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Heal Disease Without Medication

FitSugar — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:00:00 -0700

Medicine is not always, well, the best medicine. Don't get me wrong, I am all for fixing what ails you, even if it takes a pill but medication can be pricey and have unpleasant side effects. The latest issue of the Harvard Health Letter takes a look at seven common conditions and gives insight on how to manage them without taking medication. Here are some tips that are useful for everyone:

Arthritis: There’s a good chance that losing weight will make arthritis less painful. Combine weight loss with exercise and you may have less pain and more mobility. Even for those who don’t need to lose weight, exercise that doesn’t put “load” on the joints reduces pain.
Cholesterol: Your LDL level may drop by 5% or so if you keep foods high in saturated fat off the menu. Additional soluble fiber may reduce LDL levels as well. So can margarines fortified with sterols.
Cognitive decline: Memory training and other “brain exercises” seem to help healthy older people stay sharp. But physical exercise may benefit the brain more than mental gymnastics.

There are more suggestions including remedies for depression and osteoporosis so

Got Cramps? Try Acupuncture

FitSugar — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:30:00 -0800

Menstrual cramps are no fun, but for some women, the pain can be so unbearable that it prevents them from going to work, or even getting out of bed. Instead of popping pain meds, new research from Germany shows that acupuncture treatments may be beneficial in helping to ease menstrual pain.

The study tested 201 women with dysmenorrhea, a condition that causes achy and throbbing cramps. The women were randomly assigned acupuncture treatments or no treatment. After three months, 63 percent of the women who received treatment (about 10 sessions) had at least a 33 percent improvement in their pain. This sounds like a pretty good treatment option, as long as you aren't freaked out by needles.

Source

Menstrual Cramps? Try Chinese Herbs

FitSugar — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:30:00 -0700

It is being reported that a new study suggests that Chinese herbs might be more effective in relieving menstrual cramps than drugs, acupuncture or heat compression. Not only did the research find that the herbs helped to relieve pain, but it was also found that they reduced the recurrence of the condition over three months.

The herbs said to work were Chinese angelica root (danggui), Szechuan lovage root (chuanxiong), red peony root (chishao), white peony root (baishao), Chinese motherwort (yimucao), fennel fruit (huixiang), nut-grass rhizome (xiangfu), liquorice root (gancao), and cinnamon bark (rougui). Interested? You can buy Chinese herbs online from HolisticChineseHerbs.com. I suggest meeting with an acupuncturist that has also studied Chinese herbs.

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Five Alternative Treatments That Work

FitSugar — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 17:15:00 -0700

It's hard to decipher all the hype about alternative medicine. How do we know what works and what doesn't?

Well, CNN got the lowdown from experts in the field on which alternative treatments actually work for what.

Here are highlights:

Acupuncture for pain: Hands, down, this was the No. 1 recommendation from our panel of experts. They also recommended acupuncture for other problems, including nausea after surgery and chemotherapy.
Calcium, magnesium, and vitamin B6 for PMS: When pre-menstrual syndrome rears its ugly head, gynecologist Dr. Tracy Gaudet encourages her patients to take these dietary supplements. "They can have a huge impact on moodiness, bloating, and on heavy periods," says Gaudet, who's the executive director of Duke Integrative Medicine at Duke University Medical School.

There are more so

What Type of Alternative Medicine are You Using Now?

FitSugar — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:00:00 -0700

SourceWestern medicine's pills and prescriptions can keep us healthy, but most of the time they just deal with the symptoms. Alternative medicine on the other hand, tries to get to the root of the problem, by working with the body's energy.Many people have found great success with healing therapies such as Acupuncture and Chiropractics. So I want to know...

Acupuncture Face Lift

FitSugar — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:30:00 -0700

What do Madonna, Cher and Gwyneth Paltrow all have in common? Well, according to eDiets these celebs are all fans of Acupuncture facial rejuvenation. Yep, it is alternative medicine meets cosmetic surgery.

Popular in the U.S. for the last twenty years, Chinese women have been using acupuncture to keep looking fresh and sensual since 960 AD. One element of the acupuncture philosophy is to restore balance and imbalances in the organs or muscles can create wrinkles on the face. So needles are placed where imbalances occur and needles are not just used on the face. If the spleen is out of whack needles will be inserted in the spleen area or meridian (energy line). Licensed acupuncturists know how to read the body, and ones specializing in "facial rejuvenation" will examine your body and identify the root cause of your wrinkles.

It is believed for the treatments to work, they need to occur on a weekly or bi weekly basis, for several weeks. A typical acupuncture visit can be anywhere from $50- $75. The side affects are generally improved energy (a bonus) and the risk factors are nil when compared to invasive, plastic surgery.

Sounds interesting to me. Would you be willing to give acupuncture facial rejuvenation a try? Tell me in the comments section below.

Source

Yoga for Fertility

FitSugar — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:30:00 -0700

I call it the conception conundrum. As women, it seems like we spend much of our adult lives trying NOT to get pregnant, and if we have trouble conceiving when we do decide to start a family, it feels like an evil cosmic joke. Getting pregnant when you finally decide you are ready to become a mom can be more complicated than just forgoing the birth control.

In these situations, there is the medical route, which can be very expensive, invasive and doesn’t always work. Since people think of these practices (like IVF) as the last resort, many want-to-be moms are turning to alternative practices to optimize their chances of getting prego, such as acupuncture and Fertility Yoga classes.

Is there scientific proof or research that these alternative therapies work? To find out

What is the Deal With: Biofeedback

FitSugar — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:30:00 -0700

Biofeedback might sound like a throwback to the 70's - like 8 track tapes, but it is making a comeback. Basically it is a method for harnessing the mind/body connection for all it is worth.

