Integrative cancer care does not only include medical visits and treatments. In combination with necessary conventional cancer treatments and other integrative therapies addressing the entire body, cancer patients need to use self-care daily.
We know that we need to begin to ask "What matters to you" instead of "What is the matter with you?"
"Can naturopaths deliver complementary preventive medicine?" Thus ran the headline in a recent editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Research shows that mind-body practices have a positive effect on all systems in our body, improving quality of life, reversing the harmful effects of stress, and creating fundamental changes in the way the brain functions.
There are a few fundamental principles I impart regularly to my patients, and so since I have come to see all of my readers as a regular part of my clinic family, I would like to similarly impart these principles to you.
According to Kulreet Chaudhary, M.D., the optimal response to Parkinson's disease is adopting an attitude of "life improvement" instead of disease management.
In my clinic, I teach my patients to use common sense with their health more so than anything else. In the end, being overly cautious is always better than not being cautious enough.
The simple and undeniable truth now reflected to us in our very genes is that our feelings are intricately connected with our physiology and must be considered when we encounter any kind of distress, be it emotional or physical. We must address our entire being if we truly hope to heal.
Here are three widespread beliefs about healthy living that may seem to be based on common sense but that research has revealed to be either partially or entirely wrong.
I realized that my seed of a wish to witness change in people's experience with cancer was blossoming before my eyes. Just within my relatively short lifetime, we have evolved in opportunities and options, enabling people with cancer to have a better quality of life.
New Medicine is a comprehensive road map to all things integrative medicine, and Peters and Pelletier have done an amazing job of simplifying complex ideas and diverse modalities -- making them accessible and understandable to the lay reader.
Even if you are an experienced seated meditator, you may find value in enlarging your repertoire with a walking practice. You may discover that uniting three rhythms -- stepping, breathing and mental counting -- is the most effective way to calm and redirect a chattering mind.
The future of health care in America and the world at large is integrative medicine. Things like mind-body practices, meditation, yoga, acupuncture, nutrition, and other complementary practices are here to stay.
"Health and wellness are intertwined. I define health not as just 'the absence of disease' but as wholeness, balance, and resilience. Wellness is the feeling you have when you are moving toward health or you in fact are there."
Most physicians know that diet and exercise matter, we learn that even in medical school. But this concerned me -- that there are still doctors out there who don't believe in a healthy lifestyle pattern, and want their patients to depend heavily on drugs to be "healthy."
There are other, less-pleasant side effects of acupuncture. None are life-threatening, and all typically are fleeting. Still, they are good to be aware of so that if you do experience them, you know they're normal and nothing to be too concerned about.
