Archive for the ‘Alternative Medical Treatment’ Category

by Dana Ullman, NaturalNews

The government of Switzerland has a long history of neutrality, and therefore, reports from this government on controversial subjects need to be taken more seriously than other reports from countries that are more strongly influenced by present economic and political constituencies. Further, when one considers that two of the top five largest drug companies in the world have their headquarters in Switzerland, one might assume that this country would have a heavy interest in and bias toward conventional medicine, but such assumptions would be wrong.

In late 2011, the Swiss government’s report on homeopathic medicine represents the most comprehensive evaluation of homeopathic medicine ever written by a governmentand was just published in book form in English (Bornhoft and Matthiessen, 2011). This breakthrough report affirmed that homeopathic treatment is both effective and cost-effective and that homeopathic treatment should be reimbursed by Switzerland’s national health insurance program.

The Swiss government’s inquiry into homeopathy and complementary and alternative (CAM) treatments resulted from the high demand and widespread use of alternatives to conventional medicine in Switzerland, not only from consumers but from physicians as well. Approximately half of the Swiss population have used CAM treatments and value them. Further, about half of Swiss physicians consider CAM treatments to be effective. Perhaps most significantly, 85 percent of the Swiss population wants CAM therapies to be a part of their country’s health insurance program.

It is therefore not surprising that more than 50 percent of the Swiss population surveyed prefer a hospital that provides CAM treatments rather to one that is limited to conventional medical care.

Beginning in 1998, the government of Switzerland decided to broaden its national health insurance to include certain complementary and alternative medicines, including homeopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, anthroposophic medicine, and neural therapy. This reimbursement was provisional while the Swiss government commissioned an extensive study on these treatments to determine if they were effective and cost-effective. The provisional reimbursement for these alternative treatments ended in 2005, but as a result of this new study, the Swiss government’s health insurance program once again began to reimburse for homeopathy and select alternative treatments. In fact, as a result of a national referendum in which more than two-thirds of voters supported the inclusion of homeopathic and select alternative medicines in Switzerland’s national health care insurance program, the field of complementary and alternative medicine has become a part of this government’s constitution (Dacey, 2009; Rist, Schwabl, 2009).

The Swiss Government’s “Health Technology Assessment”

The Swiss government’s “Health Technology Assessment” on homeopathic medicine is much more comprehensive than any previous governmental report written on this subject to date. This report carefully and comprehensively review the body of evidence from randomized double-blind and placebo controlled clinical trials testing homeopathic medicines, plus they also evaluated the “real world effectiveness” as well as safety and cost-effectiveness. The report also conducted a highly-comprehensive review of the wide body of preclinical research (fundamental physio-chemical research, botanical studies, animal studies, and in vitro studies with human cells).

And still further, this report evaluated systematic reviews and meta-analyses, outcome studies, and epidemiological research. This wide review carefully evaluated the studies conducted, both in terms of quality of design and execution (called “internal validity”) and how appropriate each was for the way that homeopathy is commonly practiced (called “external validity”). The subject of external validity is of special importance because some scientists and physicians conduct research on homeopathy with little or no understanding of this type of medicine (some studies tested a homeopathic medicine that is rarely used for the condition tested, while others utilized medicines not commonly indicated for specific patients).

When such studies inevitably showed that the homeopathic medicine did not “work,” the real and accurate assessment must be that the studies were set up to disprove homeopathy… or simply, the study was an exploratory trial that sought to evaluate the results of a new treatment (exploratory trials of this nature are not meant to prove or disprove the system of homeopathy but only to evaluate that specific treatment for a person with a specific condition).

After assessing pre-clinical basic research and the high quality clinical studies, the Swiss report affirmed that homeopathic high-potencies seem to induce regulatory effects (e.g., balancing or normalizing effects) and specific changes in cells or living organisms. The report also reported that 20 of the 22 systematic reviews of clinical research testing homeopathic medicines detected at least a trend in favor of homeopathy.* (Bornhoft, Wolf, von Ammon, et al, 2006)

The Swiss report found a particularly strong body of evidence to support the homeopathic treatment of upper respiratory tract infections and respiratory allergies. The report cited 29 studies in “Upper Respiratory Tract Infections/AllergicReactions,” of which 24 studies found a positive result in favor of homeopathy. Further, six out of seven controlled studies that compared homeopathic treatment with conventional medical treatment showed that homeopathy to be more effective than conventional medical interventions (the one other trial found homeopathic treatment to be equivalent to conventional medical treatment). All of these results from homeopathic treatment came without the side effects common to conventional drug treatment. In evaluating only the randomized placebo controlled trials, 12 out of 16 studies showed a positive result in favor of homeopathy.

