Early anthropological evidence for plant use as medicine is 60,000 years old as reported from the Neanderthal grave in Iraq. The importance of plants as medicine is further supported by archeological evidence from Asia and the Middle East. Today, around 1.4 billion people in South Asia alone have no access to modern health care, and rely instead on traditional medicine to alleviate various symptoms. On a global basis, approximately 50 to 80 thousand plant species are used either natively or as pharmaceutical derivatives for life-threatening conditions that include diabetes, hypertension and cancers. As the demand for plant-based medicine rises, there is an unmet need to investigate the quality, safety and efficacy of these herbals by the "scientific methods". Current research on drug discovery from medicinal plants involves a multifaceted approach combining botanical, phytochemical, analytical, and molecular techniques. For instance, high throughput robotic screens have been developed by industry; it is now possible to carry out 50,000 tests per day in the search for compounds which act on a key enzyme or a subset of receptors. This and other bioassays thus offer hope that one may eventually identify compounds for treating a variety of diseases or conditions. However, drug development from natural products is not without its problems. Frequent challenges encountered include the procurement of raw materials, the selection and implementation of appropriate high-throughput bioassays, and the scaling-up of preparative procedures. Research scientists should therefore arm themselves with the right tools and knowledge in order to harness the vast potentials of plant-based therapeutics. The main objective of Plant and Human Health is to serve as a comprehensive guide for this endeavor. Volume 1 highlights how humans from specific areas or cultures use indigenous plants. Despite technological developments, herbal drugs still occupy a preferential place in a majority of the population in the third world and have slowly taken roots as alternative medicine in the West. The integration of modern science with traditional uses of herbal drugs is important for our understanding of this ethnobotanical relationship. Volume 2 deals with the phytochemical and molecular characterization of herbal medicine. Specifically, It will focus on the secondary metabolic compounds which afford protection against diseases. Lastly, Volume 3 focuses on the physiological mechanisms by which the active ingredients of medicinal plants serve to improve human health. Together this three-volume collection intends to bridge the gap for herbalists, traditional and modern medical practitioners, and students and researchers in botany and horticulture.

The book deals with orthomolecular medicine and mineral supplements for treatment of cancer. The supporters of megavitamin therapy believe it is the most exciting discovery of the century. The authors also discuss the healing power of integrated food, bees honey, elevating body alkalinity, and oxygen water for defeating malignant tumors.

"Explains why a significant body of scientific research has been largely ignored by cancer research institutions. Hess has clearly demonstrated the valuable role that social scientists can have in offering a neutral perspective on medical research and how it is shaped by cultural bias."
--"Townsend Letter"

"Hess has made a careful study of one of the most intriguing themes that weaves through the recent history of unconventional approaches to cancer. Every researcher, physician, and general reader interested in this field should welcome this important and incisive contribution."
--"Michael Lerner
President, Commonweal, and author of "Choices in Healing"

Growing numbers of cancer patients are exploring diet, food supplements, herbs, and nontoxic immunotherapies like bacterial vaccines as a means of therapy. Yet most cancer research organizations refuse to even evaluate these alternatives. "Can Bacteria Cause Cancer?" argues convincingly that unless this neglected world of alternative therapies is properly scrutinized, the medical Vietnam of the twentieth century may well affect one in two people by the twenty-first century.

David J. Hess investigates one of the great medical mysteries of the twentieth century--the relationship between bacteria and chronic disease. Recently scientists have overturned long-held beliefs by demonstrating that bacterial infections cause many ulcers; they are now reconsidering the role of bacterial infections in other chronic diseases, such as arthritis. Is it possible, Hess asks, that bacteria can contribute to the many other known causes of cancer?

To answer this intriguing question, Hess takes us into the world of alternative cancerresearchers. Maintaining that their work has been actively suppressed rather than simply dismissed, he examines their claims---that bacterial vaccines have led to some dramatic cases of long-term cancer remission--and the scientific potential of their theories. Economic interests and cultural values, he demonstrates, have influenced the rush toward radiation and chemotherapy and the current cul-de-sac of toxic treatments.

More than a medical mystery story, "Can Bacteria Cause Cancer?" is a dramatic case study of the failure of the war on cancer.

