Alison Rose Levy is a journalist, bestselling health writer, and healing arts practitioner who has covered the field of integrative medicine and mind-body healing for the last twenty years. Alison is Media Director of Friends of Health, a health leadership and frontier scientific research organization. Alison offers the free health information and action ezine, the Health Outlook via her website, www.health-journalist.com and serves as Co-Host of the internet radio program, Whole Person Healing on Voice America. She is Blog Moderator of the upcoming blog for Donna Karan's foundation, Urban Zen.

Blog Entries by Alison Rose Levy

Fort Hood Exit Strategy

9 Comments | Posted November 6, 2009 | 02:13 PM (EST)


With the recent tragedy at Fort Hood, the time has come to face up to two facts: War is Hell -- this we know. War is not conducive to mental health -- this we don't want to realize.

And it may be that if a little war is bad for...

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Hold the MSG: Food Triggers for Epilepsy and Other Neurological Illnesses

63 Comments | Posted October 26, 2009 | 05:23 AM (EST)


Last week, 60 Minutes reported on David and Susan Axelrod's search for a cure for epilepsy prompted by their two decade plus experience of the ailment, which their adult daughter has suffered since infancy. But while Katie Couric admiringly covered the researchers seeking to find "the Cure," ie. new anti-convulsive...

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A Guide For The Perplexed On Vaccinations: What The Coffee Jitters Tell Us

225 Comments | Posted October 20, 2009 | 12:30 PM (EST)


In following the vaccine debate, I've observed what seem like two completely different versions of reality. For those perplexed by this, here's a brief guide to a basic issue underlying this long-standing controversy: biological individuality. If properly understood, it can create the ground for reconciliation.

Have you ever noticed...

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Behind the Lost Symbol: Woo-Woo or Frontier Science? Part One

38 Comments | Posted October 12, 2009 | 11:15 AM (EST)


As it tops bestsellers' lists, Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol, catapulted into the mainstream the frontier science he calls "Noetics," an area of active research for over twenty-five years, which he characterizes as humanity's best hope. Leading Noetic scientists report a concurrent boost in book sales and website...

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Mackenzie Phillips and the Stockholm Syndrome

96 Comments | Posted September 23, 2009 | 08:56 PM (EST)


In the aftermath of Mackenzie Phillip's shocking revelations of long term incest with her father, "Papa" John Phillips of the sixties' singing group, the Mamas and the Papas, some people are wondering why the actress allowed the incest to continue for ten years-- into her twenties.

The assumption is...

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Health Care By Sound Byte

5 Comments | Posted September 14, 2009 | 04:40 PM (EST)


I've always had trouble picturing the decline of Rome. Why would the Roman people get distracted by a mean-spirited and meaningless circus? At what stage of a civilization do cheap thrills become the best option?

Unfortunately, nowadays, I don't have to crack a history book to get that lesson....

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Their Money, Our Health: Andrew Weil Leads The Health Revolution

5 Comments | Posted September 8, 2009 | 07:49 AM (EST)


Dr. Andrew Weil's new book, "Why Our Health Matters" is a must read for anyone wondering why health care reform is in gridlock or what to do about it. In this book, Weil offers solid, original, clear-minded, and impeccably caring solutions for our health care conundrum.

"I am sure...

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Ted Kennedy and the End of All Health Care

7 Comments | Posted August 30, 2009 | 09:43 AM (EST)


Watching the traveling funeral cortege of Senator Edward Kennedy inevitably triggered memories of the funeral of John F. Kennedy-- the most tragic funeral of my time. The assassination broke America's heart. Its now iconic images mirrored our shared grief. If those images could speak they would remind us that we...

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Robert Thurman: The Sacred Cows in the Health Care Debate

55 Comments | Posted August 16, 2009 | 08:50 AM (EST)


Studies show that over half of all Americans are interested in promoting wellness and preventing disease. But some people are terrified that the food Nazis will come running after them and force feed them spinach.

In a series of upcoming blogs I'll be speaking with thought leaders in integrative...

