Based on 27 interviews with leading experts in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), Conversations in Complementary and Alternative Medicine offers valuable insights and advice on a variety of CAM modalities, including acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, and herbal medicine. Each contributor identifies and answers the most commonly asked questions in their particular CAM specialty, including questions on practice, education, and research issues, and provides readers with important tools for identifying evidence-based practice that can form research questions for future CAM studies. Conversations in Complementary and Alternative Medicine is an essential resource for anyone contemplating a career in CAM or already working in the field.
InnoVision Communications, Encinitas, CA. Text cites interviews and encounters with healers and therapists working in complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine. Discusses spirituality and its role in healing, present and future trends in complementary medicine, and possible integration where conventional and complementary medicine can be merged. (Product description).
Integration of complementary and alternative medicine therapies (CAM) with conventional medicine is occurring in hospitals and physicians offices, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are covering CAM therapies, insurance coverage for CAM is increasing, and integrative medicine centers and clinics are being established, many with close ties to medical schools and teaching hospitals. In determining what care to provide, the goal should be comprehensive care that uses the best scientific evidence available regarding benefits and harm, encourages a focus on healing, recognizes the importance of compassion and caring, emphasizes the centrality of relationship-based care, encourages patients to share in decision making about therapeutic options, and promotes choices in care that can include complementary therapies where appropriate. Numerous approaches to delivering integrative medicine have evolved. Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States identifies an urgent need for health systems research that focuses on identifying the elements of these models, the outcomes of care delivered in these models, and whether these models are cost-effective when compared to conventional practice settings. It outlines areas of research in convention and CAM therapies, ways of integrating these therapies, development of curriculum that provides further education to health professionals, and an amendment of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act to improve quality, accurate labeling, research into use of supplements, incentives for privately funded research into their efficacy, and consumer protection against all potential hazards.
Get a solid, global foundation of the therapies and evidence-based clinical applications of CAI. Fundamentals of Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine, 6th Edition is filled with the most up-to-date information on scientific theory and research of holistic medicine from experts around the world. The 6th edition of this acclaimed text includes all new content on quantum biology and biofields in health and nursing, integrative mental health care, and homeopathic medicine. Its wide range of topics explores therapies most commonly seen in the U.S., such as energy medicine, mind-body therapies, and reflexology along with traditional medicine and practices from around the world. With detailed coverage of historic and contemporary applications, this text is a solid resource for all practitioners in the medical, health, and science fields! Coverage of CAI therapies and systems includes those most commonly encountered or growing in popularity, so you can carefully evaluate each treatment. An evidence-based approach focuses on treatments best supported by clinical trials and scientific evidence. Observations from mechanisms of action to evidence of clinical efficacy answers questions of how, why, and when CAM therapies work. A unique synthesis of information, including historical usage, cultural and social analysis, current basic science theory and research, and a wide range of clinical investigations and observations, makes this text a focused, authoritative resource. Global coverage includes discussions of traditional healing arts from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Clinical guides for selecting therapies, and new advances for matching the appropriate therapy to the individual patient, enables you to offer and/or recommend individualized patient care. Expert contributors include well-known writers such as Kevin Ergil, Patch Adams, Joseph Pizzorno, and Marc Micozzi. A unique history of CAI traces CAM therapies from their beginnings to present day practices. Suggested readings and references on the companion website list the best resources for further research and study. NEW! Added chapters offer fresh perspective on quantum biology and biofields in health and nursing, integrative mental health care, and homeopathic medicine. NEW! Updated chapters feature new content and topics, including: challenges in integrative medicine, legal issues, CAI in the community, psychometric evaluation, placebo effect, stress management, and much more! NEW! Updated guides on common herbal remedies in clinical practice, East and Southeast Asia, and native North and South America deliver the latest information. NEW! Basic science content and new theory and research studies cover a wide range of sciences such as biophysics, biology and ecology, ethnomedicine, psychometrics, neurosciences, and systems theory. NEW! Expanded global ethnomedical systems includes new content on Shamanism and Neo-Shamanism, Central and North Asia, Southeast Asia, Nepal and Tibet, Hawaii and South Pacific, Alaska and Pacific Northwest, and contemporary global healthcare.
Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Health: A Multicultural Perspective provides a critical analysis of non-allopathic healing practices, including their uses, limitations, and scientific basis. The evidence-based discussion explores complementary, alternative, and integrative health (CAIH) across various cultural and ethnic groups both in the U.S. and internationally, to give you a greater understanding of the different modalities—including a literature-backed examination of proven methods and questionable practices within a cross-cultural framework. Each chapter highlights the scientific analysis of the practices relevant to each group, and guides you toward independent analysis of the risks and benefits of the practices discussed. Emphasizing the student as a future health professional, this book includes case studies, examples, questions, and discussion problems that underscore the role of health educators in educating consumers about CAIH practices.
