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Alternative Medicine. (Page 1) This page is having problems. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR NEW PAGE AND MENU.
On page 2 you will find articles on the following. Dealing with Psoriasis - How to stop Psoriasis fast-Multiple Sclerosis - The root cause of Multiple Sclerosis - Study on Crohn's disease - Crohn's disease breakthrough - Osteoporosis - Learn how to stop Osteoporosis - Cancer another viewpoint - Remedies for eczema - The root cause of Eczema - Natural cures from Alzheimer's research - Athletes Foot.
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Click on any of the headings
below to view the articles.
The use of complimentary and alternative medicine by cancer patients. Magnets: How Do They Really Work? More on Magnets. These claims are quite fantastic.
Fighting the Common Cold with Traditional Chinese Medicine How to beat and control Asthma. Take A Closer Look At Natural Cures For Cancer. Yeast Infection Common Causes. 12 Hour cure for yeast infection. Self Care Tips For People With Parkinson’s Disease. Diabetes - What You Should Know About Diabetes Medications Cleansing and Detoxing with weight loss. Alternative cure for high blood pressure. Cure Bronchitis with Natural Treatments. Natural Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment. Cancer: Ten cures you should know about. Leukaemia: Ten cures you should know about. Prostrate Cancer: Ten cures you should know about.
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Introduction.
Today's world is forever changing with all types of new alternative
medicines cropping up all over the place.. Within this website I
would like to offer a glimpse, or snap shot of what is available on
the market in the way of alternative medicine. To be able to tell
you everything would be impossible, although I will endeavour to
keep adding good content as I find it. Ivan (Mick) Hince. |
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200 Vegetables a day. Phew! [back to top] Article by Ivan (Mick) Hince When I saw the above quote I envisaged sitting down with plate after plate's full of beans and cauliflower etc. After reading the article, and doing my homework I realised how wrong I was. I know that by having a certain amount of fresh fruit and vegetables is good for you, but this seemed to be verging on the silly side. The article was about a man who set up a business to produce Marine Phytoplankton (single cell organisms or as we know it as algae) which when produced he fed to his shellfish on his shellfish farm. Over the years this man had health problems with diabetes, and then later cancer. All seemed lost, and he was told by his Doctor that he didn't have long to live, and it got to the point he had even gone with his daughter to pick out his graveyard plot. What made him do what he did next is a mystery, but he decided to start eating his Marine Phytoplankton twice a day. His logic was that if it was good for his shellfish just maybe it would be good for him. A week later he began to feel slightly better so he continued taking his new medication twice daily, and each day he grew stronger. From that moment his aggressive cancer disappeared. He lost weight, and also controlled his diabetes to the point it didn't worry him. I actually take this food supplement as it replaces many other pills I was taking, and I can honestly recommend it to anyone. To read more about this product click here. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The use of complementary and
alternative medicine by cancer patients Abstract This study reviews the role of CAM therapies in the management of cancer, from the view of both patients and health professionals and it highlights issues relating to the efficacy of CAM used by cancer patients. Most patients use CAM to 'complement' the conventional therapies of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and surgery. Health professionals in
general have expressed positive views when CAM is used
'complementarily' and not as an 'Alternative'. Results so far
published have shown that CAM can contribute to improving the
quality of life of cancer patients and their general well-being.
However, the National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM 2006) in America defines CAM as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine" The definition given by Cochrane emphasises healing resources together with its beliefs and theories, while NCCAM talks about systems, practices and products outside conventional medicine. A more recent definition of CAM adapted by the Cochrane School of Complementary medicine is: " diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention which complements main stream medicine by contributing to a common whole, by satisfying a demand not met by orthodox methods or by diversifying the conceptual framework of medicine". Ernst and Cassileth favour this definition because it sees CAM as "complementary" to conventional medicine [1]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines CAM as: "A comprehensive term used to refer to both traditional medical systems such as traditional Chinese medicine, Indian ayurverda, Arabic unani medicine, and to various forms of indigenous medicine" This means it is there to complement the main conventional therapies such as radiotherapy, surgery, hormone treatment and chemotherapy in the case of cancer patients. The phrase 'Alternative medicine' is described as "practices used instead of standard medical treatment". However, the definition of "Alternative medicine" outlined by World Health Organisation (WHO) encompasses all forms of healthcare provision, which usually lie outside the official health sector. This definition makes no distinction between the terms "Alternative" and "Complementary". Therefore, in the case of cancer management, anything that falls outside radiotherapy, surgery, hormone therapy and chemotherapy could be considered as Alternative medicine. Because of the meaning attached to the phrase "Alternative therapy", most people prefer to use the term "complementary" instead, although the term is still used to differentiate natural medicine from modern medicine Nonetheless, the term "Alternative medicine" is popular and much preferred in the United States, as most people still believe that it can sometimes replace conventional medicine in cases where conventional medicine has not lived to expectations.
