The 2012 European Congress for Integrated Medicine, taken place in Florence, hosted an excellent seminar entitled "Hormesis and Integrated Medicine: Synonymity of a Paradigm".

The opening ceremony, organized by Prof. Andrea Dei (University of Florence), consisted in a brilliant lecture held by the world's leading expert in hormesis, Prof. Edward Calabrese (University of Massachusetts and Marie Curie award) who highlighted the important role played by hormesis at a therapeutic level. Further lectures were held by John Ives, PhD, Senior Director of the Virginia Samueli Institute, regarding the possible hormesis medical implementation, and by Prof. Piero Dolara (pharmacologist at the University of Florence), who showed the hormesis effects triggered by low-dose Apis Mellifica (4-9CH) on cellular genes. Dr. Simonetta Bernardini, SIOMI-President, clearly illustrated the relation between hormesis and the simile principle, pillar for homeopathic medicine, and also emphasized the "ever-lasting aversions" conveyed in different times by several famous leading exponents of the international homeopathic community who believe it is not possible to find in the hormesis the right interpretation on how homeopathic drugs work.

The spirit of the event, as Andrea Dei mentioned during his introduction, consisted in criticising the close analogy between hormesis, to be seen as a reaction of every living organism, and integrated medicine, which shows the tendency to harmonize methods aimed at stimulating organism functions and methods (as biomedicine) intended to inhibit dysfunctional biological mechanisms. This philosophy follows what is being stated in the Manifesto for Integrated Medicine , published by SIOMI in 2011 and it is the issue delivered by Dr. Gino Santini during the Congress. During the two-and-a-half-hours Congress more than 250 people among academics, homeopaths (for example Peter Fisher, Director of Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine and Ton Nicolai, ECH President) and university students highly worked to outline the hormesis landscape and its importance in the development of future medicine.

The video of Andrea Dei

The video of Edward Calabrese

The video of John Ives

The video of Pietro Dolara

The video of Simonetta Bernardini

The video of closing reports