The authors of the Swiss government’s report acknowledge that a part of the overall review of research included one negative review of clinical research in homeopathy (Shang, et al, 2005). However, the authors noted that this review of research has been widely and harshly criticized by both advocates and non-advocates of homeopathy. The Swiss report noted that the Shang team did not even adhere to the QUORUM guidelines which are widely recognized standards for scientific reporting (Linde, Jonas, 2005). The Shang team initially evaluated 110 homeopathic clinical trials and then sought to compare them with a matching 110 conventional medical trials. Shang and his team determined that there were 22 “high quality” homeopathic studies but only nine “high quality” conventional medical studies. Rather than compare these high quality trials (which would have shown a positive result for homeopathy), the Shang team created criteria to ignore a majority of high quality homeopathic studies, thereby trumping up support for their original hypothesis and bias that homeopathic medicines may not be effective (Ludtke, Rutten, 2008).

The Swiss report also notes that David Sackett, M.D., the Canadian physician who is widely considered to be one of the leading pioneers in “evidence based medicine,” has expressed serious concern about those researchers and physicians who consider randomized and double-blind trials as the only means to determine whether a treatment is effective or not. To make this assertion, one would have to acknowledge that virtually all surgical procedures were “unscientific” or “unproven” because so few have undergone randomized double-blind trials.

For a treatment to be determined to be “effective” or “scientifically proven,” a much more comprehensive assessment of what works and doesn’t is required. Ultimately, the Swiss government’s report on homeopathy represents an evaluation of homeopathy that included an assessment of randomized double blind trials as well as other bodies of evidence, all of which together lead the report to determine that homeopathic medicines are indeed effective.

The next article will discuss further evidence provided in this report from the Swiss government on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of homeopathic care.

REFERENCES:

Bornhoft, Gudrun, and Matthiessen, Peter F. Homeopathy in Healthcare: Effectiveness, Appropriateness, Safety, Costs. Goslar, Germany: Springer, 2011.http://rd.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-20638-2/page/1(This book is presently available from the German office of the publisher, and it will become available via the American office as well as select booksellers in mid- to late-February, 2012.)(NOTE: When specific facts in the above article are provided but not referenced, this means that these facts were derived from this book.)

Bornhoft G, Wolf U, von Ammon K, Righetti M, Maxion-Bergemann S, Baumgartner S, Thurneysen AE, Matthiessen PF. Effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of homeopathy in general practice – summarized health technology assessment. Forschende Komplementarmedizin (2006);13 Suppl 2:19-29.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16883077

Dacey, Jessica. Therapy supporters roll up sleeves after vote. SwissInfo.ch, May 19, 2009.http://www.swissinfo.ch

Linde K, Jonas W. Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects? Lancet 36:2081-2082. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67878-6.http://download.thelancet.com

Ludtke R, Rutten ALB. The conclusions on the effectiveness of homeopathy highly depend on the set of analysed trials. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. October 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2008.06/015.http://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(08)00190-X/abstract

Rist L, Schwabl H: Komplementarmedizin im politischen Prozess. Schweizer Bevolkerungstimmt uber Verfassungsartikel ?Zukunft mit Komplementarmedizin? ab. Forsch Komplementmed 2009, doi 10.1159/000203073.
(Translation: Complementary medicine in the political process: The Swiss population votes on the Constitutional Article “The future with complementary medicine”
http://www.ayurveda-association.eu

*Although this Swiss government report was just published in book form in 2011, the report was finalized in 2006. In light of this date, the authors evaluated systematic reviews and meta-analyses on homeopathic research up until June 2003.

About the author:
America’s leading advocate for homeopathic medicine and author ofThe Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy(Foreword by Dr. Peter Fisher, Physician to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II). Learn more about homeopathy and Dana’s work athttp://www.Homeopathic.comor watch Dana’s videos athttp://naturalnews.tv/Browse.asp?memberid=6958

Dana has authored 9 other books, includingHomeopathy A-Z,Homeopathic Medicines for Children and Infants,Discovering Homeopathy, and (the best-selling)Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicines (with Stephen Cummings, MD).

