Posts Tagged ‘traditional chinese medicine’

Alternative Medicine – What Is Energy-Based Medicine And Is It Effective?

July 29th, 2011

Nearly all health-care systems in remote antiquity were some form of energy-based medicine. Some of these have been in continuous use since. Considered alternative medicine, Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Tibetan Medicine and others are all energy-based medicine, though complete entities and not just modalities within alternative medicine. There are perhaps hundreds or even thousands of modalities, therapies, treatments and support systems that fall in the energy-based medicine category and far more in alternative medicine.

Energy-Based Medicine Is a Category in Alternative Medicine. What Does it Do?

Today energy-based medicine is composed of holistic medical entities, modalities and therapies classified within a category with the same name, within alternative medicine. All of the modalities in energy-based medicine are considered to be of little or no use to allopathic medicine.

To date, most of the modalities in energy-based medicine include the spiritual aspect of human existence. Even today we express this energy in different ways, that we pick up “vibs” from another person, and indeed all of us at one time or another have had experiences with these energy fields in some way or another. Do these things really exist or are they figments of imagination? Do we have a sixth sense through which we can experience clairvoyance, ESP and other esoteric energies? To the unbelieving or insensitive person, alternative medicine, not to mention, energy-based medicine, is pure bunk.

In energy-based medicine, and almost all the rest of alternative medicine, therapy and treatment is incomplete without the consideration of not only the physical being, but the spiritual, emotional, and in some cases, social. Almost all cultures have also been aware of the energetic aspect of human health and proposed a series of energy channels and centers in the body. Examples would be the chakras in Ayurveda and other South Asian medical entities. Body energy (vital life energy proper) travels down through the body from the head to the feet and hands. In South Asian medicine, life energy force is called “chi” or “qi.” Yin/Yang, meridians and meridian points make up the intricate maze of channels in the body through which the energy travels. They are mainstream health-care systems serving the regions in which they exist, however, to Western medicine, they are alternative medicine.

The Healing Qualities of Life Force Energy

In most energy-based medicine, in fact, most modalities found in alternative medicine, it is believed that when these passages become blocked restricted, or energies traveling the wrong way, the individual becomes subjected to disease and illness. Practically all modalities found in alternative medicine seek the origin of a disease or ailment rather than treating symptoms bio-medically. Energy-based medicine stimulates life force energies and balancing them. The basic ways are through meditation, exercise, and depending on the region, acupuncture and similar therapies.

Alternative medicine embraces these modalities and derivatives. Whilst a few therapies are not concerned with prana or chi energy, they non-the-less, utilize the laying on of hands (or coming into close proximity with the patient) through the hands of the practitioner comes healing energies. Whilst some of these procedures are Asian, some are also Western though the concepts behind them have originated in Asian countries.

Is Energy-Based Medicine Efficacious?

Basically all energy-based medicine is considered alternative medicine in the eyes of the allopathy because the modalities within remain out of sorts with scientific experimentation for a number of reasons. The energy fields have not been proven to actually exist as no instrument has the sensitivity to detect them. Albeit their existence and efficacy have been relatively suggestive by the test of time. Scientific analysis minimizes the phenomenon as, for the most part, a product of the placebo effect.

There are, however, reports, claims and circumstances that prove with little doubt that these energies exist, they can affect health and healing hands from trained practitioners are therapeutic. For the most part, the modalities in energy medicines receive less respect today because they have been relegated to the ranks of alternative medicine, outside of the highly respected scientific arena.

Daniel Euergetes is working hard to helping you rise above mediocrity and reach more satisfactory and more fulfilling planes in living. One of the ways this is done is through education and appropriate resources.

Can Complementary Medical Treatment Help With Cancer Treatment Side Effects?

June 22nd, 2011

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is defined as interventions that are neither taught widely in medical schools, nor traditionally available in US Hospitals. CAM can be broken down into two broad categories I) those that are ingested or injected such as chelation therapy, Nosodes or Homeopathy and II) those that require a practitioner or therapist. Herbals, vitamins, organics, chemicals and diet are examples of the first group and meditation, massage (body work), chiropractic, acupuncture, body-mind therapy, and prayer are examples of the second.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has become the norm for many cancer patients, the majority of whom use it along with conventional therapy. Data published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 280(18):1569-75) from a 1997 United States survey of alternative medicine use demonstrated that 42% of the general population uses some form of CAM. More recent surveys of cancer patients demonstrate approximately two-thirds are engaged in a least one form of CAM therapy.

