Product Description

Drawing on solid scientific evidence as well as extensive first-hand experience, this manual provides the practical information you need to safely and effectively integrate complementary and alternative treatment modalities into your practice. It explains how alternative therapies can help you fight diseases that do not respond readily to traditional treatments... presents integrative treatments for a full range of diseases and conditions, including autism, stroke, chronic fatigue syndrome, and various forms of cancer...explores how to advise patients on health maintenance and wellness...and offers advice on topics such as meditation, diet, and exercises for back pain. 24 new chapters, a new organization, and new bonus PDA software make this landmark reference more useful than ever.

• Provides dosages and precautions to help you avoid potential complications.
• Delivers therapy-based pearls to enhance your patient care.
• Facilitates patient education with helpful handouts.

• Offers helpful icons that highlight the level and quality of evidence for each specific modality.
• Includes bonus PDA software that lets you load all of the therapeutic review sections onto your handheld device.
• Presents a new organization, with numerous section headings and subheadings, for greater ease of reference.
• Provides additional clinical practice and business considerations for incorporating integrative medicine into clinical practice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99969 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1264 pages

Review
FROM THE FOREWORD BY ANDREW WEIL, MD

"Not only is this book an important contribution to clinical practice, it points the way to the future."

From the Publisher
A discussion of the philosophy of integrative medicine is followed by sections that specifically define the pharmaceutical treatments as well as the nutritional, mind-body, supplemental, and botanical treatments for common disease states. An emphasis on disease prevention helps the reader direct patients toward health maintenance and wellness. An invaluable Tools for Your Practice section offers advice on topics such as Exercises for Back Pain, Recommending Meditation, and The Elimination Diet.

About the Author
David Rakel, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine; Medical Director, Integrative Medicine Program, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, WI

Customer Reviews

Good Template
This book is very well constructed, but there is a lot of information that could be added to make it an excellent text. I gave it four stars as i believe it is a great template for integrative medicine, but a wealth of information could be added. The chapters have great overviews of disease pathology with various treatment options from conventional to integrative. However, as a student naturopathic medicine, many holes are left to be filled. It is a good supplement to my other texts, but for those interested in integrative medicine, please realize that this is not the "bible" when it comes to integrative treatment options.

Hope the next edition discusses raspberry leaf for N/V in pregnancy
I was eager to see a book on this topic. However, each of the sections that I have read -- admittedly only a couple sections, a small fraction of the book -- seemed to be lacking critical information. I hope that the book represents a wonderful start and future editions will be more comprehensive.

Here is an example:
I was disappointed that the section on nausea/vomiting during pregnancy seemed skimpy. The safety of medical treatments during pregnancy is obviously critical, and of great concern to patients. At the same time, hyperemesis takes a terrible toll on the quality of life. Many women consider the nausea of pregnancy to be far worse than the pain of childbirth. It would be nice to flesh this section out more, addressing folk remedies already in use.

Red raspberry leaf has been heavily hyped and marketed for more than a decade, both for "morning sickness" and enhancing labor. However. literature searches don't turn up much data on its use for morning sickness. If data are absent, I wish the author would simply state that. It's hard to understand why the author would fail to acknowledge a frequently used, widely advertised product that is intended for use when a fetus is most vulnerable.

I also wish there were more information on the safety of chamomile and peppermint, which some studies have questioned.

Best Textbook in Integrative Medicine and Complementary/Alternative Medicine
This is one of my favorite books. It is an evidence based textbook that provides useful and easy to acess information regarding both conventional and alternative medical treatments. There are also handouts that are great for patients to read.