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035499_homeopathic_medicine_Swiss_report.html#ixzz1rrOkOhV2

A major new study released today reveals the latest trends in travelling overseas for medical treatment, be it for health-related, dental, infertility, obesity or cosmetic treatment or surgery. More than 1,000 patients took part in the study, the largest of its kind in the UK and Europe.

Among the findings of the report commissioned by independent medical tourism advice site, Treatment Abroad, are new statistics showing where people are going, what they’re having done, how much they’re saving and whether they’d do it again or recommend it to others.

Key findings:

• · Belgium was the most popular destination for those in the UK travelling overseas for treatment (16%), followed by Hungary (16%), Poland (10%), Czech Republic (9%) and Turkey (9%).
• · 42% of the UK patients in the study went abroad for cosmetic surgery, 32% for dental treatment, 9% for obesity surgery, and 4% for both infertility treatment and orthopaedic surgery.
• · Hungary was the most popular destination for dental treatment (chosen by 38% of UK dental travellers) while Belgium was most popular for cosmetic surgery (18%). The most popular destinations for obesity surgery treatment were Belgium (50%) and the Czech Republic (21%). Spain, Cyprus and the Czech Republic lead the way in providing infertility treatment for UK couples.
• · Nine out of ten respondents would definitely or probably go abroad for treatment again and the same number would recommend going abroad for treatment to a friend or relative. 84% would go back to the same doctor, dentist or clinic.
• · 51% of respondents travelled to a country they had never been to before for their treatment.
• · Patient satisfaction levels for their treatment abroad were high with 85% either “very” or “quite” satisfied with their experience. Levels of satisfaction were highest for infertility and dental treatments. Asked for reasons for their satisfaction, all respondents cited professionalism of staff, price and quality of care.
• · Cost was cited by 83% of participants as the most important reason for travelling abroad for treatment. Dental patients also cited the ability to combine treatment with a holiday while cosmetic surgery patients cited worries about hospital infection in the UK. Orthopaedic, infertility and obesity surgery patients all cited the ability to avoid waiting lists at home.
• · 71% said they had saved more than £2,000 by travelling overseas. 12.7% said they had saved more than £10,000 by going abroad for treatment. The greatest savings were seen to have been for dental and orthopaedic treatment.
• · 82% of respondents said that clinic or hospital staff spoke their language “very” or “extremely” well. Only 4.4% said staff spoke their language “not at all well,” a regularly cited concern of those thinking of treatment overseas.
• · More than two thirds (67.2%) said they did not require further treatment or follow up on returning home. Seven out of ten were contacted by their overseas clinician or clinic upon their return home, usually by email.
• · The average in-patient stay among respondents was just three days with the average trip length being 16 days. The longest stay was for orthopaedic patients, the shortest for obesity patients.
• · Worryingly, fewer than one in ten of those who took part had bought special travel insurance designed for people going abroad for medical treatment, mistakenly relying on standard travel insurance that would not have covered them in the result of loss or accident. One in three had no travel insurance at all.

Commenting on the findings, Keith Pollard, Managing Director of Treatment Abroad said he was surprised by some of the figures:
“I’ve been involved in the cosmetic surgery and medical sector for many years and have witnessed the rapid growth in travel overseas for surgery and treatment. I was surprised to see, however, exactly how much money people were saving by travelling abroad, and how satisfied they were with the experience.

“So often overseas treatment is portrayed as being a poor alternative to what is available in the UK and yet it’s clear from this survey that that is simply not true. The vast majority of people who go overseas for treatment are delighted with the not only with the experience and the levels of care but also with the results, be it medical or cosmetic – and that, for most people, is the most important thing – that they get the results they want and need.”

by Christina Luisa, NaturalNews

In a review published in the December issue of the journalComplementary Therapies in Medicine, women receiving Chinese herbal medicine treatments weretwice as likely to get pregnant within a four-month periodthan those receiving conventional Western medical fertility drug treatment or IVF. The findings also suggested that the quality of the menstrual cycle – a key component in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) diagnosis — appears to be crucial to the successful treatment of female infertility. Infertility is generally defined as an inability to conceive after a year or more of regular sexual activity without using birth control.