The rapid growth of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) demands that the public, the medical world, social scientists, the media, and governments pay attention. People are questioning the limits of what modern medicine can accomplish and seeking additional ways to manage their health. While many are enthusiastically adopting complementary and alternative forms of medicine, others are more sceptical. Physicians' attitudes are in transition, and governments are pondering where this increasingly important phenomenon fits into the health care system. The challenge is to keep pace with the changing ways that people view health and illness, take reposibility for themselves, and incorporate CAM into their health care. This text brings together for the first time a wide range of leading North American and European social scientists to identify who uses CAM, why they use it, and how they find out about it. Presenting research from psychology, sociology, anthropology and public health, they alert us to the current context of CAM use and provide new models and techniques for understanding its future place in health care.
Learn to identify Internet-based complementary/alternative medicine resources you can trust! This well-organized book takes a commonsense approach to getting the most out of the Internet when it comes to finding reliable information on complementary and alternative medicine. Author Lillian Brazin teaches classes on finding and evaluating health information on the Internet. In this book, she shares her years of experience in using and evaluating medical Internet sites to teach you to spot authoritative resources and avoid misinformation, sales pitches, and out-and-out quackery. In addition to showing you where to find the information you need, this book stresses the importance (the how and why) of working closely with your physician to get the best results from your complementary/alternative medical experience. More than 20 “screen shot” illustrations give you a preview of what to look for on various sites! The Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine on the Internet will show you how to separate the wheat from the chaff when confronted with hundreds of Web sites purporting to provide reliable information. This jargon-free book addresses vital questions, such as: How can I be certain that the information I find is correct? How can I locate a Web site that was recommended to me? How do I start out to research a particular health problem? What do Internet terms like .com, .edu, .gov, listservs, :), BTW, LOL, flames, “netiquette,” etc. mean? This book will also help you understand controversial “hot topics” that include: the Pilates exercise method that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis helped popularize in the 1960s is trendy again, with Pilates studios in most major cities supermarket supplements, such as St. John's wort, gingko biloba, and vitamins A-Z: how can I find out which, if any of them, are for me? the validity of celebrity endorsements for supplements and alternative therapies While providing you with the skills to find the information you seek, this book reflects the author’s cautious perspective. The Internet can be frightening and overwhelming because there is so much information to sift through, digest, and evaluate. The Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine on the Internet (first in the new Internet Guides to Consumer Health Care series from The Haworth Information Press) will help you identify Internet resources for complementary and alternative medicine that you can trust.
Gain a better understanding of the complex issues that will decide the future of health care!This is the first book of its kind in the rapidly growing field of complementary and alternative medicine. It addresses quality-of-care concerns and also focuses on the goals of many practitioners: to secure a firm place for their practice in health care systems and to establish levels of integration. Professionalism and Ethics in Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a unique textbook, but is also an essential resource for practitioners of complementary, alternative, and conventional medicine as well as the general public.This volume is divided into three parts. The first looks at a range of current concerns over complementary and alternative medicine, many of which raise ethical issues relating to quality of care. The next section, focusing on professionalism, indicates how practitioners must respond to the public’s concerns, especially in light of the public’s rising expectations of standards of care among all practitioners. The third part is comprised of case histories plus commentaries suitable for private study or classroom discussion.In this valuable book you will find: an examination of current issues in complementary/alternative medicine and bioethics explorations of other approaches to ethical dilemmas including “bottom-up” ethics such as consequentialism and social utilitarianism plus feminist ethics, virtue ethics, and more informed discussion of public expectations of professional roles and responsibilities case histories that illustrate ethical issues explanations of the Hippocratic Oath and complementary and alternative medicine codes an examination of the power structure within health care systems and much, much more!Growing from a course on ethics and law at the Homeopathic College of Canada in Toronto, Professionalism and Ethics in Complementary and Alternative Medicine will benefit everyone who is concerned with quality care and integrated medicine.
A-Z of Complementary and Alternative Medicine provides a pocket-size quick reference of CAM, allowing conventional and complementary health practitioners to ascertain: - what the CAM intervention is - what it does - contraindications, precautions and interactions. With entries grouped under therapies, the guide provides easy access to many unfamiliar terms therefore providing an excellent resource for improving communication about CAM with patients. Contains approximately 3500 entries Grouped by therapy Includes information on contraindications, precautions and interactions Pocket size for convenience and portability Attractive design and durable flexi cover
At the center of the debate over complementary and alternative medicine--from acupuncture and chiropractic treatments to homeopathy and nutritional supplements--is how to scientifically measure the effectiveness of a particular treatment. Fourteen scholars from the fields of medicine, philosophy, sociology, and cultural and folklore studies examine that debate, and the clash between growing public support and the often hostile stance of clinicians and medical researchers. Proponents and critics have different methodologies and standards of evidence--raising the question of how much pluralism is acceptable in a medical context--particularly in light of differing worldviews and the struggle to define medicine in the modern world. The contributors address both the methodological problems of assessment and the conflicting cultural perspectives at work in a patient's choice of treatment. Sympathetic to CAM, the contributors nonetheless offer careful critiques of its claims, and suggest a variety of ways it can be taken seriously, yet subject to careful scrutiny.
