From Library Journal
Teilhard de Chardin said, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Chopra builds on this powerful thought in this recording that expands his life’s work in spiritual approaches to daily living. He explains the laws of pure potentiality, giving, karma, least effort, intention and desire, detachment, and dharma and includes useful suggestions on how to apply these fundamental, natural principles if one is truly searching for purpose and a satisfying li (more…)

There has been a surge in recent years of people looking to alternative medicine for treatment of illness. It is a practice that generates a great deal of controversy both inside and outside of the traditional world of medicine, and an issue that some experts say does not receive enough attention.

What Is Alternative Medicine?
The most commonly accepted definition of alternative medicine is a treatment or substance that is untested or unproven using accepted scientific standards. Common types of alternative medicine include herbs, supplements, therapies and activity programs that fall outside of traditional medical practice and are questionable in terms of safety and effectiveness. For example, acupuncture, massage, meditation, herbal teas, and plant extracts are quite popular forms of alternative medicine that many medical doctors say are ineffective at best and dangerous at worst for some conditions.

Why Is Alternative Medicine So Popular?
Alternative medicine has grown in popularity as more and more people face the inevitable aches, pains and illnesses that come with aging. In some cases, traditional medicine has failed to produce a cure and patients go in search of other options for treatment of their illness. In other cases, patients believe strongly that natural methods of treating illness are superior to traditional medicine so they seek treatment from alternative practitioners rather than medical doctors.

The Risks Of Alternative Medicine
Some of the greatest risks associated with alternative medicine come from the use of substances that are untested, ineffective, and sometimes unsafe. The makers of such substances often make exaggerated claims of effectiveness and/or misrepresent the science associated with the substance in order to convince consumers to buy their product, even if use of the product may endanger the consumer’s health or well-being.

For example, some herbal remedies are promoted as having the ability to improve memory, increase metabolism, or even cure diseases like cancer and heart disease. In practice, though, some remedies may actually cause physiological harm when taken in excessive amounts, ephedra being one well-publicized recent example. Another risk is that a person with a serious condition such as cancer, heart disease or some other chronic illness will forego more traditional treatments that have been proven effective in favor of alternative treatments that are of questionable value. They may be literally risking their lives by treating illness with unproven alternative medicines rather than scientifically validated traditional medicines. Another common risk associated with alternative medicine is when a patient uses both traditional and alternative methods of treatment but does not disclose this to their medical doctor. It is very common for prescription medications to produce negative interactions when taken at the same time as alternative medicines like herbs and plant extracts. These interactions may range from diminished effectiveness all the way up to and including toxicity that causes serious harm. If the medical doctor is not made aware of any other substances the patient may be taking, he or she may unknowingly prescribe a medication that produces and unwanted or harmful interaction.

How To Recognize Potentially Risky Alternative Medicines
A good rule of thumb to follow is that if a product, substance or therapy sounds too good to be true then it probably is. While you may already be familiar with this cliché, it is worth repeating because it is often true when it comes to alternative medicine. Beware of any product that claims to be “miraculous”, “a scientific breakthrough”, “amazingly effective”, “an ancient remedy”, “a secret formula” or possess some other attribute that supposedly makes it superior to more traditional medicines.

If you are considering an alternative form of therapy, such as reflexology, acupuncture, biofeedback or the like, carefully check the qualifications of the therapy practitioner before undergoing treatment. What kind of training has he or she received, and is that training from a reputable source? Research the treatment itself to determine if it is something that has been scientifically tested, evaluated, and found to be effective. Don’t take the practitioner’s word for it, and don’t accept at face value the claims of anyone who stands to make money or benefit in some way if you choose to undergo the treatment.

Finally, ask your doctor about any form of alternative medicine that you are considering. If you don’t feel comfortable doing so then find a doctor with whom you feel more at ease and discuss the alternative treatment you are considering. Remember that a trained medical professional has the education and experience to help you make good, safe decisions about whether or not to use alternative medicine.

If you have cancer or know someone who does, then you know that sometimes the treatment can be as disheartening as the disease. The effects of chemotherapy can reduce cancerous cells, but the side effects are nausea, loss of appetite, and hair loss, just to name a few. It’s no wonder that cancer victims look for alternative forms of treatment, and alternative medicine has come up with some options that are meant to be complimentary to the more “modern” forms of treatment. However, there appears to be no middle ground here; while the alternative medicine community is accused of overstating the validity of alternative medicine, the “conventional” treatment provider’s tend to understate the effects of alternative therapies for cancer sufferers.

While there is no cure for cancer, the NCCAM (National Center for complimentary and Alternative Medicine has conducted studies showing that acupuncture relieves the fatigue, nausea, and pain symptoms associated with both colon and breast cancer, as well as headaches and neck pain associated with surgery for brain tumors or throat cancer. Ginger is a good tasting treatment for the nausea and vomiting side effects of chemotherapy. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is currently being studied as a relief for larynx cancer patients. (Hyperbaric oxygen therapy consists of breathing oxygen which is at an atmospheric pressure greater than sea level. It is being studied to compliment radiation therapy.) Massage is used to relieve fatigue for all forms of cancer.