There is a long recorded history of Chinese herbs being used in the treatment of infertility. In fact, records indicating herbal treatment ofinfertility and miscarriagedate back to 200 A.D., including mention of formulas that are still used for those same purposes today. The first book devoted solely to gynecology and obstetrics, “The Complete Book of Effective Prescriptions for Diseases of Women,” was published in 1237 A.D.

Alternative TCM treatments have become increasingly popular in Western countries as more and more couples find out firsthand howeffective and safethey are. It is with good reason that more than a quarter of the world’s population regularly uses Chinese medicine as part of their health care regimen and that TCM is the only form ofclassical medicinethat is regularly used outside of its country of origin.

Study methodology

The study examined abstracts in English of studies investigating infertility, menstrual health and TCM. Researchers then did meta-analyses of (non)randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or cohort studies and compared clinical pregnancy rates achieved with Chinese herbal medicine versus Western medicine drug treatment (IVF). In addition, they collected common TCM pattern diagnosis in infertility in relation to the quality of the menstrual cycle and associated symptoms. Eight RCTs, 13 cohort studies, three case series and six case studies involving a total of 1851 women with infertility were included in the systematic review.

Results

The results showed a 3.5 greater likelihood of achieving a pregnancy with Chinese herbal medicine therapy over a four-month period compared with Western medicine drug therapy alone. Average pregnancy rates were 60 ± 12.5% (60%) for Chinese herbal medicine compared with 32 ± 10% (32%) using Western medicine drug therapy. Meta-analysis of selected cohort studies showed a mean clinical pregnancy rate of 50 percent using TCM compared with 30 percent for IVF.

Why choose TCM over conventional fertility treatments?

While health is said to be the common goal of both TCM as well as conventional medicine, their ideas on the etiology of disease, disease in itself and the process used to recover and maintain wellness are decidedly different. The Western medicine physician learns that disease should be cured by prescribing medicine or using invasive and often dangerous surgical intervention. The physician trained in TCM, however, focuses on healing the patient not by treating the disease but rather bytreating the whole person, taking into account the various combined attributes of an individual that account for that individual’s state of health. According to the tenets of TCM, a person is much more than their pathology; treating the pathology may produce desired results, yet, they are usually temporary.

For female infertility, the key therapeutic factors in TCM are focused onre-establishing balance and reducing stresswhile regulating hormones and menstruation. TCM recognizes that many cases of infertility stem from a problem that may be more functional than structural. In contrast, Western medicine treatment techniques like IVF are not only invasive and expensive but are often stressful for the patients, and stress is not conducive to the achievement of a healthy pregnancy.

Fertility management has been extensively studied and well-developed in Chinese medicine. Doctors in modern China have reported up to a 70% success rate in treating both female and male infertility with herbs, and the results of large scale clinical trials are reported in Chinese medical journals. Hundreds of different herbs are used frequently in the treatment of infertility, often given in complex formulas comprised of multiple ingredients. Herbal medicine is often used in combination with acupuncture, massage, diet and lifestyle modifications for treating fertility. TCM fertility techniques are relatively non-invasive and can often offer a better success rate for significantly less cost.

Sources for this article include:

1.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22036524?dopt=Abstract

2.http://www.shen-nong.com

3.http://www.itmonline.org/arts/fertility.htm

4.http://www.livestrong.com/article/169613-chinese-herbs-infertility/

5.http://www.bubhub.com.au

6.http://www.altmd.com/Articles/TCM-for-Infertility

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/035436_Chinese_medicine_infertility_treatment.html#ixzz1rKn8W9SX

from study authors Dierdre McLaughlinChi-Wai and LuiJon Adams

The use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) among older adults is an emerging health issue, however little is known about older people’s experiences of using CAM and the cultural, geographical and other determinants of CAM use in this population. This study used qualitative methods to explore older women’s views of CAM and reasons for their use of CAM.

Participants for the project were drawn from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) 1921-1926 birth cohort. Women who responded positively to a question about CAM use in Survey 5 (2008) of the ALSWH were invited to participate in the study.

A total of 13 rural and 12 urban women aged between 83 and 88 years agreed to be interviewed.

Results: The women expressed a range of views on CAM which fell into three broad themes: “push”factors such as dissatisfaction with conventional health services, “pull”factors which emphasised the positive aspects of choice and self-care in health matters, and barriers to CAM use. Overall, the “push’factors did not play a major role in the decision to use CAM, rather this was driven by “pull”factors related to health care self-responsibility and being able to source positive information about types of CAM.

