Archive for the ‘Alternate Medicine’ Category

Nearly half the US populations turns to complementary, alternative and integrative practices to maintain or improve their health. Beverly Burns of UCSF’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine explores traditional Chinese medicine including acupuncture, meridians and chi. Series: “UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public” [12/2007] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 13073]
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Alternative Medicine

Basic Principles of Complementary/ Alternative Therapies

JUST AS MAINSTREAM MEDICINE has a fairly consistent approach to illness, so does al-ternative medicine. Most prevalent in alternative medicine are the six naturopathic principles. In one form or another, these principles are revisited again and again throughout Section Two of this text. The following principles are described by Dr. Catherine Downey and excerpted from her chapter on naturopathic medicine.

1. The Healing Power of Nature (Vis medicatix naturae)

The body has the inherent ability to establish, maintain and restore health. The healing process is ordered and intelligent: nature heals through the response of the life force. The physician’s role is to facilitate and augment this process, to act to identify and remove obstacles to health and recovery, and to support the creation of a healthy internal and external environment. In short, give the body the appropriate tools and it will heal itself.

2. Treat the Whole Person (The multifactorial nature of health and disease)

Health and disease are conditions of the whole organism, involving a complex interaction of physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, and social factors. The physician must treat the whole person by taking all of these factors into account. The harmonious functioning of all aspects of the individual is essential to recovery from and prevention of disease and requires a personalized and comprehensive approach to diagnosis and treatment.

3. First Do No Harm (Primum no nocere)

Illness is a purposeful process of the organism. The process of healing includes the generation of symptoms, which are, in fact, an expression of the life force attempting to heal itself. Therapeutic actions should be complementary to and synergistic with this healing process. The physician’s actions can support or antagonize the actions of the vis mediatrix naturae; therefore methods designed to suppress symptoms without removing underlying causes are considered harmful and are avoided or minimized. Therapeutic actions are applied in an ordered fashion congruent with the internal order of the organism.

4. Identify and Treat the Cause (Tolle causam)

Illness does not occur without cause. Underlying causes of disease must be discovered and removed or treated before a person can recover completely from illness. Symptoms are expressions of the body’s attempt to heal, but they are not the cause of disease; therefore naturopathic medicine addresses itself promptly to the underlying causes of disease, rather than symptoms. Causes may occur on many levels, including physical, mental-emotional, and spiritual. The physician must evaluate fundamental underlying causes on all levels, directing treatment at root cause rather than at symptomatic expression.

5. Prevention (Prevention is the best “cure”)

The ultimate goal of naturopathic medicine is prevention. This is accomplished through education and promotion of lifestyle habits that create good health. The physician assesses risk factors and hereditary susceptibility to disease and makes appropriate interventions to avoid further harm and risk to the patient. The emphasis is on building health rather than on fighting disease. Because it is difficult to be healthy in an unhealthy world, it is the responsibility of both the physician and patient to create a healthier environment in which to live.

6. The Physician as Teacher (Docere)

Beyond an accurate diagnosis and appropriate prescription, the physician must work to create a health-sensitive, interpersonal relationship with the patient. A cooperative doctor-patient relationship has inherent therapeutic value. The physician’s major role is to educate and encourage the patient to take responsibility for health. The physician is a catalyst for healthful change, empowering and motivating the patient to assume responsibility. It is the patient, not the doctor, who ultimately creates or accomplishes healing. The physician must strive to inspire hope as well as understanding. Physicans must also make a commitment to their personal and spiritual development in order to be good teachers.

Watch more at www.theyoungturks.com.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants

An in-depth investigation of traditional European folk medicine and the healing arts of witches • Explores the outlawed “alternative” medicine of witches suppressed by the state and the Church and how these plants can be used today • Reveals that female shamanic medicine can be found in cultures all over the world • Illustrated with color and black-and-white art reproductions dating back to the 16th century • Includes three 8-page color inserts and 158 b&w illustrations Witch me

Rating: (out of 9 reviews)

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New York, NY (Vocus) September 27, 2010

Intravenous (IV) injection of aspirin is a very effective treatment of acute migraine headaches. The researchers in London reported in the journal Neurology that of the 113 patients who were given IV aspirin 86% reported moderate or good relief of their migraine.

There were very few side effects reported and the most common side effect, nausea was present in only 4 patients (although nausea could have also been due to migraine itself). The doctors reviewed 1,232 instances of aspirin infusions and found no major side effects. They do call for “careful monitoring” of patients with histories of asthma, gastro-intestinal bleeding or NSAID intolerance, but even in those patients they feel that “such patients can be counseled that the likelihood of a serious problem arising from the use of IV aspirin is very low”.

In most of their patients IV aspirin was used to treat very difficult withdrawal, or “rebound” headaches, suggesting that it would be even more effective for regular severe migraines that requires an injection. Dr. Peter Goadsby, one of the authors of the report feels that this is one of the few non-sedating and non-addictive IV treatment for severe migraines.

IV aspirin is not available in the US, but IV ketorolac (Toradol), a drug in the same NSAID family has been available for many years and according to Dr. Mauskop, Director of the New York Headache Center is also very effective for severe migraines and other headaches. He has given this drug to hundreds of patients with results similar to those reported for aspirin. Oral ketorolac however is much less effective than IV and than other oral NSAIDs. It also carries a much higher risk of side effects than intravenous ketorolac, aspirin, or oral aspirin and other oral NSAIDs.

About Alexander Mauskop, MD:

Alexander Mauskop, MD, known as “America’s Headache Doctor,” is a world-renowned neurologist, headache expert, author, and founder and director of the New York Headache Center. He is also creator of Dr. Mauskop’s Migralex™, the strongest combination medication for headaches available without a prescription, which is widely available online at www.Migralex.com, Amazon.com and at select pharmacies. He is board-certified in Neurology and Headache Medicine and is an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center.

About Dr. Mauskop’s Migralexâ„¢:

Dr. Mauskop’s Migralexâ„¢ is fast acting, free of sodium, caffeine and preservatives, and is clinically proven to ease headaches brought on by sinus pain, stress, tension, menstruation, and exertion. The formula reduces inflammation, inhibits the clumping together of platelets, relaxes blood vessels and normalizes dozens of chemical reactions, while successfully and rapidly attacking pain. Widely available at Migralex.com, Amazon.com and at select local pharmacies. Get a free sample of Dr. Mauskop’s Migralexâ„¢ here: http://www.migralex.com/request-free-sample-consumers/.

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