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Medical Resource A List of Unusual Alternative Medicine

Date: January 15, 2010
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Advice
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A list of some of the alternative medicine practices you’re likely to encounter in the United States. Some of these are considered border-line acceptable even in the professional medical field, and many understand that this is unfortunate. Mostly these are just scams, quackery, and nonsense, which unfortunately gullible people believe in if they are desperate and grasping at false hope. Keep your eyes peeled for any of these, and be prepared to stamp out the harmful ones.

Hallelujah Diet
“Reverend” George M. Malkmus claims to have eliminated his colon cancer and other serious health problems more than twenty-five years ago by “following biblical principles for a natural diet and healthy lifestyle.” He and his wife Rhonda Jean operate ‘Hallelujah Acres’, where they hold seminars, sell products, and advocate a diet that consists of raw fruits and vegetables.

Malkmus and his followers claim that his methods have helped people with obesity, cancer, arthritis, and more than a hundred other health problems. He is a very eloquent speaker who is capable of inspiring people who trust in what he says. It has been speculated that he is in fact running a cult, with an unknown number of followers at the ‘Hallelujah Acres’ site.

Intra-Cellular Hyperthermia
Nicholas Bachynsky, a medical doctor whose license was revoked in the early 1990s, is largely responsible for the persistence of intracellular hyperthermia as a treatment. In April of 2004, he was imprisoned in a Floria jail to await trial on fraud charges related to sale of phony stock in a business founded on the alleged treatment.

The claim is that it is effective against cancer and Lyme disease by way of the intravenous administration of 2-4- dinitrophenol (DNP), which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned more than sixty years ago.

Herbal Medicine
Americans are now spending billions of dollars per year for herbal capsules and tablets, bulk herbs, and herbal teas. Although the teas are consumed for their flavor, most of these products are probably used for supposed medicinal qualities. Sales by multilevel distributors and pharmacies amount to hundreds of millions more for products that are obviously intended for harmful self-medication.

Herbs are also marketed by naturopaths, acupuncturists, iridologists, chiropractors, and unlicensed herbalists, many of whom prescribe them for the entire gamut of health problems of every description. Many such practitioners are not qualified to make appropriate medical diagnoses or to determine how the products they prescribe compare to proven drugs, and are not licensed to do anything at all, for that matter.

Mesotherapy
Touted as a nonsurgical alternative to liposuction, mesotherapy involves the injecting of medications and plant extracts into the layers of fat and connective tissue under the skin.

The injected ingredients may include agents that are used to open blood vessels, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, enzymes, nutrients, antibiotics, herbal cures, and hormones. Mesotherapy is said to be used in conjunction with dietary modification, hormone replacement therapy, exercise and nutritional supplements. No drug is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in mesotherapy, and none will.

Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique
Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique (B.E.S.T.), came out during the mid-1970s by chiropractor MiltonTed Morter, Jr., of Rogers, Arkansas. It is claimed to be “a holistic program that coordinates and balances the workings of all the systems of the body.” Morter defines B.E.S.T. as “a nonforceful chiropractic technique for the 21st century that removed interference from the nervous system by the use of the hands.” Morter claims that such interferences occur when subtle pulses in different parts of the body are not synchronized.

Neuralyn
Between April 1997 and June 2000, Beverly and Thomas Vigil of Meridian, Idaho, touted a product called Neuralyn on the Internet and elsewhere as a highly effective treatment for spinal cord injuries and other ailments. The couple claimed that Neuralyn was an all-natural substance made up of B vitamins, amino acids, and extracts of plants from the Yucatan Peninsula region. According to Thomas Vigil, the idea for Neuralyn came from a dream.

In fact, the Vigils teamed up with pharmacist David Taylor and concocted Neuralyn using a number of homeopathic ingredients as well as a couple of topical anesthetics. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson, more than 100 people, most of them paraplegics or quadriplegics, paid up to $10,000 per person to come to clinics in Idaho, Utah and Colorado for Neuralyn treatment.

These people were told that Neuralyn treatments had been 85% to 95% successful, and that the product would enable spinal cord injury patients to move, stand on their own, or walk again by regrowing new nerve cells. The Vigils are now in custody facing charges.

Optometric Visual Training
This approach is based on an idea that learning can be improved by exercises that stimulate coordination of the eye muscles or improve hand-eye coordination. Its proponents assume that the basic problem that leads to reading disability is some deficit in the muscles of the visual system.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Ophthalmology have spoken out against this approach and cautioned that no eye-muscle defects can produce the learning disabilities associated with dyslexia. Dyslexia is actually a reading disorder characterized by omissions, faulty word substitutions, and impaired comprehension. It isn’t due to mental retardation, lack of schooling, or brain damage.

Thought Field Therapy
Abbreviated as TFT, its founder, psychologist Roger J. Callahan, Ph.D., claims that TFT “provides a code to nature’s healing system and addresses their fundamental causes, balancing the body’s energy system and allowing you to eliminate negative emotions within minutes and promote the body’s own healing ability.”