Cancer is one of the leading killers in the world and the incidence is increasing, but most cancer patients and cancer survivors suffer much from the disease and its conventional treatments' side effects. In the past, clinical data showed that some complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) possessed anticancer abilities, but some clinicians and scientists have queried about the scientific validity of CAM due to the lack of scientific evidence. There is great demand in the knowledge gap to explore the scientific and evidence-based knowledge of CAM in the anticancer field. With this aim, a book series is needed to structurally deliver the knowledge to readers. There have been a number of publications on materia medica for various cancers in recent years, the scientific and medical community are thrust for up-to-date information that are supported by concrete laboratory evidences or clinical trials. This volume is a specialised book presenting the experimental and clinical evidences of anticancer materia medica for various cancers. This book consists of sixteen chapters, providing concise reviews and expert opinions on the recent progress of materia medica research in fourteen particular cancers from bench to bedside application. In addition, the book also includes a chapter with an overview of evidence-based materia medica for cancer chemoprevention, as well as a chapter discussing on the pharmacokinetics of anticancer materia medica. Gathering international opinion leaders' views, this volume will contribute great to the cancer, academic, and clinical community by providing evidence-based information on the anticancer effects of materia medica for various cancers. Readership Oncologists, cancer researchers, pharmacologists, pharmaceutical specialists, Chinese medicine practitioners, medical educators, postgraduates and advanced undergraduates in biomedical disciplines, cancer caregivers, cancer patients.

Conventional medicine focuses on the body's physical symptoms. But more and more patients are questioning the limitations of this approach and are exploring holistic approaches, such as anthroposophic medicine, which also addresses the human soul -- our individual thinking, will and feelings -- and the human spirit, our self-awareness and essence. Anthroposophic medicine is an extension of, not a replacement to, conventional medicine. This comprehensive book introduces and explores the philosophy and practice of anthroposophic medicine, which is based on principles developed by Rudolf Steiner. It discusses many alternative therapies and areas of health including artistic therapies, massage, childhood illnesses, cancer and psychiatry. Healing for Body, Soul and Spirit will inform and engage a general reader, with no medical background, who is interested in alternative and holistic approaches to human health.

From diagnosis through progression of breast cancer, patients have confided to their oncologist their fears, their hopes, the personal problems created by their illness, their way of coping or their inability to cope with the disease and its treatment. They discussed their options and throughout they managed to laugh but also did not hide their tears.

Traditional medicinal knowledge, especially the use of ethnomedicinal plants in developing countries, has been passed down for generations. Today, however, scientists are poised to combine traditional medicinal plants and modern drug discoveries to further develop essential products that have followed the leads of indigenous cures used for centuries. Ethnomedicinal Plant Use and Practice in Traditional Medicine provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of indigenous knowledge and therapeutic potential within ethnobotany. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as drug discovery, traditional knowledge, and herbal medicine, this book is ideally designed for doctors, healers, medical professionals, ethnobotanists, naturalists, academicians, researchers, and students interested in current research on the medical use and applications of natural-based resources.

"Naturopathic Physical Medicine" provides a philosophical naturopathic perspective, as well as practical clinical applications, for manual and physical approaches to health care. A wide range of bodywork and movement approaches and modalities are evaluated in relation to their ability to be appropriately used in naturopathic treatment and rehabilitation settings. Naturopathic methodology suggests that therapeutic measures should match the ability of the individual to respond positively, without negative side-effects. The model of care emphasised in this text recognizes that naturopathically oriented therapeutic interventions usually focus on achieving one or all of the following: enhancement of function so that the person, system or part, can better self-regulate in response to adaptive demands; modification or removal of adaptive load factors; and, symptomatic relief without creation of significant additional adaptive changes.

When Joanne B. Mulcahy first helped Mary Peterson -- a respected elder of the Akhiok community -- find a safe home away from the violence and alcoholism that had altered village life, she never imagined that they would meet again five years later and begin more than twelve years of interviews, letters, and visits that would transform the lives of both women.

Birth and Rebirth on an Alaskan Island offers the fascinating story of Mary's life, from her experience growing up within the traditional society of Akhiok to her work as a teacher, a Community Health Aide, a mother, a grandmother, and an Alutiiq midwife and healer. Through her story we discover a society that blended native Alutiiq culture with the Russian Orthodox teachings handed down from late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century colonists; that mixed modern education and employment with a subsistence lifestyle; that sanctioned arranged marriages but upheld civil divorce laws; and, above all, that recovered its confidence in traditional healing -- both of the body and of the community.