Another form of alternative therapy used for fighting the symptoms of cancer is coupling pancreatic enzymes with chemotherapy for the use in pancreatic cancer treatment. Pancreatic enzymes are proteins secreted from the pancreas that help in food digestion.

There is a distinction between complimentary medicine and alternative medicine. Complimentary medicine is used along with conventional medicine; whereas alternative is used instead of. Studies show that better long term results were achieved with complimentary medicine on advanced stages of cancer, while alternative medicine seemed to help early stage cancers. The study is called CAM, (complimentary alternative medicine) and statistics show that 36% of adults with various stages of cancer use both therapies. If you include megavitamin therapy in this statistic the numbers almost double to 62%. 79% out of almost 500 cancer patients use some form of complimentary or alternative therapy for cancer symptoms. Possibly the most beneficial part of CAM therapy is that patients can feel as if they are taking some form of control over their cancer, and that increases the quality of life and chances for survival. Bringing relief of pain and increasing hope for cancer patients is reason enough for these foundations to continue to receive grants and continue their studies.

If you are considering CAM therapy, there are some questions that you should ask the health provider before you begin treatment. One of the most important is will the treatment be covered under your health insurance and if so, are there any clauses you should know about? If the therapy is being sponsored as part of a clinical trial, find out who is sponsoring it so you will know if the trial is being conducted by an unbiased company with no marketing credits to be gained by the outcome. You’ll also want to ask if the therapy will interfere with any conventional treatment you might be receiving at the same time. Usually the answer is no-that’s the nature of alternative and complimentary medicine-but you should have all the information before agreeing to any type of treatment. Ask also if there will be any side effects, or if the documented benefits outweigh the risks, if any, involved.

Review
In Roots of Healing, prominent health care leaders address the future of the medical community and different approaches to enhancing the healing process, from handling life-threatening illnesses to considering whole-body/mind health. This discourse on healing takes the form of interview dialogues between health care professions, who cite personal experience, historical precedent, and professional insights on healing concerns. — Midwest Book Review

Some of the most pro (more…)

Cancer is the name given to any illness resulting from one of our body’s own cells growing out of control. There are many processes that control a cell’s growth and division, each of which can go wrong. Several of these control mechanisms need to be damaged before a cell becomes cancerous. There are more than 200 different types of cancers, which are categorized in to carcinoma, sarcoma, lymphoma and leukemia based on the cells from which they arise.
The principles involved in treating cancer are either directly destroying the cancer tissues or indirectly destroying them by depriving them of blood supply and/or their nutrition. But the irony is that whatever conventional treatment is used to destroy cancer cells do affect to some extent the normal cells also. They may damage the skin, liver, intestine the bone marrow and other rapidly multiplying cells. Sometimes the effect of the treatment is more devastating than the disease itself.
Role of Alternative Medicine in treating cancer
A larger study of Alternative medicine use in patients with different types of cancer was published in the July 2000 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. It was found that nearly 70% of the patients used at least one form alternative medicine along with the conventional treatment. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) are sponsoring a number of clinical trials at medical centers to evaluate alternative medical therapies for cancer.
Alternative medicine includes therapies like herbal remedies, vitamins, special diets, and acupuncture among others.
Acupuncture: effective in the management of chemotherapy associated nausea and vomiting and in controlling pain associated with surgery. Now used in a trial to reduce the symptoms of colorectal cancer
-Homeopathy
-Ayurveda
-Shark cartilage: Being tried in non-small cell lung cancer. it prevents new blood vessels growth
-Hyperbaric oxygen: In patients who had larynx removed for larynx cancer
-Massage therapy: for cancer related fatigue
-Pancreatic enzyme therapy along with specialized diet for the treatment of pancreatic cancer
-Mistletoe extract: for the treatment of solid tumors
-Wheatgrass therapy
-Macrobiotics: The macrobiotic diet is strictly vegetarian and requires you to consume about half of your daily calories from whole grains, about a quarter of your calories from vegetables, and the rest of your calories from beans, seaweed and soups
-Bioelectric therapies
-Moerman’s Anti-Cancer diet
-Hoxsey herbal therapy
-Essiac herbal therapy: Essiac is a herbal tea mixture that relieves pain and reduces the size of tumors. It contains four herbs- burdock, rhubarb, sheep sorrel and slippery elm
-Pau D’Arco herbal therapy
-Chaparral herbal therapy
-Laetrile (amygdalin): a chemical found in lima beans, raw nuts and the pits of many fruits. Amygdalin produces cyanide, which proponents claim kills cancer
-Alkaline diet: such as fruits and vegetables and restricting acidic foods
-Antioxidant found in fruits and vegetables
-Vitamins A, C and E: These are very good anti oxidants
-Detox therapies including Gonzales nutritional metabolic therapy, colon therapy, and Gerson therapy
The most successful practitioners integrate various components of the alternative cancer treatments for a better outcome.