As a group, physicians remain somewhat in the dark to their patients’ use of CAM therapies. In multiple surveys, only about one-half of patients using CAM have indicated that their doctors are aware. The primary reason patients cite for not informing their practitioner is that the physician never asked. Studies also indicate that the great majority of patients using CAM do so in conjunction with standard cancer therapies, and not to the exclusion of oncologic treatments that is physician-endorsed.

Herbal formulas, raw foods, organic diets and homeopathy are additional forms of CAM modalities utilized in for many types of cancer treatments and especially for reducing the potential side effects of chemotherapy as well as radiation treatments. Traditional Chinese Medicine or Meridian therapy may also support the oncologist team in properly managing the side effects from cancer treatment. Patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy found that electro acupuncture treatments combined with anti-nausea medication were more effective than medication alone in controlling their chemo-related vomiting, according to a study reported in the Dec. 6 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. According to cancer experts, the study adds to the evidence that non-traditional therapies can be helpful to patients suffering from side effects of chemotherapy.

Homoeopathic treatment involves giving extremely small doses of a substance (called a ‘remedy’) that, if given to a healthy person in larger doses, will cause the same or similar symptoms. A recent survey (Molassiotis, Fernadez-Ortega et al. 2005) has shown that homoeopathy is one of the most commonly used complementary therapies for cancer. As a complementary treatment, homoeopathy is used mainly to strengthen the body, improve well-being and to relieve symptoms caused by the disease or the treatment. (Milazzo, Russell et al. 2006).

Most oncologists are comfortable with their patients’ use of CAM. Overall there is little clinical evidence to suggest that complementary therapies cause harm or interact unfavorably with regular medications. However, physicians are concerned that ingested or injected CAM might pose risks to some patients. Some might biochemically interfere with the effect of the chemotherapy or radiation therapy either negating or intensifying its action. In addition, although often taken to decrease the side effects and toxicity of conventional therapy, CAM may sometimes have unwarranted side effects of their own. For example, they may worsen other medical conditions a patient has such as high blood pressure. Many forms of prescription medication contain an herb as a base and therefore using herbs with CAM their may be a drug interaction potential with the existing formulary within the prescription medication being used by the oncologist or other medical team participants.
The medical community recognizes the growing use of CAM and the need to investigate these medicines and their side effects. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is presently putting forth a research initiative through the NCCAM to study complementary and alternative therapies.

Natural Cancer Cure – An Ayurvedic Alternative!

May 15th, 2011

Alternative Medicine

This is basically termed as any healing process or health care system that does not come under the sphere of conventional treatments but which has shown to produce reliable and commendable results, having the distinctive ability to cure most deadly diseases known to mankind including Cancer. The thought of a realistic Alternative Cancer Cure remedy emerging by exploiting these unique methods of healing has never been more important than it is today. It also needs to be stressed that medicine defined as alternative in one continent may be considered mainstream in another, especially in the Oriental and South Asian cultures. Alternative therapies are most often based on precise health regimens that generate unique and efficacious healing tendencies inside the body, even though little scientific evidence supports this theory, compared to the meticulous standards of authentication employed by traditional medicine to substantiate such beliefs of comprehensive cure. Rather it relatively entails exclusive methods of healing that literally encompasses cultural and historical inclinations, with even modest or no scientific verification desired or required by such alternative practitioners. Some examples of these therapies include: Herbalism, Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, and traditional Chinese medicine. In many of these treatments, in addition to a combination of other routines, it allocates considerable importance on healthy diet-based rehabilitation to accomplish rapid recovery of the body from any ailment.

