--> Other startling revelations have shown that consumers make more visits to alternative medicine practitioners like chiropractors, naturopaths, and massage therapists, than they do to their primary-care physicians.
What is driving even our most conservative patients to look at other forms of therapies? There are many reasons for the increased popularity of alternative medicine, including patient dissatisfaction with ineffective conventional treatments, pharmacologic drug side effects, and the high price of medications. | | Complementary and alternative medicine describes a wide variety of medical practices and products, according to the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and alternative medicine (NCCAM). Complementary describes the techniques that are used in conjunction with conventional medicine; alternativedescribes the techniques that can be used in place of conventional medicine.
STARTING THE CONVERSATION
What is the best way to approach your doctor? First, understand that your doctor may not have much background or knowledge about these approaches, Bonakdar says. | | An integrated medical practice, headed by an MD who is knowledgeable and accepting of alternative medicine practices could be a good place for consultation. Many osteopathic physicians have excellent programs and information. Naturopathic and homeopathic physicians are also good sources for information.
Vitamin supplement catalogs, internet sites for supplements, pyramid schemes with membership fees and rewards, and local over-the-counter products are not usually the best choice for beginning an education in alternative medicine. |  Alternative Medicine
As the title suggests, alternative medicine is a consumer-oriented magazine that focuses on alternative and nonconventional approaches to healing, including vitamin supplements, diet, and energy medicine. The annual subscription is $24.95, with payment to alternative medicine, P.O. Box 1056, Escondido, CA 92033-9871.
GreatLife
GreatLife magazine is not sold by subscription. Rather, it is provided free at leading health food and natural food stores. | | To learn more about complementary and — alternative medicine, visit the National Center for Complementary and alternative medicine at http://nccam.nih.gov.
Magnesium—
New Medical Miracle
Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, a medical and naturopathic doctor, New York City, and author of The Miracle of Magnesium. Ballantine. www.carolyndean.com. he mineral magnesium has amazing powers to treat and even prevent serious medical conditions.
New finding: Magnesium is a key factor in memory and learning. Adequate levels may even prevent Alzheimer's disease. |  Estimated expenditures for alternative medicine professional services increased 45% from 1990 to 1997 and were conservatively estimated at $21 billion in 1997, with at least $12.2 billion paid out-of-pocket. This exceeds the out-of-pocket expenditures for all U.S. hospitalizations. Total 1997 out-of-pocket expenditures relating to alternative therapies were conservatively estimated at $27 billion, comparable to the out-of-pocket expenditures for all U.S. physician services.^7
Readers interested in the definition and scope of alternative medicine may consult appendix A. | | PHYSICIANS NEED TO LEARN
In recent years, Blackman adds, more physicians have become open to alternative medicine or complementary approaches.
But a recent survey found that 84% of 302 physicians questioned thought they needed to know more about complementary and alternative medicine to address patient questions and concerns adequately. Even so, nearly half had recommended an alternative or complementary treatment to a patient.
Similarly, patients must learn that there are dangers to mixing some complementary and conventional treatments, Blackman says. |  Whether the terms alternative medicine, complementary medicine, natural medicine, or holistic medicine are used, they all reflect the transformation that is occurring in health care: a focus on disease prevention, the promotion of healthy lifestyle habits, and the treatment of disease with natural, nontoxic, and less invasive therapies. At the center of this transformation is a distinct system called naturopathic medicine.
The roots of naturopathic medicine are seen in the healing traditions of Egypt, India, China, Greece, Germany, South and Central America, Africa, and native North America. |  The FDA has conducted multiple armed raids on vitamin shops and natural health clinics in order to crush alternative medicine and deny the public access to nutritional supplements.
11) The FDA has used disinformation and half-truths to ban ephedra and attack kava kava, among other medicinal herbs. The agency routinely invents or exaggerates selected piece of information to justify any action it desires to take against natural medicine.
