Blended Medicine: The Best of All World
Author: Michael Castleman, Author of Nature Cures and The Healing Herbs
Excerpt From: Blended Medicine: The Best Choices in Healing
"Mainstream medicine doesn't have all the answers," says Anne Simons, M.D. "Good research shows that for many conditions, alternative therapies and natural cure can help. When I have a cold, I often take echinacea because several studies show that it's an antiviral immune stimulant. I think doctors should prescribe whatever works bestand cures the condition. If what works best is a safe alternative treatment, it's fine with me."
Herbs: Plants With The Power To Heal
An estimated 80 percent of the world's population still relies on natural herbs to treat, prevent and cure diseases. In Europe, where physicians of conventional medicine have access to the same high-tech treatments that are available in the United States, patients routinely receive "prescriptions" for natural herbs instead of mainstream pharmaceuticals. In the United States, an estimated 25 percent of pharmaceuticals continue to be derived from natural plant sources.
Scientists around the world depend on natural herbs in developing more potent medicine. Not long ago, experiments with the Pacific yew tree yielded an extract called taxol, which showed effectiveness against advanced breast and ovarian cancer, disease that didn't respond to standard chemotherapy drugs. Today, yew-derived drugs (sold under the brand names Paclitaxel and Taxotere) have become standard treatments to cure breast and ovarian cancers.
From "Alternative" To "Complementary" The Blended Medicine
Of course, many mainstream and conventional physicians are still leery of alternative medicine or natural medicine- and some still call them worthless. But many more have come to realize that their brand of medicine doesn't have a monopoly on the cure and healing and that alternative approaches often are quite valuable. Today's medical rallying cry is "Whatever works best," and many of those promoting blended medicine and holistic medicine have dropped the term altemative in favor of the term complementary. "Complementary says that the therapy do not replace mainstream medicine," Dr Brauer explains. "Rather, they complete it, expanding it to include areas it has undervalued or overlooked - diet, exercise, traditional healing arts, home remedy, natural cure and mind-body therapy." This approach is also known as holistic medicine.
"If I'm involved in a serious auto accident, I want the ambulance to take me to the nearest high-tech trauma center. Mainstream or conventional medicine is definitely the way to go for serious injuries," says Andrew T. Weil, M.D., director of the program in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson. "But say I developed chronic pain as a result of the accident. Beyond narcotics, mainstream and conventional medicine doesn't have much to offer. But several alternative and complementary therapy may help. I might try other holistic appraoch such as chiropractic, acupuncture, yoga, massage, naturopathy, ayurveda or visualization therapy."
"I'm not opposed to medical technology," adds Deepak Chopra, M.D., creative director and cofounder of the Chopra Center for Well-Being in La Jolla, California. "Technological medicine is unsurpassed in diagnosing disease, providing cure and treatment for serious injuries and as cure to infections. But it does not treat chronic illness - for example, arthritis, diabetes and heart disease - very effectively."
The term alternative medicine is unlikely to disappear in the near future, but complementary and holistic medicine is clearly the coming concept. In late 1996, the National Institutes of Health's Office of Alternative Medicine changed its name to the Office of Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
One reason why more and more conventional and mainstream M.D.'s are open to blended and holistic medicine is that for the first time, mainstream medical journals are publishing studies showing that alternative therapy have real value. (Until recently, most journals published only dire warnings about the dangers of alternative therapies.) Another reason is high-profile advocates with mainstream and conventional medical backgrounds, such as Dr. Weil and Dr. Chopra.
But the people really driving the blending of mainstream, conventional and alternative approaches or the complementary medicine and holistic medicine are those that don't have any initials after their names. They're consumers like you. "People like alternative therapy," says Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council, a natural herbal education and research organization based in Austin, Texas. "No one is being forced to use them. A big - possibly the biggest - reason for their popularity is good word-of-mouth support."