The second group of
complementary therapies are considered as physical therapies. These
therapies use the sense of touch as the main tool and among them are
aromatherapy, acupuncture, massage, reflexology and shiatsu. The
last group of complementary therapies are those classified as
unconventional medicine or drugs, and includes Homeopathy, Herbal
medicine, Essiac, and Bach flower remedies. The psychological therapies involve some kind of distraction strategies to take the mind of patients off the illness with a positive attitude towards life and finally cure. The physical therapies include herbal tea treatment, injection of thyme enzyme for the enhancement of the immune system, diet alteration and megavitamins. Spiritual therapies involve prayer and healing, for example.
While orthodox or conventional medicine views symptoms as hostile and treats them accordingly, Tschudin considers that complementary therapies "use a symptom of illness which a person presents merely as a tool, guide or instructor, to discover more basic imbalances in the person's body, mind or spirit".
This figure is similar to an earlier report in which CAM use was reported at 13% in the USA. However, a recent survey of 127 cancer patients in the UK reported that 29% of their sampled population were using some form of CAM. . In a systematic review of surveys on the use of CAM among cancer patients in 13 countries, Ernst and Cassileth reported a range of 7% to 64% of CAM use among the adult cancer population and the average of 31.4% across all the studies . Some of the commonly used CAM included visualisation, herbs, dietary treatment, meditation, relaxation, homeopathy, hypnotherapy and other mega vitamins. The data collection method used in individual studies was either by interviewing the patients or sending out questionnaires or both. Nine out of the twenty-six surveys were conducted by means of interviewing the patients, fifteen were through questionnaire and two of them employed both methods. The prevalence rate among the nine surveys conducted through interview ranged between 7% and 37% with only one recording a rate of 54% of which spiritual healing was part of the treatment specified. The fifteen other surveys conducted by means of questionnaire reported a prevalence rate of between 16% and 64%. A survey in 14 European countries on the use of CAM among patients with haematological cancers showed that 36% of cancer patients in Europe have used one or more forms of CAM modalities. Similarly, a rate of 40% was reported in the USA after a cross-sectional study of 1904 patients who have previously been diagnosed with cancer. A 2002 National Health Interview survey was used in this study. The most popular CAM therapies used were herbal medicine, deep breathing and meditation. An earlier study conducted in the United States produced a similar prevalence rate of 42% . A survey conducted in Canada reported a 43% prevalence rate of CAM use among cancer patients . In New Zealand, a rate of 49% among 200 cancer patients was reported . The most prominent of the therapies were Vitamins (68%) and Antioxidants (54%).
For example, Mao et al included prayer as a CAM modality , while others like Harris et al and Scott et al did not. Mao et al reported that over 61% of patients in his study relied on prayer as a form of CAM therapy for their cancer . This is in contrast with a report which mentioned meditation and relaxation as the most commonly used CAM modality . However, the exclusion of prayer from the patients' questionnaire could be a factor. In a study in the UK, aromatherapy and relaxation techniques were among the most popular CAM therapies used by cancer patients . This is clearly in contrast to a survey where herbal medicines were reported to be the most commonly used therapy.
In a study to assess the patterns of alternative medicine use by 319 cancer patients in Australia discovered that most of the patients who employed CAM as part of their cancer management were women (55.5%), people who were married (67.2%) and those with private health insurance (55.2%) . This was consistent with the study carried out in Japan, which had women as the highest single users of CAM modalities in their study of 3100 cancer patients . In the study by Downer et al, 52% of the sample population who have admitted using a form of CAM were women, while 64% of the patients using complementary therapy were married . The study conducted by Molassiotis et al on CAM use among patients with haematological malignancies had 76% of the study sample as married, and over half of sample was women as well . These results may reflect the fact that breast cancer patients are the most likely group to use CAM therapies .
