The Best Alternative Medicine

What are the most effective therapies in complementary and alternative medicine? How can they be used to prevent illness and enhance the quality of life? What is the scientific evidence of their safety and effectiveness? And finally, for which medical conditions do they work best? Faced with an overwhelming availability of treatments and an even more bewildering array of claims and counterclaims, every American health consumer and practitioner needs guidelines he or she can trust.

Based on an enormous body of research, including new research funded by the National Institutes of Health, The Best Alternative Medicine is the first book to provide authoritative, scientifically based answers to these questions. Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier, Director of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program at the Stanford University School of Medicine, rigorously evaluates the most common forms of alternative medicine and delivers research-based evidence about hundreds of individual treatments, organized both by therapeutic discipline and specific illness and disease. Easy to understand and free of jargon, The Best Alternative Medicine offers definitions, background, and examples of specific treatments from a multitude of therapies, including Mind/Body Medicine, European Herbs, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Spiritual Healing, Acupuncture, Dietary and Nutritional Supplements, and Ayurvedic -- East Indian -- Medicine.

Dr. Pelletier's assessment of a particular approach is threefold, beginning with "What Works," progressing to "What Does Not Work," and concluding with "What's in the Works," where he cites the most promising unpublished and ongoing research in that field.

For readers who wish to address a specific medical illness or condition, but have no idea what remedies they can rely on, The Best Alternative Medicine also includes a major section organized by condition, with bulleted points of brief, clear, researched information. Alphabetically arranged, this section provides recommendations for prevention and treatment, as well as references to further resources for everything from acne to ear infections, bronchitis to heart disease, and headaches to Parkinson's disease.

Now, more than ever, as alternative medicine moves to the forefront of medical advances, people need the facts to inform their health decisions. Whether you are interested in prevention or are considering treatment for yourself, your patients, or your family, The Best Alternative Medicine will help you make the best choices about complementary and alternative medicine based on the latest researched, essential information.

Complementary and alternative medicine, which ranges from acupuncture and chiropractic care to more esoteric disciplines such as Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine, was a $14 billion industry by the year 2000. As the public's interest in health practices outside the purview of conventional medicine has increased, so has the controversy about the efficacy of such methods. But while conventional doctors criticize the absence of conclusive clinical evidence for most alternative therapies, there is nevertheless a growing number of people who suffer from chronic illnesses and, frustrated by the usual medical route, are willing to try new modalities. In The Best Alternative Medicine, Dr. Kenneth Pelletier of the Stanford School of Medicine addresses the debate head-on with the goal of providing an authoritative consumer reference guide that focuses on the existing body of clinical research (funded in large part by the National Institutes of Health) and the safest applications of the 12 most common practices. Pelletier, who is also the director of the National Institutes of Health's Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program and the author of Sound Mind, Sound Body: A New Model for Lifelong Health, evaluates those approaches mentioned above as well as mind-body medicine, supplements, Western herbal medicine, homeopathy, naturopathy, and the healing applications of spirituality from three perspectives: what works, what doesn't work, and what is "in the works." He then presents an A to Z of health conditions--from AIDS and arthritis to osteoporosis and varicose veins--with bulleted points referencing the beneficial alternative therapies. While Pelletier is clearly an advocate of complementary and alternative medicine, he takes a discerning position and carefully cuts through the jargon and unsubstantiated claims to present an unbiased, evidence-based resource that will be invaluable to people considering a new approach to their health care. --Rebecca Wright