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Axel Helmstädter Electricity in biodynamic drug
therapy My work was part of a pharmaco-historical research project studying the use of physical and metaphysical energies for drug treatment. Several attempts to dynamize remedies for internal and external use in order to influence the so called “vital forces” of the sick body are known. The strength of this life defining energy has often been correlated with human health status. For example, it has been suggested that energy could be transferred by remedies prepared in the homeopathic way, by means of magnetism, radioactivity or exposure to sunlight. The aim of my studies at The Bakken was to explore the role of electricity in this context. It could be clearly shown that electricity had several relations to drug therapy in this context, particularly if advertisement strategies and patent medicines are included. An interesting example is the suggestion of the New York physician, Henry Hall Sherwood, to produce a closed electrical circuit throughout the body by having the patient swallow positively charged pills and applying a negatively charged plaster on the patient’s back. Besides serous attempts like Sherwood’s, the research uncovered several aspects of quackery, for example the “electric pocket battery,” Actina, which actually did not deliver any current. Additionally, I investigated the history of iontophoresis as a method of delivering drugs transdermally. The results of my research are part of a more comprehensive study on attempts to influence vital forces by means of dynamized drugs and preparations. It is not yet completed; however, some aspects are described in the following publications: Helmstädter, Axel: “Recharging the battery of life: electricity in theory and practice of drug treatment.” Pharmacy in History 43 (2001), 134 – 143. Helmstädter, Axel: “The history of electrically-assisted transdermal drug delivery (“iontophoresis”).” Pharmazie 56 (2001), 583 – 587. Helmstädter, Axel: “The history of electrotherapy of pain or: what Voltaren has to do with voltage.” Pharmazie 58 (2003), 151 – 153. Dr. Axel Helmstädter
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