Several mainstream campaigners have frequently begun to advocate that such alternative techniques should be complimented with conventional treatments as well, but quite appropriately an enormously significant section of the alternative therapy community have vehemently opposed this notion, as the diversity in these two healing foundations are understandably far too conflicting. It is therefore coherently preferred instead, to emphasize solely on this distinctly exceptional approach of healing rather than clustering the two procedures together which could simply complicate and compromise both methodologies adversely. Usually any claims of accomplishment made by alternative practitioners are rarely or never accepted by the conventional community, since there is almost always a lack of proof or strong collaborative evidence of efficacy and safety allied with these treatments. These unfortunate realities have caused the conventional lobby to brand alternative therapies as just a set of practices that either could not be confirmed, reject confirmation or even fail basic corroboration on a consistent basis. Conversely, if any alternative practice establishes credible scientific evidence of effectiveness with supplementary secure procedures of implementation, it is then considered mainstream medicine and not alternative any longer.

As a general rule, alternative medicine tends to fall short of the so-called scientific evidence required regardless of its time-tested and expansively proven efficiency in curing many infirmities of the human body. There again due to this scenario, it has caused many mainstream activists to characterize alternative methods as either evidence-less remedies or even refusing to describe it as medicine by any contemporary classification. Nevertheless, a few sensible mainstream researchers argue that imposing the credible evidence-based constrains on alternative therapies are inequitable since many modern measures of healing identified as mainstream, is deficient of these same stringent standards of concrete scientific evidence. But they all concur in unison that any system of therapy or medication, whether alternative or conventional, ought to have at least the very bare minimum standards of entrenched evidence in order to warrant unconditional acknowledgment.

Despite the setbacks faced by these genuine alternative methods of cure, which has been unjustly depicted as dismal, awkward or even fictional, the undeniable fact remains that the outcome it fabricates is extensively recognized and endorsed by the majority of the mainstream community. However, it is also clearly accepted by these traditional crusaders that an ideal state has still not been attained, by either alternative or conventional treatments, as ultimate evidence-substantiate medication.

Ayurveda Treatment

Ayurveda therapy is a particular native system of remedies that has been chiefly practiced in the Indian subcontinent, with claims of astounding accomplishments in the treatment and cure of countless so-called incurable diseases, including many common types of Cancer. It is now beginning to be acknowledged widely by the developed world as a viable Alternative Cancer Cure technique, as well as a promising method of treatment for many other discrepancies of the body. Having evolved effectively through the centuries, Ayurvedic remedies continue to remain a decisive and highly influential form of therapy in numerous South Asian cultures.

The word Ayurveda is of Sanskrit origin and is a combination of two meanings: Life and Knowledge or The Science of Life. The initial literature on these healing methods appeared during the Vedic period, while there were also significant works demonstrated in the Sushruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita texts of that era as well. At the time, practitioners of Ayurveda discovered a vast number of medicinal formulas and even surgical procedures that cured an array of diseases such as Cancer and others, with immense success. As maintained by heritage, Ayurveda is essentially an annexure of the four central Vedas or awareness frameworks. The most renowned of treaties were the Charaka Samhita, which dealt in minute detail to the prevention and cure of disease while the Sushruta Samhita concentrated solely on surgical solutions.

Ayurveda is fundamentally built upon the foundations of the five grand metaphysic elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Space and Water which is believed to be the edifice of the entire universe including the human being. The following seven constituents: Chyle or Bodily-Fluid, Blood, Bone, Flesh, Fat, Marrow, Semen or the female reproductive requisites are believed to be the key rudiments of the body. And in the scheme of Ayurveda the supreme balance of three specific essentials: Air or Spirit, Bile and Phlegm are strongly emphasized on, as these are said to be symbolized by divine might. Accordingly, these three regulatory basics that are envisaged are perceived to be of paramount importance to the human body, in maintaining an appropriate balance of the internal mechanism so that it could function flawlessly.

Therefore, in Ayurvedic treatment it is considered enormously imperative to provide these three prerequisites, along with the other seven, with an absolute equilibrium so as to enable the human being to survive and thrive on this earth, with little or no possibility of demise by way of disease. The Ayurvedic philosophy also propagates that preventing a malady merits wider prominence than curing it, and as such the radical changing of negative lifestyle is compellingly recommended. These transformations would ideally center on healthy diet and physical exercise which brings together mind and body or soul and conscience, into perfect unanimity thus guaranteeing vibrant health. Furthermore, this is primarily initiated to align, direct and harmonize the body with the four seasons of nature that would in turn ensure complete wellbeing of the individual.