More than a personal story of survival, Birth and Rebirth on an Alaskan Island portrays, in Akhiok, a resilience formed through a return to a strong sense of community. As we become acquainted with the Kodiak world through Mary Peterson's story, we come to realize the strength of the native oral tradition and to see that knowing and healing are pivotal elements of the Alutiiq way -- particularly as they bring to light the previously unrecognized efforts, inspirations, and accomplishments of countless women healers.

Natural Products in Vector-Borne Disease Management explores the potential application of natural products in vector control and disease management. The chapters discuss the global impact of specific vector-borne diseases, gaps in management, and natural products in specific stages of development - discovery, optimization, validation, and preclinical/clinical development. Toxic effects and mechanisms of action are also discussed. This book also explores how therapeutic plant derivatives can be used to combat the vectors of infection and how natural products can be used to manage and treat vector-borne diseases like malaria, leishmaniasis, dengue, and trypanosomiasis. With the inclusion of case studies on field and clinical applications and the contributions from experts in the field, Natural Products in Vector-Borne Disease Management is an essential resource to researchers, academics, and clinicians in parasitology, virology, microbiology, biotechnology, pharmacology, and pharmacognosy working in the field of vector-borne diseases.

This textbook is an outstanding addition to the world of Alternative Medicine in general and the world of acupuncture in particular. The acupuncture Microsystems have proven to be some of the most sophisticated tools used in acupuncture today. The hand acupuncture microsystem was introduced in the 1970s and has since gained wide popularity as an effective approach to pain and to other medical problems. While Koryo Hand Acupuncture (KHT) has presented practitioners with a simple somatotopy of the body organs and structures, this textbook presents the discovery of additional projections of the body organs and structures. This textbook provides a comprehensive comprehension to the inherit sophistication of the hand acupuncture microsystem. The three-phase system offers a new paradigm for understanding the patho-physiology of the living system. This new discovery will provide exciting and sophisticated ways to deal with all aspects of the pathology regardless of the duration and the intensity.

This book provides a timely synthesis and discussion of recent developments in mindfulness research and practice within mental health and addiction domains. The book also discusses other Buddhist-derived interventions - such as loving-kindness meditation and compassion meditation - that are gaining momentum in clinical settings. It will be an essential text for researchers and mental health practitioners wishing to keep up-to-date with developments in mindfulness clinical research, as well as any professionals wishing to equip themselves with the necessary theoretical and practical tools to effectively utilize mindfulness in mental health and addiction settings.

This new clinical resource clearly explains how to approach integrated care in a way that combines Chinese herbal medicine with Western medicine to enhance and improve medical care for patients with cancer - without undermining or negatively impacting patients' medical treatment. Each chapter covers a different type of cancer, first introducing the conventional medical understanding of that cancer including its etiology, diagnosis, and treatment according to staging and type. The chapter then covers that cancer from the perspective of Oriental medicine. Case studies illustrate the integration of treatment for each cancer type, raising important issues and considerations associated with specific cancers and treatments. Formulas are presented within the context of conventional treatment, intended to enhance the effectiveness of treatment and/or treat side effects without undermining the treatment's function. Each formula is followed by a discussion of how and why the herbs are used, including classical Chinese theory and relevant pharmaceutical studies. Staging and the age and performance status of various patients is used as a means by which to explain how formulas are changed. Case studies explore issues related to the integration of treatment for each type of cancer.

This handbook provides key information on the clinical use of nutraceuticals, an increasingly common practice grounded in an understanding of the pharmacological activities of natural compounds and clinical evidence of efficacy and safety. Each chapter examines the effects of nutraceuticals in different therapeutic contexts, including nutraceuticals active on the digestive system, heart, lipid and glucose metabolism, and immune system. The authors also address relevant concerns such as relative and absolute contraindications, range of tested doses (efficacious and safe), possible side effects and pharmacological interactions, and the scientific level of clinical evidence for each product. Despite the availability of a large number of nutraceuticals on the market, the same compound is often offered by different industries at different dosages and concentrations, with different titration and often with different suggestions of efficacy. Available academic books on nutraceuticals prioritize summarizing information or focus on the pharmacological aspects on cells or animals models rather than on proof in humans. The handbook takes a unique and practical approach intended to assist clinicians, pharmacologists, nutritionists, and dietitians considering prescribing nutraceuticals for therapeutic use. Renowned expert Professor Arrigo Cicero is known internationally for his work in nutraceuticals, and currently serves as President of the Italian Nutraceutical Society.