Understanding Alternative Medicine

Understanding Alternative Medicine: New Health Paths in America provides health professionals and educators with insight into the growing use and social acceptance of alternative medicines in the United States today. This book discusses the political, economic, and scientific implications of multicultural medicine in American society and provides you with specific information on the use of alternative medicines in the United States. With this complete and comprehensive guide, you will discover the safety and efficacy of alternative medicines, therapies, and philosophies to offer your patients the best possible care for their ailments. Intelligent and informative, Understanding Alternative Medicine examines several different philosophies that alternative treatments are based on, such as Shamanism, Ayurvedic Medicine, and traditional chinese medicine and discusses some of the negative consequences of these practices on both the plant and animal kingdoms. This essential book will provide you with a variety of medical suggestions to improve your patients' health while examining present issues surrounding alternative medicine, including: - realizing the environmental impact on endangered plants and animals used as ingredients in traditional and herbal medicines to help you understand the negative effects on the world while balancing the positive effects for the human population - understanding the economic growth and social acceptance of the alternative health industry and its move into mainstream society - examining why, according to some doctors'opinions, the United States Food and Drug Administration continues to be unsuccessful in its efforts to properly evaluate the safety and efficacy of alternative medicine Through this essential book,you will discover how American medicine has diversified among accepted medical practices as well as medical practitioners and that these trends are beginning to change American health care practices and procedures. Understanding Alternative Medicine offers proof on how these changes have influenced the growing availability, awareness, and use of traditional medicines in order to expand your options for patient care and help people live improved and healthier lives.

Lawrence Tyler, PhD, Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University, where he teaches courses in the Asian Studies Program. From 1986 to 1987, he was a visiting professor in the Language Department at Guangxi University, Nanning, in the Guangxi Autonomous Region in China. His book, The Blind Palmist, is a personal account of that experience. He has been a visiting exchange professor at Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan, and has traveled throughout East Asia. Dr. Tyler is the author of several articles and has given presentations on various topics internationally.

Contents Foreword Preface Chapter 1: Diversity in American Medicine Chapter 2: Philosophical Differences - Shamanism - Traditional Chinese Medicine - Ayurvedic Medicine - Herbs and The Ice Man Chapter 3: TCM Use and Endangered Species - The Trade in Bear Parts - Aphrodisiacs - Bear Parks and Farms - Ginseng: Poaching or Harvesting? Chapter 4: The Economic Growth and Social Acceptance of Alternative/ Herbal Medicines in the United States - Safety and Efficacy - Herbal Politics - Herbal Business - AMA and Alternatives - Alternative Insurance Chapter 5: "Like Two Wings of a Bird?" - Medicine, Authority, and Wealth - The RCT Standard and Recent Studies - Acupuncture and Placebo Effect Chapter 6: Placebos, Spontaneous Remissions, and Non-Specific Factors in Healing - Approaching Therapy - Approaching Pain - Four Features of Effective Therapy Chapter 7: Herbal Medicine: The German Example Bibliography Index Reference Notes Included