Ernst explained that the reasons given by patients for their use of CAM could be grouped into push factors (negative) which pushes patients away from conventional medicine and pull factors (positive) which relates to the positive aspects of CAM which makes it attractive to patients . Among the push factors are dissatisfaction with conventional medicine, the perceived "poor relationship" with some health care professionals, and desperation on the part of patients to get cured . Hope for a positive outcome of a treatment was mentioned as among some of the positive factors in addition to patients hope for a control over their treatment . Ernst also mentions that good rapport between patients and therapist, as well as the ease at which one can access a CAM modality is a determining factor for patients' use of CAM. These reasons reflect those given by patients in various studies . Prominent among these were the urge to take control of the treatment and to improve their general condition. In a Norwegian study conducted to ascertain the reasons behind cancer patients' use of non-proven complementary therapies, 36% of 104 patients who participated reported actual improvement in their general condition.
Regardless of whether patients use CAM as an 'Alternative' or 'Complementary' to conventional medicine, they perceive it as a very 'natural therapy' and 'harmless'. In a study by Ponholzer et al on the frequent use of complementary medicine by prostate cancer patients, 90% of the patients were reported to have used CAM with the aim to improve their quality of life . This view is supported by Roberts et al as well Kaasa . In a Norwegian survey, it was reported that most patients were using CAM as it might give them strength to go through the conventional therapies and help to relieve their symptoms . Molassiotis et al conducted a descriptive cross-sectional survey on 127 colorectal cancer patients across seven European countries . Over 47% of the patients reported using CAM with the view of increasing the body's ability to fight off the disease while just fewer than 45% of patients believed that CAM could help improve their physical well-being. In a study by Begbie et al, the most common reason for CAM use was a new hope for cure (49%) and preference for 'natural therapy' was about 20%. Psychological distress was mentioned by Ernst and Fugh-Berman and Holland as among the popular reasons for patients using CAM. In a study on CAM use by cancer patients in Wales, patients cited pain relief as the main reason for using CAM.
Patients perceive a lack of interest on the part of health care professionals or their total disapproval of the therapies The lack of communication about CAM between patients and health professionals limits the opportunity to discuss the potential benefits and risk of the therapies.
One of the criticisms levelled against CAM is its' lack of "peer-reviewed scientifically conducted research" as pointed out by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Several factors have been cited for this. Vickers, including lack of funding and insufficient patient numbers for a study. Hilsden and Verhoef explained that evidence pertaining to the effectiveness of CAM is vital in the decision making of government regarding whether it should be administered or not. Clinical trials are needed to help evaluate and ascertain the benefits of CAM. Randomised control trials (RCT) have been used as the golden rule in evaluating the effectiveness of a medical intervention and reliable evidence in the form of systematic reviews and meta-analyses regarding safety and efficacy are also important. Some Health care professionals in the UK are of the view that for CAM to be accepted as part of the services rendered by the NHS, it should be judged by the same yardstick as any conventional medicine . However, there is the opinion that quality of life and feeling of hope among patients should be included. Most CAM modalities are based on beliefs, practices and traditions of a culture and not on scientific knowledge and their potential benefits and effectiveness based on experiences or testimonials of patients. It has been reported in various studies that patients have used multiple CAM modalities in addition to a conventional treatment, and this has made it difficult to determine the potency of each single modality.
It was evident in their review that none of the modality proved effective as an alternative to conventional treatment. It was however evident that some therapies did help patients in terms of their adjustment to life, such as massage and spiritual therapy. Smith et al conducted a study on the outcomes of therapeutic massage for 41 hospitalised cancer patients and they reported a positive outcome for the study. They compared the outcomes of therapeutic massage on a group of patients and that of a nurse interaction on a control group. It was observed that pain, distress, anxiety and sleep quality was worse in the control group and concluded that therapeutic massage help to alleviate pain, distress, as well as improving sleeping patterns. Out of 41, 38 (95%) were men, over 89% were Caucasians and were not in employment. Cassileth and Vickers conducted a much larger study of massage for cancer patients with a sample size of 1290 . Majority of the sample were in-patients (74%), the setting was at the cancer centre for the in-patients, and the outpatients were treated in their various homes. Patients reported over 40% improvement in their pain and fatigue and over 50% in their anxiety levels. A study that looked into how 58 cancer patients adjust to illness when treated with and without CAM in addition to conventional treatments found that patients treated by complementary therapy with conventional therapy fared better psychologically as compared to those treated with only conventional therapy. This was supported by other studies which concluded that aromatherapy to some extent helped improve psychological distress among patients . Most of the studies on aromatherapy so far conducted have proven the benefits to cancer patients in terms of managing psychological distress and adjustment to life.
