The Best Alternative Medecine

What are the most effective therapies in complementary and alternative medicine? How can they be used to prevent illness and enhance the quality of life? What is the scientific evidence of their safety and effectiveness? And finally, for which medical conditions do they work best? Faced with an overwhelming availability of treatments and an even more bewildering array of claims and counterclaims, every American health consumer and practitioner needs guidelines he or she can trust.

Based on an enormous body of research, including new research funded by the National Institutes of Health, The Best Alternative Medicine is the first book to provide authoritative, scientifically based answers to these questions. Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier, Director of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program at the Stanford University School of Medicine, rigorously evaluates the most common forms of alternative medicine and delivers research-based evidence about hundreds of individual treatments, organized both by therapeutic discipline and specific illness and disease. Easy to understand and free of jargon, The Best Alternative Medicine offers definitions, background, and examples of specific treatments from a multitude of therapies, including Mind/Body Medicine, European Herbs, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Spiritual Healing, Acupuncture, Dietary and Nutritional Supplements, and Ayurvedic -- East Indian -- Medicine.

Dr. Pelletier's assessment of a particular approach is threefold, beginning with "What Works," progressing to "What Does Not Work," and concluding with "What's in the Works," where he cites the most promising unpublished and ongoing research in that field.

For readers who wish to address a specific medical illness or condition, but have no idea what remedies they can rely on, The Best Alternative Medicine also includes a major section organized by condition, with bulleted points of brief, clear, researched information. Alphabetically arranged, this section provides recommendations for prevention and treatment, as well as references to further resources for everything from acne to ear infections, bronchitis to heart disease, and headaches to Parkinson's disease.

Now, more than ever, as alternative medicine moves to the forefront of medical advances, people need the facts to inform their health decisions. Whether you are interested in prevention or are considering treatment for yourself, your patients, or your family, The Best Alternative Medicine will help you make the best choices about complementary and alternative medicine based on the latest researched, essential information.

Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier is clinical professor of medicine, Department of Medicine, and a senior research scholar at the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also a vice president with Healthtrac, one of the largest providers of disease-management programs to corporations. Dr. Pelletier is director of the NIH-funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program at Stanford (CAMPS), and director of the Stanford Corporate Health Program, a collaborative effort between Stanford and twenty major corporations including AT&T, American Airlines, Merck, Blue Shield, Bank of America, IBM, Medstat, Levi-Strauss, Motorola, Rite Aid/PCS, United Behavioral Health, and Xerox.

Dr. Pelletier has served as president of the American Health Association since 1990; is a member of the Board of Directors with Health Net of Foundation Health Systems, which is the fourth-largest integrated health provider system in the United States; and, in 1997, was appointed a founding board member of the Foundation for Integrative Medicine. He is the author of more than 225 professional journal articles and seven books, which have been translated into fifteen languages, including the classic bestseller Mind as Healer, Mind as Slayer, first published in 1977 and revised in an updated edition in 1992. At sea, Dr. Pelletier is an avid open-ocean sailor. On land, he is an equestrian and lives on a farm in Alamo, California, with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two thoroughbred horses, Qolcha and Tir Nan Og.