Considered a form of alternative or complementary medicine, Biofeedback teaches you to use your mind to control involuntary bodily responses to different types of stress. By monitoring brain activity, blood pressure, muscle tension and heart rate a biofeedback specialist will try to teach you to control your body's reactions. These methods have been proven to help a wide variety of medical conditions including: asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, hot flashes, headaches, irregular heartbeats (cardiac arrhythmias, high blood pressure and epilepsy.

Used as a form of treatment in physical therapy clinics, medical centers and hospitals, a typical biofeedback training session lasts 30 to 60 minutes. Electrical sensors are attached to different parts of your body to monitor your body's physiological response to stress. For instance, the therapist monitors your muscle contractions during a tension headache and then feeds the information back to you via auditory and visual cues. The cues may take a beeping sound or a flashing light. Teaching you to associate your body's response, in this case, pain, with certain physical actions, such as your muscles tensing. Once you recognize the pattern, you can start to break it or change it. The ultimate gaol is to be able to recognize the negative pattern on your own and then reproduce the positive changes without the help of technology.

While experts know biofeedback helps with certain conditions, they don't exactly know why it works. Yet it can reduce or even alleviate the need for certain medication, which can be great since bio-feedback doesn't have any negative side affects like some medications. If you are looking for a biofeedback therapist check out the website of Biofeedback Certification Institute of America for a certified biofeedback therapist near you.

If any of you have tried biofeedback, I would love to hear about your experience.

Bee Sting Treatment? Too Painful To Imagine

FitSugar — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:15:00 -0800

Yikes! No way would I ever have thought anyone would let a bee sting them on purpose. For Liu a Chinese man suffering from diabetes, it was either bee stings or amputation.

Liu went to Xizhihe hospital in Beijing, where bees were placed on his foot and provoked to sting him, in an effort to rejuvenate the blackened, rotting flesh by flooding it with a rush of protein-rich blood.

Apparently in China, doctors believe this 3,000 year old practice of using bee venom can repair damaged cells, stave off bacteria, and ease inflammation.

Doctors at Xizhihe believe they can even cure liver ailments, diabetes, and cancers. But they admit that they don't really understand how it works.

And it only costs about $2.50 per sting, so bee sting treatment offers a cheap (yet painful) alternative to mainstream medicine.

But does it work? Well, after several bee stings and a course of orally-taken bee venom, Liu's foot is healing.

And since health care is so expensive in this area, customers are heading to small, private clinics like Xizhihe, where relief may be as cheap as a few bee stings.

Healing With Homeopathy

FitSugar — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:12:48 -0800

Do you know what Cindy Crawford, Cher, Tina Turner, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Prince Charles, all have in common? They all use homeopathic remedies.

Homeopathy is an alternative medicine that concentrates on caring for the whole person with methods that are specific, gentle, and sympathetic to the body's needs. The word "homeopathy" is derived from 2 Greek words: homoios (like) and pathos (suffering).

Homeopathy's basic principal is that "like cures like." Meaning that what ever substance is causing the problematic symptoms can be taken in minute doses to cure the problem. Since the substances used in homeopathy are extremely small, there are no side effects, adverse reactions, or contraindications. You usually place tiny pills under the tongue, six times a day. Remedies to treat the external symptoms are treated in ointment form.

If you think of homeopathy like you do immunizations it is easier to understand. When you were a kid, you probably got a shot for measles - you were actually given a live, weakened strain of the measles virus. Your body learns to fight it off so if the virus ever shows up again, you'll be immune to it.

Want to hear about the 3 levels of Homeopathic Therapy? Then

Let's Get to the Point About Acupuncture

FitSugar — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 03:54:27 -0800

Acupuncture may be thousands of years old, but how it works remains a mystery to Western doctors. However, they do know that it does work for some ailments. Studies indicate that it may provide a number of medical benefits — from reducing pain to helping with chemotherapy-induced nausea.

A Mayo Clinic report states:

Because of the difficulty of conducting valid scientific studies of acupuncture — numerous past studies have been proved inadequate — it's hard to create a definitive list of the conditions for which acupuncture might be helpful. However, preliminary studies indicate that acupuncture may offer symptomatic relief for a variety of diseases and conditions, including low back pain, headaches, migraines and osteoarthritis. In a 2006 Mayo Clinic study, acupuncture significantly improved symptoms of fibromyalgia.

Having grown up with Western medicine, acupuncture seemed more than a bit "woo-woo" to me. But having seen several Pilates clients and friends benefit from regular acupuncture for treating pain, dealing with PMS issues, migraines and chemo side effects, makes me a believer. Check out Acupuncture.com to find a practitioner near you.

Reflexology

FitSugar — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:17:03 -0800

Everybody loves a good foot massage now and then, but did you know that some people believe it can heal certain diseases?

Reflexology, an alternative healing practice, looks a lot like massage from the outside, but the practice involves stimulating areas on the feet and hands that correspond to glands, organs, and other body parts. Stimulating these reflexes properly can have therapeutic effects. Check out this video.

Some western doctors feel that Reflexology is nothing more than stress-relieving massage and that there is no no scientific proof that Reflexology actually cures anything.

But in parts of Asia, Reflexology is a widespread practice. Cobblestone Special reflexology paths have been built in in parks, spas, condominium complexes and country clubs for people to walk barefoot on several times a day. The practice is known as stone stepping or cobblestone-mat walking and is supposed to provide health benefits.

While it is true that stress can lead to many health problems, a foot rub or hand massage that relieves tension also has got to do the body good. I am still not convinced it will heal all that ails you.