates in the capital.
The symposium has drawn some of the renowned guest speakers. Mariam Nour of Lebanon will speak on nutrition and health, Dr. Koshiro Otsuka of Japan on Japanese traditional natural medicine, and Roger Hill of UK on homeopathy. Another expert, Hideaki Hagiwara of Japan, will speak on nutritional benefits of green magma.
Among the local speakers, Dr. Abdullah Al-Bedah, supervisor of alternative medicine and president of Anti Smoking Association will make a presentation on current status of complementary and alternative medicine in the Kingdom.