A number of barriers were identified such as access difficulties associated with increased age, limited mobility and restricted transport options, as well as financial constraints.

Conclusions: CAM use among older women was unlikely to be influenced by aspects of conventional health care (“push factors”), but rather was reflective of the personal beliefs of the women and members of their close social networks (“pull factors”). While it was also apparent that there were differences between the rural and urban women in their use of CAM, the reasons for this were mainly due to the difficulties inherent in accessing certain types of CAM in rural areas.

by Paul Armentano, NORML

Cannabis and its active constituents appear to be safe and modestly effective treatments in patients suffering from a variety of chronic pain conditions, including neuropathy (pain due to nerve damage), according to a literature review to be published in The Clinical Journal of Pain.

An investigator from New York University, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, conducted a PubMed search to survey the percentage of positive and negative published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing cannabinoids as treatments for pain. Of the 56 hits generated, 38 published RCTs met inclusion criteria. Of these, “71 percent (27) concluded that cannabinoids had empirically demonstrable and statistically significant pain relieving effects, whereas 29 percent (11) did not.”

Cannabinoids appeared to be most effective in treating hard-to-treat neuropathic pain conditions. “[F]or notoriously difficult to treat conditions such as HIV neuropathy, … cannabinergic pain medicines, particularly inhaled cannabinoid botanicals, are one of the only treatments that have been shown to be safe and effective with the highest levels of evidence,” the review states.

Five to ten percent of the US population is estimated to suffer from neuropathic pain at some point during their lives.

The study concludes, “Overall, based on the existing clinical trials database, cannabinergic pain medicines have been shown to be modestly effective and safe treatments in patients with a variety of chronic pain conditions. … Incorporating cannabinergic medicine topics into pain medicine education seems warranted and continuing clinical research and empiric treatment trials are appropriate.”

A separate paper, published in January in the Harm Reduction Journal, concluded: “Prescribing cannabis in place of opioids for neuropathic pain may reduce the morbidity and mortality rates associated with prescription pain medications and may be an effective harm reduction strategy.”

by Dr. Mercola

Did you know there are two types of vitamin D, and they are NOT interchangeable?

In fact, taking the wrong one could do you more harm than good…

Drisdol is a synthetic form of vitamin D2—made by irradiating fungus and plant matter—and is the form of vitamin D typically prescribed by doctors.

This is not the type produced by your body in response to sun or safe tanning bed exposure, which is vitaminD3.

A recent meta-analysis by the Cochrane Databaseⁱlooked at mortality rates for people who supplemented their diets with D2 versus those who did so with D3, the form naturally produced by your body, highlighting the significant differences between the two.

The analysis of 50 randomized controlled trials, which included a total of 94,000 participants, showed:

• A six percent relative risk reduction among those who used vitamin D3, but
• A two percent relative risk increase among those who used D2

According to the Vitamin D Councilⁱⁱ:

“You would think a paper that took a look at tens of thousands of subjects and analyzed the efficacy of prescription vitamin D (D2) and over-the-counter vitamin D (D3) would warrant a news story or two.

To my knowledge, these papers are the first to paint such a clear picture about the efficacy between D3 and D2.

While there may be explanations for D3′s superiority other than improved efficacy, for the time being, these papers send doctors a message: use D3, not D2.”

The Difference Between Supplemental Vitamin D2 and D3

The notion that vitamin D2 and D3 were equivalent was based on decades-old studies of rickets prevention in infants. Today, we know a lot more about vitamin D, and the featured study offers compelling support for the recommendation to take vitamin D3 if you need to take an oral supplement—which is the same type of D vitamin created in your body when you expose your skin to sunlight.

Supplemental vitamin D comes in two forms:

1. Ergocalciferol (vitamin D2)
2. Cholecalciferol (vitamin D3)

I personally recommend getting your vitamin D from safe sun exposure (or a safe tanning bed), as there’s compelling reason to believe the vitamin D created in your skin in response to sun exposure has some slight but important differences that make it even more beneficial than supplemental vitamin D3. I will address this more in just a moment, but first, let’s review the differences between the two types of supplemental vitamin D. Aside from the featured findings that supplemental vitamin D3 reduced the relative mortality risk by six percent, while D2 actually INCREASED mortality risk by two percent, the two types differ in the following ways:

• According to the latest research, D3 is approximately 87 percent more potentⁱⁱⁱ in raising and maintaining vitamin D concentrations and produces 2- to 3-fold greater storage of vitamin D than does D2.
• Regardless of which form you use, your body must convert it into a more active form, and vitamin D3 is converted 500 percent faster than vitamin D2.
• Vitamin D2 also has a shorter shelf life, and its metabolites bind poorly with proteins, further hampering its effectiveness.