The Callahan Techniques site also recommends dietary supplementation for the persons who “suffer from multiple environmental sensitivities and even allergies which aggravate psychological problems.” During the TFT sessions, the therapist uses sequences of finger taps on “acupressure points” of the hands, face, and upper body. The patient at the same time does repetitive activities, such as repeats statements, counts, rolls the eyes, or hums a tune while visualizing a distressing situation.

Discover Alternative Therapies and Medicine

Date: December 20, 2009
Author: Penny Pettman
Categories: Advice
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Allternative health/medicine is a branch of healing methodologies used by various peoples the world over for the treatment of illness, pain management, and accompanying symptoms.  Alternative health practitioners believe in the close interrelation between body, mind, and spirit and the relationship between these that form the groundwork for holistic health.

Alternative healing is based predominantly on the “natural healing model” which emphasizes the use of natural herbs, foods, exercise, and energy healing or indigenous therapies to promote health. They are generally non-invasive and nature based and can include anything from aromatherapy, acupuncture, acupressure, magnetic therapy, yoga, meditation, and many other techniques used by civilizations for thousands of years.  Many modern cultures continue to use alternative treatment to complement modern medical treatment as these traditions are steeped in cultural traditions and/or because of the high cost of Westernized medicine and pharmaceuticals; and, because they work. In fact, Dr. Andrew Weil, a prominent American medical doctor, is popularizing a growing form of Western medicine called Integrated Medicine. This new way of thinking is a beautiful marriage between traditional and indigenous therapies, modern energy healing, and Western medicine.

Why is it called complementary and alternative medicine?

Thousands of years ago, these were the only known treatments prior to the discovery of penicillin, antibiotics, and all other modern medical treatments used in medical institutions today.  Alternative Medicine is the original medicine. However, the advent of modern medical treatments pushed aside the use of these types of therapies but they are now coming back due to the short-comings of modern medicine to provide healing in many circumstances (especially when dealing with chronic pain and illness) and the revolutionary discoveries in quantum science. These quantum studies are once again starting to validate indigenous and alternative therapies and, when used alone or in place of conventional treatments, they are known as complementary and alternative medicine.

What is holistic medicine?

Many of these alternative medicine treatments emphasize the interrelation of the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of health that are what make up whole person. These parts of the human condition when in harmony create a state of health in the individual. When one part of the system is thrown out of balance or “falls apart” then the other two are forced to overcompensate and over a period of time they too also fail or are deeply affected – hence the reason for using holistic health treatment. Holistically speaking, the part of the person that is in illness can be healed by building up or strengthening the other parts thus taking the pressure off the ill part and allowing the it to heal more effectively. For example, a stressed out and overworked body can be healed by alleviating mental or emotional stress thus letting the body function more readily and to rest more easily. As we know, a stressed mind leads to a stressed out body.

Alternative medical systems are built upon complete systems of theory and practice.  Most of these practices evolved way before the discovery of conventional medical approaches.  However, many alternative medical systems have been developed in Western cultures within the last century, including homeopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine.  Systems originating from the East and popularized as modern alternative treatments are traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine.

Mind-Body based therapies utilize various techniques aimed to enhance the mind’s capacity to stimulate natural healing, affect bodily functions, and alleviate symptoms.  Many, if not all of these, are rooted in healing practices that came from cultures existing thousands of years ago. Often, they were first used in Eastern cultures and have become mainstream. Practices such as the many forms of yoga now practiced all around the world are good examples of this. Other alternative therapies of this kind are meditation, Reiki, Pranic Healing, hypnosis, and emerging therapies that use creative media (art, dance, and music) such as art therapy, movement therapy and sound or music therapy.

Manipulative and Body-based techniques that are considered alternative therapies are Alexander Technique, Rolfing or Structural Integration, Cranial Sacral, and chiropractic. It’s important to recognize that chiropractic care just a few years ago was looked upon as dangerous and fringe medicine.  All types of massage from Thai to Swedish and everything in between also fall under this category.

Biological Based Therapies make use of substances naturally found in nature including herbs, foods, and vitamins and plant and animal matter.  The popular use of dietary supplements, vitamins, and herbal products, including other natural medicines fall into this category. Scientist are constantly proving that certainly foods, vitamins, minerals, etc. are useful in fighting disease such as the broccoli cancer connection or the wine heart attack connection. Often, indigenous food, mineral, vitamin therapies have a 50/50 track record in their effectiveness such as the debunked idea that shark fin can cure cancer or the successful re-discovery of anti-oxidant foods for alkalizing the body.

Energy Therapies intend to target the energy fields that are found all over the human body. These are often referred to as Chakras and the quantum scientist Candace Pert is using the Scientific Method to map and further understand these energy centers with us. These therapies aim at manipulating bio-electric fields or currents within the body through the application of pressure, manipulating the body, or even needles (as in acupuncture). It is thought that the body has a steady even flow of energy moving through it and when an illness occurs this flow is either decreased, diverted, reduced, or overly stimulated thus causing disease. Qi Gong, Thai-Chi, Therapeutic Touch, and Reiki are examples of this natural health therapy.