Some of the therapies that the patients opted out for included herbal therapy, dietary therapy and high-dose vitamins. A total of 33 breast cancer patients' medical records were reviewed. These patients initially refused standard oncology care or delayed their treatment. Some patients developed disease progression; others had local recurrence while the rest died of metastatic disease. In 2001 in Netherlands a patient died of breast cancer after having CAM therapies instead of conventional therapies
This indicated that health professionals by and large are less sceptical when CAM is solely used to complement mainstream oncology treatments rather than it being used as an alternative. However, the use of CAM as an alternative to conventional medicine has resulted in a negative response from health care professional. This reflects a Korean study to access the knowledge base of both Western and Oriental medical doctors in which more than 50% of Western medical doctors were of the view that "scientifically unproven treatments should be discouraged legally". However, only 11% of the Oriental medical doctors where in agreement to this view. Most complementary therapies are unproven and people need to be cautious of web sites claiming to have alternatives cure for cancer. In a study on physicians' attitude towards the use of complementary therapy by cancer patients in Finland, well over 90% of the physicians were of the opinion that CAM could not wholly cure cancer and therefore must not be encouraged. This was evident in a report from the Netherlands when a patient died from breast cancer after being treated exclusively with various types of CAM therapies, which included acupuncture, faith healing, salt therapy and psychic healing at the expense of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The fear of
patients abandoning or delaying their conventional cancer treatments
that are proven in favour of unproven CAM is a major concern. Most health care professionals have admitted that they know very little about complementary and alternative cancer therapies . One study confirmed that most physicians get their information regarding CAM from patients. However patients rarely inform their physicians about their CAM use, which therefore limit physicians' knowledge of CAM.. Insufficient or lack of knowledge on the part of health professionals could be a factor for the lack of approval for CAM use and the subsequent negative attitudes and beliefs.
Various reasons have been cited for patients' use of CAM by doctors and other health professionals. Some health professionals perceive cancer patients' use of CAM as a way of life. The idea that 'new innovations' have cropped up and most cancer patients use complementary therapies as a way of living and therefore it is only normal to access CAM rather than having thought through its benefits and risks to the individual patients. The thought by some women in some quarters that 'most women' are using essential oils to help cope with their chemotherapy" had made some women turn to aromatherapy to satisfy their curiosity.
However, the reported efficacies of CAM were related to the alleviation of side effects to help adjust to illness rather than cancer cure (Gilbar et al 2001). In a survey conducted by Ernst et al (1995) to assess the perception of physicians on CAM effectiveness, 46% of the physicians perceive CAM as moderately effective. It was however noted that younger doctors were more likely to be in favour of CAM compared to the older physician. The possible explanation to this could be that younger doctors are more likely to use CAM for themselves or even recommend it to family members as compared to the older ones (Cunningham et al 1998, Downer et al 1994 & Boon et al 2000).
These interactions if any could have serious effects on the treatment of patients and their subsequent recovery. Lack of clear guidelines with regard to referrals and ultimate responsibility for 'bad outcomes' is one of the reasons why health professional distant themselves from CAM therapies and this makes it difficult to determine their stance with CAM.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Can magnets actually help us feel better? When I first read about this theory I was somewhat sceptical but curious. After looking into it further and trying out a few magnetic products, I was pleasantly surprised. Let me tell you a few things I found out.
This in turn can stimulate the body to heal faster, as the movement of oxygen and other nutrients to the cells increases and unwanted waste and toxins are flushed from the system. Although the body will often heal in its own time, we can expedite nature's clock by applying a magnetic field. Through the use of magnets we can aid the cell's natural ability to heal itself by providing the optimal environment for that repair.