What about Dietary Sources? Animal-Based versus Plant-Based Vitamin D

Aside from taking an oral vitamin D supplement, you can also obtain small amounts of vitamin D from your diet. Here too, it’s important to realize that not all food sources provide the same kind of vitamin D. Plant sources provide you with D2. The more beneficial D3 can only be had through animal-based sources such as:

• Fish, such as salmon, mackerel, tuna and sardines
• Egg yolk
• Raw milk

Dairy processors producing pasteurized milk have also been fortifying milk with vitamin D since 1933. Today, about 98 percent of the milk supply in the U.S. is fortified with approximately 400 International Units (IU) of vitamin D per quart. While dairies used to fortify their milk with vitamin D2, most have now switched over to D3. But, if you still drink pasteurized milk (which I don’t recommend), check the label to see which form of vitamin D has been added. (If you drink raw milk, then you’re getting the naturally-occurring vitamin D in the milk fat.) Keep in mind that although milk is fortified, other dairy products such as cheese and ice cream does typically not contain added vitamin D.

Vitamin D Can Make or Break Your Health, So Get the Right Kind!

There’s overwhelming evidence that vitamin D is a key player in your overall health. This is understandable when you consider that it is not “just” a vitamin; it’s actually a neuroregulatory steroidal hormone that influences nearly 3,000 different genes in your body. Receptors that respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell, from your brain to your bones.

Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections, as well as chronic inflammation. It produces over 200 antimicrobial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic. This is one of the explanations for why it can be so effective against colds and influenza.

Optimizing your vitamin D levels should be at the top of the list for virtually everyone, regardless of your age, sex, color, or health status, as vitamin D deficiency has been linked to an astonishingly diverse array of common chronic diseases, such as:

Cancer	Hypertension	Heart disease
Autism	Obesity	Rheumatoid arthritis
Diabetes 1 and 2	Multiple Sclerosis	Crohn’s disease
Cold & Flu	Inflammatory Bowel Disease	Tuberculosis
Septicemia	Signs of aging	Dementia
Eczema & Psoriasis	Insomnia	Hearing loss
Muscle pain	Cavities	Periodontal disease
Osteoporosis	Macular degeneration	Reduced C-section risk
Pre eclampsia	Seizures	Infertility
Asthma	Cystic fibrosis	Migraines
Depression	Alzheimer’s disease	Schizophrenia

The IDEAL Way to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels

While this article is focused on the two types of oral vitamin D supplementation, it’s important to realize that the IDEAL way to optimize your vitamin D levels is through appropriate sun or safe tanning bed exposure. While your skin does create vitamin D3 in response to sun light, which is theoretically the same as the D3 you get from an oral supplement, there’s cause to believe that the vitamin D created from sun exposure may have additional health benefits, and here’s why:

• When you expose your skin to the sun, your skin also synthesizes high amounts of cholesterol sulfate, which is very important for heart and cardiovascular health. In fact, according to research by Dr. Stephanie Seneff, high LDL and subsequent heart disease may in fact be a symptom of cholesterol sulfate deficiency. Sulfur deficiency also promotes obesity and related health problems like diabetes
• When exposed to sunshine, your skin also synthesizes vitamin D3 sulfate. This form of vitamin D is water soluble, unlike oral vitamin D3 supplements, which is unsulfated. The water-soluble form can travel freely in your bloodstream, whereas the unsulfated form needs LDL (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport. According to Dr. Stephanie Seneff, there’s reason to believe that many of the profound benefits of vitamin D are actually due to the vitamin D sulfate. As a result, she suspects that the oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D might not provide all of the same benefits, because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate
• You cannot overdose when getting your vitamin D from sun exposure, as your body has the ability to self-regulate and only make what it needs

So essentially, getting regular sun exposure has much greater health ramifications than “just” raising your vitamin D levels and preventing infections. Sun exposure also appears to play a role in heart and cardiovascular health, and much more!