12) Thanks to lax FDA drug safety standards, U.S. |  Be warned: The FDA's CAM Guidelines are a blueprint for increased FDA typranny over the people, and a game plan for destroying alternative medicine. |  There are very few sources of information that have the credibility, humility and philosophies that resonate with my own, and many of the more popular, "conventional" health newsletters are just watered-down alternative medicine rehash attempts that never tell you what natural medicine is truly capable of.
Most newsletters sold on the market today would never earn my recommendation. I'm only interested in the best information I can find -- information that I know can help my readers make significant, lasting changes in their health and happiness. That information is hard to find. | | Younger women who insist on using alternative medicine need to fully understand their risks in premature states of insufficient hormone production. If the herbal, nutritional, and lifestyle interventions are not sufficient to stimulate the menstrual cycle, they must understand that bone loss in amenorrheic women shows the same pattern over time as that seen in postmenopausal women.32 The loss is most rapid in the first few years, emphasizing the need for early treatment. |  In my opinion, the AMA is indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans -- not just from pushing cigarettes but also for continuing to push dangerous pharmaceuticals while discrediting nearly everything in natural medicine or alternative medicine. The AMA is a truly evil organization, in my opinion, that I believe has directly and knowingly contributed to the suffering and death of Americans for more than 75 years. Read my story, What the AMA hopes you never learn about its true history to learn more. | | In clinical practice, valerian is usually a significant feature of an alternative medicine approach to painful menstruation. It is most practical to take valerian in tincture form or capsules. Many people prefer valerian capsules because the tincture has a very bitter taste. Attempts to disguise the taste can be made by placing the tincture in a small amount of fruit juice and then following that with several swallows of plain juice. Valerian may make you tired and sleepy, so it is advisable to stay home and rest or take a nap. |  The Journal, the Archives of General Psychiatry, is the pro-drug psychiatric arm of the American Medical Association, a pill-pushing organization tarnished by a history of conspiracy against alternative medicine and the promotion of toxic substances like cigarettes with full-page ads in its flagship publication, JAMA.
From the outset, the fact that this study appears in a pro-drug, pro-psychiatry journal should bring pause to any scientific-minded person. |  Kelly (ND), Associate Editor, alternative medicine Review
(Reprinted from alternative medicine Review, 2000;5(2):109-32, by permission of Thome Research, Inc.
Copyright©2000, Thome Research, Inc. All rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Insulin resistance appears to be a common feature and a possible contributing factor to several frequent health problems, including diabetes mellitus type 2, polycystic ovary disease, dyslipidemia, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, certain hormone-sensitive cancers, and obesity. | | Just as conventional medicine prescribes nonsteroidal antiinflammatories to reduce heavy bleeding, alternative medicine has natural anti-inflammatories such as bioflavonoids that can be used for the same purpose. Foods high in bioflavonoids (and vitamin C) include grape skins, cherries, blackberries, blueberries, and the pulp and white rind of citrus fruits.
Bioflavonoids
1,000-2,000 mg per day
Botanicals
Chaste Tree (Vitex Agnus Castus). Chaste tree is probably the best-known herb in all of Europe for hormonal imbalances in women. | | I no longer believe in a fractionated approach to health and healing where alternative medicine is on one side and conventional medicine is on the other. There is a spectrum of options that go from simple to complex, from the least intervention to the most aggressive intervention, and from the most natural therapy to the most synthetic or technological. We need all of it. Human intelligence has created incredible tools and techniques. | | Likewise, conventional medicine must recognize that natural therapies are a fundamental heiling tradition of all cultures and that modern alternative medicine is also here to stay. The more practitioners make themselves aware of these options, the better they can guide women in selecting from all options, both naturopathic and conventional. A combined, well-thought-out cooperative and integrative approach is often the best that medicine has to offer. |  Gray in the Canadian Medical Association Journal writes: "It is impossible to ignore the growing acceptance of alternative medicine in today's Britain." She predicts that in Canada the future promises a "similar change. alternative medicine is beginning to find a ready and healthy market. And our doctors as a group are feeling unloved and unrewarded." Nutrient therapy, using large doses of supplements when needed, is well on the way to becoming established medical practice. |  Encyclopedia of alternative medicine. 2006.