While research is still somewhat limited, a variety of studies have been done in which magnetic therapy has been helpful for conditions such as back, neck, and shoulder pain, bone fractures, carpal tunnel syndrome, dental problems, depression, fatigue, female problems, fibromyalgia, foot pain (diabetic neuropathy), headaches, high blood pressure, insomnia, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, Parkinson's's disease, postpolio syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, skin problems, soft-tissue injuries, recovery from surgery, wound healing, etc. Furthermore, Dr. Weintraub concludes that magnetic therapy is comparable or superior to that observed with various conventional drugs and has the advantage of being non invasive and is also less expensive and has no side effects. (http://www.magneticrevolution.com/clinical_studies.php)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More on Magnets. [back to top] by Ivan (Mick) Hince. On finding this particular website I spent ages looking through the various pages. Some of the claims from people who have sent their testimonials are quite fantastic. Again I do stress that everyone keeps an open mind for we all know that testimonials can be false. The particular item I spent most time looking at, and I believe that this would be his best seller is the Immortality device. This the brain child of a gentleman by the name of Alex Chui. This Immortality device even carries a U.S. patent which to me seemed unusual that anything like this would carry such a thing. I'm not over convinced that wearing a pair of magnetic rings would stop you aging, although I can believe that the healing power according to his own usage. Again whether you believe this he claims that wearing his devices for one day is the equivalent of 30 days healing. In a lot of cases like this I would I recommend that the website is well worth visiting. Click here to visit Alex Chui's website. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Magnetic Therapy Can Treat Many Symptoms [back to top] By: Debbie
Fibromyalgia
is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal
pain, fatigue, and multiple tender points. "Tender points" refers to
tenderness that occurs in precise, localized areas, particularly in
the neck, spine, shoulders, and hips. People with this syndrome may
also experience sleep disturbances, morning stiffness, irritable
bowel syndrome, anxiety, and other symptoms.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fibromyalgia breakthrough. [back to top] By Ivan (Mick) Hince. New research has come up with a method to help sufferers of Fibromyalgia. This method has helped many people, and I would suggest that if you suffer or know anyone that does, that you should go to the website below. Please click here for the Fibromyalgia website. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Herbal Pathways [back to top] By Robert
Conrow, Ph.D. If all the herbalists from times past were to gather in one room, what a festive party you would find. Genteel members of quilting societies would no doubt sit side by side with hippies from the1960s, while regal emperors and feisty warriors might play host to village pharmacists and Native American healers.
Certainly a hush would fall over the room with the arrival of the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung, famous for concocting some surprisingly powerful herbal preparations almost three thousand years before Christ. And what excitement would arise when those very first primitive peoples to walk the earth would stumble in bearing leaves and seeds from their initial forages. But I can also imagine the mood turning somber when so many of those present would describe the hardships and persecutions they faced due to the prevailing beliefs of their times.
Patent medicinesnot all of which were bad flourished mightily in America until the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Unfortunately, this act impacted not only the bogus but also many highly legitimate enterprises such as those of the Shakers and others whose products were both time-tested and reliable. Herb businesses that survived the Pure Food and Drug Act next had to contend with the powerful rise of the pharmaceutical giants in the 1920s. At this point, virtually all of the remaining medicinal plant products were replaced by the more easily regulated synthetic alkaloids of the drug industry. And herbs as such largely disappeared from public view up until the freedom loving hippies brought them back in the 1960s.
The question of the hour is not whether
intervention will come but from which quarter; will intervention
come this time from the government or will the herb industry be able
to successfully monitor itself by adopting uniform codes and
standardization practices? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Medicinal Food in China [back to top] By Junshi Chen, M.D
Introduction Medicinal food (foods used for medical purposes) uses traditional Chinese medicine (herbs, animals) and common foods as raw materials that are cooked by traditional methods. Medicinal food has the usual characteristics of food (i.e. color, flavor, taste and appearance) and is applied alone or with medicine to prevent and treat diseases, improve fitness, and/or slow down the aging process.
For example, cases of low spirits, weakness in limbs, dizziness and perspiration, loss of appetite, mild stomach (abdominal) pain, white coating on the tongue, and slow and weak pulse are diagnosed as weakness in the "spleen" (part of digestive system) and Qi (vital energy). Therefore, the medicinal foods that have the effects of strengthening the "spleen" and Qi should be used.
The processed herbs are then cooked with appropriate foods and condiments. For example, Astragalus steamed chicken is known for its function of improving general weakness in the elderly or for patients during disease recovery. First, Astragalus slices are dry fried in an iron pot for a few minutes and then equal parts of water and honey are added to the pot. The water/honey mixture is continually cooked until it becomes a thick honey Astragalus concentrate. Lastly, this concentrate is steamed with a whole chicken.
For the purpose of nourishing the spleen and stomach, an appropriate combination of grains, fruits, vegetables, and animal products should be used to compose the daily diet. Examples of typical medicinal foods administered to patients with weak spleens and stomachs include mashed steamed yam and poria rice congee (with salt and pepper). Another example is a baked biscuit made of Radix Atractylodes, ginger, Chinese jujube, chicken gizzard mucosa, wheat flour, oil, sugar and salt.