If you cannot get your vitamin D requirements from sun exposure, I recommend using a safe tanning bed (one with electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, to avoid unnecessary exposure to EMF fields). Safe tanning beds also have less of the dangerous UVA than sunlight, while unsafe ones have more UVA than sunlight. If neither of these are feasible options, then you should take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. It will certainly be better than no vitamin D at all.

How Much Vitamin D Should You Take?

Some 40 leading vitamin D experts from around the world currently agree that there’s no specific dosage level at which “magic” happens; rather the most important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level (the level of vitamin D in your blood). So you really should be taking whatever dosage required to obtain a therapeutic level of vitamin D in your blood.

That said, based on the most recent research by GrassrootsHealth—an organization that has greatly contributed to the current knowledge on vitamin D through their D* Action Study—it appears as though most adults need about 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D a day in order to raise their serum levels above 40 ng/ml.⁴ For children, many experts agree they need about 35 IU’s of vitamin D per pound of body weight.

At the time GrassrootsHealth performed the studies that resulted in this dosage recommendation, the optimal serum level was believed to be between 40 to 60 ng/ml. Since then, the optimal vitamin D level has been raised to 50-70 ng/ml, and when treating cancer or heart disease, as high as 70-100 ng/ml, as illustrated in the chart above.

What this means is that even if you do not regularly monitor your vitamin D levels (which you should), your risk of overdosing is going to be fairly slim even if you take as much as 8,000 IU’s a day. However, the only way to determine your optimal dose is to get your blood tested regularly, and adjust your dosage to maintain that goldilocks’ zone.

For more information, including an in-depth explanation of everything you need to know before you get tested, please see Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency.

by Marsha Anderson, NaturalNews

Everyone knows that the circulatory system has a very famous, much loved central component called the heart. The heart works non-stop 24/7 for an entire lifetime circulating blood. The lymphatic system is a specialized component of the circulatory system that doesn’t have the advantage of a central pump. The flow inside the lymphatic vessels is unidirectional because of one-way valves that keep the lymph from traveling backwards but the circulation depends largely on movement.

The blood brings nutrition and oxygen to the cells and the lymph removes the waste, debris, and disease components such as viruses. The cells are bathed in lymphatic fluid. Fluid retention in the tissues suffocates the cells so that the nutrients can’t get in and garbage accumulates. There are four excellent and simple methods to get the lymphatic fluid moving and each one will help to get the nutrients in and the waste products out.

Deep breathing

Deep diaphragmatic breathing is possibly the best way of circulating the lymph. Breath in slowly and deeply pushing the belly out and then let the breath go slowly and completely. The dramatic pressure variance with the lung expansion and contraction moves the lymph and also helps to open the ducts to allow the lymph to reenter the bloodstream at the subclavian veins at the base of the neck. Deep, slow diaphragmatic breathing for 10 minutes a day will oxygenate the blood and also circulate the lymph.

Rebounding

A Rebounder, also known as a mini-trampoline, is a great way to exercise. A simple, gentle walk in place without even lifting the feet off of the trampoline will suffice to circulate the lymph. At the top of the bounce the body experiences a moment free of gravity and at that time all of the one-way valves in the lymphatic vessels open to allow the fluid to move upward. This can even be done without a rebounder just by bouncing on the toes.

Massage and movement

Lymphatic drainage is a technical skill taught by a therapist, however a gentle massage can be self administered with good effects. Lymphatic massage is gentle using very little pressure to move and stretch the skin to stimulate flow through the lymphatic capillaries that are located just under the skin. Massage the skin in the direction of the heart. Any kind of movement such as walking will circulate the lymph because of the muscle contractions. Even laughter works well to get the fluid in motion.

Castor oil

“No drug exists that has the ability to improve lymphatic flow; however, the job can easily be handled through the topical application of Castor oil,” said Dr David G. Williams. For lymphatic stimulation, a good place to put a Castor oil pack would be the lower abdomen and/or the liver. For a Castor oil pack use a cotton or wool flannel cloth folded in several layers and a good quality, cold-pressed oil. Saturate the cloth in oil and apply it to the skin. Put plastic over the pack to keep the oil from dripping, then wrap an old towel around the pack for more protection. A hot water bottle placed over the pack will increase the effectiveness of the treatment. It can be left in place as long as all night. Because of the antimicrobial properties of the oil. the same pack can be used over again many times before discarding.