"Project Paperclip." Wikipedia. 2005.
"Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War." Annals of Internal Medicine 123:2. July 15, 1995.
Sharav, Vera Hassner. "Human Experiments: A Chronology of Human Rsearch." Alliance for Human Research Protection.
Sauter, Daniel. Guide to MS 83 [Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas Records, 1931 - 1999]. University of Texas Library. Apr. 2001. | | The most commonly treatments were herbal medicines,7 massage, megavitamins, self-help groups, folk remedies, energy healing, and homeopathy. alternative medicine was most often used to treat chronic conditions such as back problems, anxiety, and headaches. The authors suggest that some of the above are "more alternative," some "less." In this latter category are biofeedback, hypnosis, guided imagery, relaxation techniques, "lifestyle diet," and vitamin therapy, which, together accounted for less than 10% of total visits to alternative medical practitioners. |  But perhaps the most telling statistic related to alternative medicine's growing popularity is a study that estimates that the per capita supply of alternative physicians will increase by 124% by 2010, compared to a growth rate of only 16% for conventional physicians. | | The Uneven Playing Field
Despite the growing popularity of alternative medicine, including its acceptance by increasing numbers of conventional health-care practitioners, its full integration into America's overall health-care system remains seriously impeded by a number of unfair advantages conventional medicine currently retains. | | Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) ractitioners of alternative medicine approach healing from a holistic perspective whose primary goal is the creation and maintenance of optimum health in body, mind, and spirit. In addition to the comprehensive care they provide to achieve that goal, they also serve as teachers, instructing their patients in effective methods of self-care. Such methods not only assist patients in their journey back to wellness, but also help them prevent disease from occurring in the first place. |  You may also be dismayed to learn that alternative medicine may have few answers for cancer as well. By discarding what doesn't work, or is marginal, however, you can narrow the number of options to choose from if faced with cancer or the prospect of developing cancer. This book will help you approach cancer armed with more objective information.
Don't tell me cancer treatment is ineffective
A battle with cancer causes enough anxiety. Patients don't want to hear about a failed cancer treatment system. | | To do that, something else has to be substituted, something beyond the bogus or inappropriate cures offered by alternative medicine. Nutritional medicine can be that cure. Though often relegated to preventing weight loss (wasting) during the progression of cancer, it has now been found that certain foods, spices and herbs can switch cancer genes off.
Readers of this book may not initially be ready to go where this book leads. But it may at least alter their thinking and cause cancer patients to adopt a plan that has more chance of success than conventional cancer treatment does today. | | While a revolution is underway in natural cancer remedies, backed by solid science, alternative medicine clings to archaic cancer treatments of the past, seemingly oblivious to the fact we now live in an era of genetic medicine where foods and dietary supplements can switch cancer genes off better than any prescription medicine.
For the first time in history, cancer patients have more powerful molecules at their direct disposal than any therapies pharmaceutical companies could even think of developing. | | The new alternatives
The alternative medicine community should be trumpeting the charge towards the new molecular therapy for cancer. Instead, it is mired in the meager treatments of the past.
The mapping of the human genome and the ability to conduct gene array tests to determine which molecules switch genes "on or off' is revolutionizing the approach to prevention and treatment of disease. Small molecules, such as found in grapes, olives, garlic, pomegranates and cherries, are able to pass through cell walls and the nucleus of cells to switch genes on or off. | | In the backwards world of cancer care, an alternative medicine practitioner will be labeled a health quack for offering an unproven remedy for cancer, but a Mayo Clinic-trained doctor who performs disproven care will not be sanctioned by the state medical board.
Patients are bewildered, overwhelmed, and often too ill to make decisions for themselves. They must rely upon their doctors to make decisions for them. The most commonly prescribed treatment for those with the four most frequent cancers -colon, breast, lung and prostate — is chemotherapy. | |
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