The earliest known writings about herbal medicines date back to 2800 B.C. in China, and many people believe that electromedicine goes back to the time of Aristotle. But while many complementary or alternative modalities may not be new, these alternative measures are still not well understood by many Americans.
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Chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease have reached epidemic proportions, affecting half of Americans and costing $1.5 trillion annually. But a little-known and relatively inexpensive tool called a TLC program has been shown to be effective in preventing, managing, or even reversing, many of our most prevalent chronic conditions. So why don't more health professionals offer TLC? How TLC Programs Work
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Naturopaths are strongly in favour of regulation of their industry, a University of Queensland researcher has found. Naturopaths believed that regulation would lift the quality of practitioners, improve patient safety, promote research and allow for greater collaboration between complementary and conventional medicine, researcher Jon Wardle, a PhD student with the School of Population Health, said.
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The effective treatment of many forms of cancer continues to pose a major problem for medicine. Many tumours fail to respond to standard forms of chemotherapy or become resistant to the medication. Scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and Leibniz-Universität (LUH) in Hanover have now discovered a chemical mechanism with which a natural substance - argyrin - destroys tumours.
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With unprecedented levels of obesity across the Western world, and incidence of associated heart disease, cancer and diabetes rising, there is a major drive to find new treatments. Scientists from Germany have recently discovered that extracts of a traditional herbal remedy derived from Tabebuia impetiginosa can act to delay the absorption of dietary fat in animal models.
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Researchers at the University of Reading have found that an over-the-counter Artichoke Leaf Extract (ALE) from the globe artichoke plant can lower cholesterol in otherwise healthy individuals with moderately raised levels. Cardiovascular diseases are the chief causes of death in the UK, and are associated with raised circulating levels of total cholesterol in the plasma. Once plasma cholesterol reaches a certain level, drugs such as statins are often prescribed to help reduce it.
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Often, a gentle hand on your shoulder when you're upset is all it takes to ease your mind and calm your nerves. Now, UC researchers are looking at a similar occurrence by pairing a complementary therapy known as Healing Touch with mild sedation to see if the technique truly calms patients undergoing minor procedures. Healing Touch is a series of techniques that balance energy for wholeness within a person's body, mind and soul.
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Physician, author, speaker, researcher and consultant, Dr. Marty Rossman, creator of the Guided Imagery for Self-Healing Book and CD set and founder of The Healing Mind will appear on the July 9th Access to Health Experts teleseminar series. He will discuss his theory of guided imagery and share his long-standing interest in the practical importance of attitude, beliefs, emotions, and mind/body practices in medicine and health. According to Dr.
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Smokers wishing to quit would be wasting their money if they use complementary therapies such as hypnotherapy or acupuncture - smoking cessation experts claim today (Monday, June 30). This and other issues around the most effective ways to help smokers quit will be discussed at the UK National Smoking Cessation Conference in Birmingham on 30 June & 1 July 2008.
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A research team of scientists from Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands has succeeded in further unravelling and manipulating the glycosylation of proteins in plants. This is the result of the research soon to be published in the renowned scientific magazine The Plant Cell. The scientists expect that this knowledge will allow plants to be applied more often in the production of therapeutic proteins, an important type of medicine.
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