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Why Self-Help Can't Solve It All

Posted July 24, 2009 | 07:40 PM (EST)


Would you buy a financial advice book from Enron executives about saving pennies for your retirement? No? Then what about former FDA Chief Dr. David Kessler's new self-help book on how people should "just say no" to neurologically seductive foods created by food industry scientists?

A former FDA chief advises...

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We Cared About Numbers, Not People: Former CIGNA PR Chief Comes Clean

15 Comments | Posted July 13, 2009 | 12:00 PM (EST)


"When you're in the executive offices... you don't think about individual people. You think about the numbers and whether or not you're going to meet Wall Street's expectations... That enables you to stay there, if you don't really think that you're talking about and dealing with real human beings, "...

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Making the Best of the Worst

Posted July 12, 2009 | 09:50 AM (EST)


Some people I know are exquisitely sensitive. Every hurt, harm, or horror imprints their impressionable soul(s). Meanwhile others laugh it off, tough it out, shut down, deny, or resolutely move on. How marvelous are the varieties of human resilience.

When I was a kid, I recall seeing a Jules...

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Why Self-Help Can't Solve It All

Posted July 8, 2009 | 04:11 PM (EST)


Would you buy a financial advice book from Enron executives about saving pennies for your retirement? No? Then what about former FDA Chief Dr. David Kessler's new self-help book on how people should "just say no" to neurologically seductive foods created by food industry scientists?

A former FDA chief advises...

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What Is This Thing Called Forgiveness?

7 Comments | Posted July 3, 2009 | 06:15 PM (EST)


The nation looks on in horror at the interminable orgy of true confessions from Governor Sanford -- voluntarily decimating his political career by bogarting a spotlight rightfully passed to recently departed celebrities. Any psychologically aware person must ask: Why?

Were the constraints of being in a suffocatingly correct marriage so...

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The Power of Prevention

6 Comments | Posted June 30, 2009 | 08:04 AM (EST)


Even if certain congressmen bend to the will of lobbyists, even if a few misguided voters never understood that "socialized medicine" is no longer a threat because the cold war is over, today's reality is that the President and a majority of people get that health care has to change....

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Urban Zen Connects the Dots on Personal Healthcare

6 Comments | Posted June 19, 2009 | 07:26 PM (EST)


What's the single most important service you can do to help our troubled economy recover?

Take care of your health!

With health care costs rising (nearing 20% of GDP), if you commit to service for health, we'll all get a double-duty payoff (benefiting both health and the buckling...

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How To Lessen Your Addiction To Animal Based Foods

5 Comments | Posted June 9, 2009 | 02:35 PM (EST)


I'm not the ideal candidate for a cleanse. When not on deadline, (which is practically always), I'm rushing around from one health seminar to the next. Meetings, interviews, causes, trainings, policy sessions, (and the occasional retreat) fill my days. Unless you can do a cleanse on the run, forget about...

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Be the Change Now: Deepak Chopra Preaching in NYC

1 Comments | Posted May 21, 2009 | 09:42 AM (EST)


With the election of President Barack Obama, millions of Americans opted for "change you can believe in." But now as our country faces the tough job of redirecting a host of entrenched and interactive infrastructures that don't well serve the majority of regular people, many are wondering whether the major...

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What Will Happen Next?

1 Comments | Posted May 1, 2009 | 10:12 AM (EST)


Have you ever wished you could see into the future for guidance on your next moves? Or have you ever been on the receiving end of that guidance?

If so, you've probably noticed that intuition, hunches, and outright premonitions, (typically vivid dreams forewarning future happenings--especially catastrophic ones) are real....

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Having a Cow and Eating it Too: The Real Deal on Food Safety

Posted March 16, 2009 | 08:51 AM (EST)


When in the Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan portrayed agribusiness' unhealthy treatment of livestock animals, some readers suddenly lost their appetite for meat, going vegan overnight.

But others found "the sane food loophole:" Organic, pasture-raised meat and dairy-- the protein complement to the fruits and vegetables First Lady Michelle Obama championed...

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