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Herbal
Remedies on the Web
[back to top] By Robert Conrow, Ph.D Up until the early 1970s, when Mo Siegel and his friends started gathering herbs in the Colorado Rockies and packaging them with catchy sounding names such as "Sleepytime" and "Tummy Mint," few people in America thought of using herbs for anything other than spices. Mint was simply something you sprinkled on the lamb roast to enhance the flavor of the meat. Who back then was even vaguely curious about the carminative properties of mint or their soothing effects on one's digestion? An obvious exception was Mo Siegel but he also had the good marketing sense to name his now famous company "Celestial Seasonings." He only hinted at health benefits in his colorfully boxed teas.
Here you will find a tremendous variety of informative reports giving the latest political, business, scientific and international news from the world of herbs. One of my favorite sections is "Herbal Greenpapers," providing detailed references on specific herbs along with their medicinal uses. The HRF is a research and educational organization that offers for a fee (usually $15.00 each) more than 150,000 scientific articles from its library. Working hand-in-hand with HRF is the American Botanical Council at www.herbalgram.org. Together they publish Herbalgram, a quarterly magazine that has received favorable acknowledgment for the accuracy of its reporting and the scope of its subject matter. Fortunately, for anyone interested in keeping tabs on this work, Dr. Duke's phytochemical and ethnobotanical databases are available at www.ars-grin.gov/duke. You can search by plant, chemical, activity or even ethnobotany. From here, you can also link to other databases, including the vast resources available at the USDA's Food and Nutrition Information Center or the database on plants and cancer treatments available at the University of Indiana's "cyberbotanica." Even as medical practices have changed, as they inevitably must, the main source of our medications has remained constant. Ephedra, for example, has been an effective Chinese remedy for about 5,000 years, but only in relatively recent years has its active ingredient been synthesized into the popular decongestant, ephedrine. To discover more about the fascinating world of traditional Chinese medicine, with its reliance on whole plant forms rather than synthesized derivations, you will not want to miss New Century Nutrition's sister site at www.china-med.net. Here you can search not only for single herb entries in the Chinese Materia Medica but you can also locate more than 300 Chinese patent formulas and simple preparations, including their herbal ingredients, actions and doses. For the serious investigator, China-Med will even go so far as to dispatch its team of medical researchers in Beijing to research specific health conditions and provide information on the most commonly used, clinically researched herbal treatments. As Anatole France so wisely put it long before the Internet,"Even if fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." In fact, even herbs with a proven track record for others, may be risky for you as an individual. To be on the safe side, its always best to have your health care practitioner examine you for possible contraindications.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fighting the Common Cold with Traditional Chinese Medicine By Dr. Yangfang Wang [back to top] As winter descends upon us, the cold and flu season will soon start. Everyone knows that awful feeling of having a cold with a running and stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat and coughing.
Although each of us gets a viral infection quite often, most of those infections produce no disease at all. Only very few viruses really cause colds with severe symptoms, such as Rhinoviruses (nose viruses), which account for approximately 30-40% of adult colds. Factors that can depress the immune response, such as stress and fatigue, will increase the susceptibility to infection.
According to the theory of TCM, common colds are divided into two major types, cold-wind and hot-wind. The symptoms of cold-wind type are chilliness without perspiration, fever (or no fever), headache, stuffy nose, runny nose, body aches and pains, white coating tongue, mildly quick pulse. Selection of medicine for this type should emphasis on acrid taste and warm nature. On the other hand, a hot-wind type common cold presents different symptoms, such as high fever without chilliness, slight sweating, dry red eyes, sore throat, headache, slightly yellow coating tongue, coughing with yellow color and sticky phlegm, and rapid pulse. Medicines with acrid taste and a cool nature should be used to treat this type of common cold.
If you experience severe symptoms, there are patented formulas available to help. These formulas generally can be purchased from an herbal product store or from a TCM doctor's office. Here are some examples of the patented medicine for common cold. For cold-wind type, there are the Jiuwei Qianhuo Wan (pill of Nine-Ingredient containing Notopterygii), Tongxuan Lifei Wan and fenhanganmao granules. For hot-wind type, there are Sonjui Ganmou Tablet (Pill of Moris alba and Chrysanthemum extract), Yinqiao Jiedu Wan, Yinhuang Oral Liquid, banlangeng and Ganmao Qingre Granules.