Sources for this article include

The Golden Seven Plus Oneby C. Samuel West, D.N., N.D. January 1983, Samuel Publishing

http://webschoolsolutions.com/patts/systems/heart.htm

Dr David G Williams complementary Newsletter v6 n1, July 1995

http://netinc.net.my/health/b/010.htm

http://www.naturalnews.com/031199_rebounding_lymphatic_system.html

http://www.naturalnews.com/031159_rebounding_lymph_system.html

About the author:
Marsha Anderson practices organic gardening, plant based nutrition, and healthy living in sunny San Diego, California.

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/034649_lymphatic_fluid_rebounding_massage.html#ixzz1lxlgr6OT

by Dana Ullman, Huffington Post

The Swiss government has a long and widely-respected history of neutrality, and therefore, reports from this government on controversial subjects need to be taken more seriously than other reports from countries that are more strongly influenced by present economic and political constituencies. When one considers that two of the top five largest drug companies in the world have their headquarters in Switzerland, one might assume that this country would have a heavy interest in and bias toward conventional medicine, but such assumptions would be wrong.

In late 2011, the Swiss government’s report on homeopathic medicine represents the most comprehensive evaluation of homeopathic medicine ever written by a government and was just published in book form in English (Bornhoft and Matthiessen, 2011). This breakthrough report affirmed that homeopathic treatment is both effective and cost-effective and that homeopathic treatment should be reimbursed by Switzerland’s national health insurance program.

The Swiss government’s inquiry into homeopathy and complementary and alternative (CAM) treatments resulted from the high demand and widespread use of alternatives to conventional medicine in Switzerland, not only from consumers but from physicians as well. Approximately half of the Swiss population have used CAM treatments and value them. Further, about half of Swiss physicians consider CAM treatments to be effective. Perhaps most significantly, 85 percent of the Swiss population wants CAM therapies to be a part of their country’s health insurance program.

It is therefore not surprising that more than 50 percent of the Swiss population surveyed prefer a hospital that provides CAM treatments rather to one that is limited to conventional medical care.

Beginning in 1998, the government of Switzerland decided to broaden its national health insurance to include certain complementary and alternative medicines, including homeopathic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, anthroposophic medicine, and neural therapy. This reimbursement was provisional while the Swiss government commissioned an extensive study on these treatments to determine if they were effective and cost-effective. The provisional reimbursement for these alternative treatments ended in 2005, but as a result of this new study, the Swiss government’s health insurance program once again began to reimburse for homeopathy and select alternative treatments. In fact, as a result of a national referendum in which more than two-thirds of voters supported the inclusion of homeopathic and select alternative medicines in Switzerland’s national health care insurance program, the field of complementary and alternative medicine has become a part of this government’s constitution (Dacey, 2009; Rist, Schwabl, 2009).

Read the rest at this link.

by Aaron Turpen, FindDiscountInsurance

In brief: A growing trend is happening where uninsured and under-insured people in America turn to daily deals sites to get coupons for health care.

The full story

Groupon, one of the most popular of the daily deals sites, occasionally has coupons from medical clinics and dentists and says that they are often some of the most popular, selling out fast.

The deals usually offer 50% off to consumers who purchase it through the site and present the coupon to the provider.

Another similar site, LivingSocial, has seen trends that are much the same. A recent posting for a dentist in New York there received overwhelming response and sold out within hours.

The sites often feature everything from Botox injections to spa treatements to Lasik eye surgery, dental cleanings and exams, and even health checkups including one ad for a Department of Transportation health check for professional drivers.

It’s a growing trend that is helping some Americans who would otherwise not be able to afford coverage to get basic health care.

from BreastCancer.co

Breast cancer survival rates are higher now than they’ve ever been in the past, but health challenges including high rates of depression are still a problem. Researchers at the University of Missouri have been testing how meditation techniques can help with this.

The researchers in the Sinclair School of Nursing have found that breast cancer survivors’ health improves after they learn Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a type of mindfulness training that incorporates meditation, yoga, and physical awareness.

“MBSR is another tool to enhance the lives of breast cancer survivors,” SSN doctoral student Jane Armer says. “Patients often are given a variety of options to reduce stress, but they should choose what works for them according to their lifestyles and belief systems.”

The MBSR program includes eight to ten weeks of group sessions where the participants learn the MBSR skills. The study found that survivors who utilized MBSR had improved moods, more mindfulness, and less depression overall. It can be used for anyone in post-diagnosis, during or after surgery or treatment.