Translation by Patrizia Rustichelli-Stirgwolt

The review of the Italian association of psycho-neuro-endocrine-

immunology
Edited by Francesco Bottaccioli

PNEI NEWS
The new knowledge of science and health

SCIENCE, PSEUDOSCIENCE AND PREJUDICE

Pnei News – bimonthly review – nr 6 – year XIII – November – December 2019

EDITORIAL
Page 3. Science and prejudice
Francesco Bottaccioli

SCIENCE AND PREJUDICE

Page 4. Acupuncture for body and mind.
Over time we observe a periodical attempt to dismiss acupuncture as a placebo. Actually, all over
the world, its effectiveness and mechanisms of action are being investigated with the traditional
methods of experimental science and clinical trials.
Francesco Bottaccioli

Page 7. The embarrassing behavior of the Australian National Health: the evidences against
homeopathy were flawed.
In 2015 a Report published by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
affirmed that there was not reliable evidence on the effectiveness of homeopathy. In August
2019 the same Council admitted that the report showed serious procedural flaws.
Elio Rossi

Page 12. Low Dose Medicine

Low Dose Medicine (LDM) is a relatively new therapeutic approach. Signal-molecules are used
therapeutically. This paradigm is based on low dosages of cytokines, antibodies,
neurotransmitters, neurotrophins and hormones which are produced with innovative
pharmaceutical technologies.
Massimo Fioranelli, Maria Grazia Roccia, Torello Lotti.

BEING A NETWORK
Page 16. Liguria. The College of Psychologists and Sipnei together to promote health. A
successful meeting to be replicated in other regions.
On the 15th - 16th June 2019 at Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, the Liguria College of Psychologists and
Sipnei-Liguria held a two-days convention whose theme was “3600 wellbeing”.
Mara Donatella Fiaschi and Ilaria Demori

THE BIOLOGICAL NETWORK

Page 19. Bones and immunity: the two faces of the osteoimmune system.
Bones are much more than a structural support, they are actually a particularly dynamic and
active tissue that is strictly cooperating with the immune system and has a direct influence on
the entire organism.
Diego Lanaro, Marco Chiera, Nicola Barsotti.

BOOK REVIEW
Page 23.
EDITORIAL

Science and Prejudice

Francesco Bottaccioli – Director

Last October saw the release of two books written by two different authors bonded by the same
aim to clear up culture and educational institutions from pseudoscience. The authors are two
university professors: Roberto Burioni (who became famous for his frantic campaign against the
so-called anti-vaccination movement) and Gilberto Corbellini, less known to a large audience but
renowned in the academic world as historian of medicine. The subjects of these two pamphlets
are respectively homeopathy1 and the so-called pseudoscience2. These topics are the tip of an
iceberg whose fragments are clearly visible in the mainstream media hosting articles and
interviews restating the leit-motiv.
This campaign has already made a victim: the “Level I Master Course in Integrative Medicine”
provided by the University of Siena since many years. A course followed by a very great number
of nurses learning the most updated information about indications, contraindications and limits
of integrative therapies in medicine. This year the University of Siena has decided not to include
this course in its programmes. This decision was not obviously made because of an insufficient
number of students nor because new scientific evidence contradicts its teachings. It would not
be a mischief supposing that it was probably caused by the looming new climate that penalizes
harshly integrative therapies. It is not the first time that these two authors write about this
subject. Burioni’s aim is clearly to replicate the mediatic success obtained by his campaign against
the anti-vax movement. His book “Omeopatia” shows indeed the same approximate and
authoritarian traits used in his campaign. According to Burioni homeopathy is nothing else than
providing a stimulating coffee to people who suffer from insomnia or administering some
substances causing headache in order to heal the patient affected by such ailment. This is in short
how homeopathy is described. Such a folly lead to the “Burionic” request of removing
homeopathy from the medical practices and pharmacies with the invitation to boycott any
pharmacy still selling these products which should instead end up in the supermarket shelves
together with herbal teas. Furthermore, for Burioni, the College of Physicians and Surgeons
cannot be an accomplice3 and should therefore get rid of homeopath medical doctors. Needless
to say, that if homeopathy was really as depicted by the author, the homeopaths would be
subjected to an assisted treatment!
In this issue Dr Elio Rossi (homeopath, responsible for the homeopathic medical office of Lucca
local health centre) explains homeopathy and its difficult history to obtain undisputable clinical
evidence. There is still a long way to go but the journey has started and is advancing in a promising
way as you will read in the article written by our Sipnei colleague Dr Massimo Fioranelli. The so-
called low dosage medicine combines the original homeopathic concept of low and very low
dosages and the procedure of dynamization of substances with the modern immunology under
a systemic viewpoint. We still need more works however the first data are encouraging.
As Burioni, also Corbellini avoids to face the most recent developments of disciplines that he
simply dismisses as pseudoscience, repeating old stereotypes as identifying contemporary
psychoanalysis with Freud4 or refusing to see clinical evidences of acupuncture to treat a series
of body and mind disorders5. Unlike Burioni, the historian of medicine criticizes who wants to ban
pseudoscience as he remembers that all great advancements in science and medical discipline
were labelled as non-scientific heresy when they first appeared (Galileo, Newton, Pasteur,
Semmelweiss…). We are grateful that Professor Corbellini does not belong to the crowd of
inquisitors. Science is democratic otherwise it is not science. The relentless strictness on
evidences that we pursue resolutely must be accompanied by freedom to research. Only with
such freedom it is possible to guarantee scientific advancement.

1. Burioni R (2019) Omeopatia. Bugie, leggende e verità, Rizzoli, Milano

2. Corbellini G. (2019) Nel paese della pseudoscienza. Perché i pregiudizi minacciano la nostra libertà, Feltrinelli, Milano
3. Burioni, op. cit, kindle pos.1490
4. I have written about this topic in my column in Psychiatry online. “Corbellinate” First part, see
http://www.psychiatryonline.it/node/8293
5. See my article in this issue at pages 4-5-6