Rice and corn meal porridge and
noodle soups are very good alternatives to substitute for their
usual main dishes. Resting and drinking a lot of water are also very
helpful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cancer and Your Immune System [back to top] Neal D. Barnard, M.D. When I was in medical school in the late l970s, I was not taught that food had the power to prevent cancer or improve cancer survival. Much of what we know today about cancer was, at that time, totally unknown. We were not told that tobacco was carcinogenic. We had some inklings about fiber. But aside from that, we kept our scalpels sharp, our chemotherapy and radiation ready, and we waited.
The saboteur may be a toxic chemical, radiation, or other cause. This kind of cell damage occurs commonly enough that our bodies have specialized white blood cells that patrol the bloodstream and body tissues, looking for damaged cells and removing them. If one damaged cell is left to its own devices, it can begin to multiply. One cell splits into two. Two become four. Four become eight. And eventually this lump of cells is big enough to show up on a mammogram or a chest X-ray. This is cancer. It would not be so bad if this mass of cells would stay put. But it invades healthy tissues, and releases some of its cells to travel to other parts of the body, where new tumors form, eventually causing death.
Cancers of the mouth and throat are also caused by tobacco. Carcinogens in tobacco smoke are excreted in the urine, so along the way they cause cancer of the kidney and bladder. If you smoke, you would do well to stop. But it will take a while for your cancer risk to diminish, so you will want to pay close attention to the cancer-protection factors described below.
For example, several of the most common forms of cancer are linked to sex hormones. This is true of cancer of the breast, uterus, ovary, prostate, and perhaps other sites. The amount of hormones in our bodies and their actions are determined, in large part, by the foods we eat. Foods can help calm our hormonal storms and can also shore up our immunity.
Estrogens are normal and essential hormones for both women and men. The more estrogen there is, the greater the driving force behind some kinds of breast cancer. On high-fat diets, estrogen levels increase; on low-fat diets, they decrease. A similar pattern can be found with prostate cancer in men. Men who consume diets based on animal products tend to have more testosterone and more estrogen, compared to men who eat healthier diets. This increase may be due to overproduction in the body, or to the fact that, because fiber in the diet is essential for the normal excretion of sex hormones, they are less able to get rid of them.
The two groups ate about the same amount of olive oil and carbohydrates. But what made the cancer patients different was that they had habitually eaten more meat, cheese, butter, and milk. The women who consumed more animal products had as much as three times the cancer risk of other women.
These vegetarians were avoiding meat but eating considerable amounts of dairy products that, like meat, contain animal fat and not a speck of fiber.
The China Project looked at provinces with fat intakes ranging from 6 to 24% of calories, and found that breast cancer was more common in those provinces at the higher part of this range. Thirty percent is too high to be of any significant benefit.
The nurses ate standard American diets; and those who had a bit less fat, about 27% of calories from fat, were not any better off against cancer than those consuming more fat. Some have interpreted this to mean that diet has nothing to do with breast cancer. A more reasonable conclusion is that the diets these women followed were still high-risk diets. No groups with low fat intakes were tested in the study. A diet including regular consumption of animal products and drawing nearly 30% of calories from fat is much higher in fat than the Asian diets associated with low cancer risk. Just as reducing cigarette smoking from two packs a day to one pack a day will not lower your cancer risk much, minor changes in diet cannot be expected to, either.
Other parts of the diet play important roles in your risk of cancer. Vegetables, fruits, grains, and beans are not just low in fat. They also provide fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Fiber, of course, is only found in plants and, as noted above, fiber is vital for helping the body to reduce excess estrogen. And the vitamin C and beta-carotene in vegetables and fruits are also linked to lower cancer risk.
Numerous researchers have found that the more high-fiber,
vitamin-packed foods we consume, the lower our risk of cancer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B12 Breakthrough [back to top] T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. Of all the nutritional concerns that can plague vegetarians - and especially complete vegetarians or vegans - I doubt any is more daunting than the specter of vitamin B12 deficiency. This is especially so because conventional wisdom has it that this essential vitamin is virtually unavailable from plant foods.
Having paid attention
to the research literature and having questioned clinicians who
treat vegan patients, I've reached the following somewhat unorthodox
conclusions and observations:
But these low concentrations mean little unless there is a higher incidence of the accompanying blood (megaloblastic anemia) and nerve (parathesia) disorders, for which there seems to be little or no evidence. What should be acknowledged is that the concentrations of other blood factors, such as cholesterol, also are very different among vegans, and for very good health reasons at that. Why should we expect the lower B12 levels to be an exception?
The strong implication here is that the real problem in these cases is not due to an insufficient intake of B12 brought on by a vegan diet but that something is wrong with the so-called "intrinsic factor" which is secreted in the stomach and which is required for B12 absorption.
It's worth noting this point has been so prominent that the latest USDA dietary guidelines, while allowing for the possibility that vegetarian diets may be reasonably healthful, nonetheless admonish vegans to "supplement their diets with a source of this vitamin." According to the Victor Herbert position, "There is no active vitamin B12 in anything that grows out of the ground; storage is found only in animal products where it is ubiquitous and where it is ultimately derived from bacteria." He also states that vegans thus can get adequate B12 from their food only if it is fertilized with human waste, or if they "ingest some of their own feces" or fail to observe hygienic practices.3 What a prospect Herbert and the USDA folks have given to the poor vegans!
Please understand that I say this approach is not better or worse than that of Herbert and the USDA, I'm simply saying it's worth serious consideration.
He was relying on a considerable amount of older research going back to 1926. Plants grown in soil fertilized with organic matter contained more of some B vitamins than plants grown in chemically fertilized soil, thus yielding plant products better able to sustain growth in experimental animals. Mozafar hypothesized that B12 produced by soil microorganisms might be absorbed through the roots into the plant itself.
Then he examined the B12 content of soils that had been routinely fertilized over the previous 16 years either with inorganic or with a mixture of organic plus inorganic fertilizers, and found that those receiving organic fertilizer had significantly higher levels of B12.
Having said all this, I am still left with
two questions: (1) Would other chemicals capable of killing soil microflora (pesticides, herbicides) have an effect similar to
chemical fertilizers? and (2) How long will it take for our society
to acknowledge the overall health value of plant-based diets, thus
altering the cultural bias that leads Herbert and the USDA to
"discover" problems such as that of B12 deficiency? I can say with
some confidence that time will tell quite a different story than the
one we've been hearing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Getting Melatonin Naturally [back to top] By Dr. Jeffrey Gates, D.H.Sc Melatonin, as you've probably heard by now, is a substance that is mostly manufactured in an organ called the pineal (which means "pine cone") gland. Although revered for centuries in the East as a center of consciousness, this odd little blob of an organ nestled inside the brain was once thought to be useless as far as Western medicine was concerned. However, over the past couple of decades, hundreds of experiments have demonstrated that the pineal gland is acutely sensitive to daylight and our environmental temperature in a way that dramatically affects our immune system, reproductive organs, psychological health, and the aging process itself.
Another pineal product, arginine vasotocin,
is a potent protein capable of rapidly putting you into deep sleep.
There are several other pineal gland products involved in
maintaining health, but the most recently celebrated pineal hormone
is, of course, melatoninthe "fix and rejuvenate" night-time hormone.
Common sense might tell you that switching a bowling ball for a tennis ball is not the best way to make the complex chemical juggling act of the pineal gland any easier. In assessing the risk, both England and Canada have banned the sale of melatonin in health stores. It is considered a drug and must be obtained via a physician for a specific medical condition. In this country, the FDA has not yet attempted to remove melatonin from health food stores, but such a step may be prove to be necessary.
We don't need an expensive scientific study to tell us that such habits are not particularly healthful, but several recent studies have been done along these lines of inquiry and demonstrate that even modest exposure to light at night can significantly squelch melatonin production. Couple this with stress (which also reduces melatonin) and it becomes painfully clear that we are accelerating aging and debilitating our immune and nervous systems. As the sun sets, the pineal gland shifts gears and slowly "spits and sputters" out melatonin in greater and greater quantities until it hits a peak production around two or three in the morning. Thereafter it falls fairly rapidly until dawn when that other hormone, serotonin, steps in. The balance of these two hormones appears to play a key role in preserving optimum health and a cheerful mood.
A recent report in the journal Sleep Research (1995) found that caffeine as found in coffee, black tea, several types of soda drinks and chocolate cut melatonin production to half the usual amount for up to 6 hours. This resulted in insomnia or disturbed sleep for most of the study subjects. A couple of glasses of wine at 7:00 p.m. may put you "out" at night but the cost will be an important reduction in melatonin and its ability to give the quality of sleep that restores and rejuvenates the body. Regular daytime use of either of
these drinks will likely jeopardize melatonin's natural anti-oxidant
and immune-system maintenance effects which are vital to cell
protection during the
Dr. Russell J. Reiter, a renowned authority on melatonin, found in experiments with rats that when they were fed a meal rich in natural melatonin, they had significantly higher levels of the hormone for hours afterward.
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