Complementary medicine for dummies

by Jacqueline Young

Complementary

Medicine

FOR

DUMmIES‰

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01_026250 ffirs.qxp 6/8/07 6:46 PM Page i

by Jacqueline Young

Complementary

Medicine

FOR

DUMmIES‰

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Complementary Medicine For Dummies®

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About the Author

Jacqueline Young is uniquely qualified to write this book. She has worked in

both the fields of orthodox and complementary medicine internationally for

over 20 years, practising, studying, teaching, writing, researching, and serv￾ing on committees.

Jacqueline is a qualified clinical psychologist, oriental medical practitioner,

naturopath, and nutritionist. She is also trained in a whole host of comple￾mentary therapies including herbal medicine, homeopathy, flower remedies,

Tibetan medicine, Ayurveda, applied kinesiology, massage, shiatsu, iridology,

nature cure, sound therapy, and various types of bodywork and healing. In

between she qualified as a Sivananda yoga instructor and found time to

squeeze in a brown belt in karate!

On the academic front Jacqueline holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology

and a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and has completed postgradu￾ate education in nutrition, epidemiology, and clinical education. She’s done

her bit serving on professional committees involved in setting national stan￾dards for clinical psychology, acupuncture, and nutrition. She’s taught com￾plementary medicine to doctors, nurses, postgraduates, the general public,

and school children – and anyone else who’s interested.

Jacqueline has practised her skills in hospitals, clinics, and health centres in

several countries. She is an enthusiastic medical volunteer for Care & Share

International with whom she has had the privilege of running complementary

medicine clinics in a tent high in the Himalayas and in Bhopal, India.

She’s written several books on complementary medicine and often con￾tributes to national magazines, newspapers, radio, television, and Web sites

including BBC Health.

Jacqueline practises in central London, and is the Education Director for the

Revital Health Education Centre (www.revital.com). Outside work she is

still trying to master the art of growing really tasty vegetables that even her

son will eat!

She’s exercised her brain, and stretched the patience of friends and family

and her publishers, in writing this compendium and hopes you’ll find it

handy to have around and a useful guide on your healing path.

To contact the author (feedback, comments, and constructive suggestions

always welcome) write to: PO Box 2211, Barnet, Herts, EN5 4DZ, United

Kingdom, or e-mail [email protected].

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Dedication

This book is for all those people who are willing to have an open yet discern￾ing mind about complementary medicine. It is also dedicated, with thanks, to

all my complementary medicine teachers, patients, students, and colleagues.

Yes, we need to explore and research complementary therapies so that we

can be confident about their safety and effectiveness. Yet at the same time we

should not allow barriers to be erected that may obstruct new learning and

deny access to therapies that could provide a powerful healing force in our

world.

Author’s Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to my family and friends who have supported me in the

long time it took to write this book. Mum, Don, Mark and Ken, Issy and Jamie,

Tanya, Olesya and Tommy, Irina and Alina, Titi, John and Marjie, Fred and

Chris, Annie and Jake, Michael and Jasmine, Jarek and Suzie, Selina and Theo,

Nic, Kirsten and Emilie, Ikuyo, Connie, Drid and Jane Garton – you’ve all

played your part, even when you didn’t know it. My son, Michael, deserves a

special mention because he has endlessly had to spare me to the computer,

but we’ve had fun making up for it in other ways on other days too! So does

Alfonse – because he always makes me laugh!

I also acknowledge my precious ‘departed family’ – you live on in my heart

and are one of my motivations to work in the field of health and healing: My

irreplaceable best friend Mary, my dear friend Maria, and my inspirational

friend and godmother to my son, Penny Brohn. All were overcome, but not

beaten, by the cruel ravages of cancer, and Penny’s outstanding and pioneer￾ing work on the role of complementary medicine in cancer care lives on

(www.pennybrohncancercare.org). I also credit my much-loved father,

Alan Young, who introduced me to yoga and home grown veg, and my dear

grandparents, who loved a good cup of comfrey tea.

I’m also grateful to my ‘professional family’ – all the brilliant conventional,

unconventional, and/or integrated medical colleagues who have kindly con￾tributed to this book: Prof. David Peters, for kindly reviewing the entire text,

and the following people for making some time to read through individual

chapters, or to talk over points with me: Professor George Lewith MA, DM,

FRCP, MRCGP; Dr Julian Kenyon MD, MB, ChB; Dr Neil Slade PhD, LCH,

RSHom; Professor Laurie Hartmann PhD, DO; Deirdre Stubbs DO; Ulrik

Sandstrøm BSc, DC, ICSSD, FCC; Richard Blackwell BMedSci, LicAc, MSc

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(Acupuncture); Etsuko Kobira MIFA; and Anne McIntyre FNIMH. Also Dr Jovan

Djurovic DO for his chiropractic exercise, Mike Burrows for his eloquent

quote in the dedication, and Dr Rory Hafford MSc, PhD, Dip. Psych. for his

willingness to contribute. I was always pleasantly surprised when chapters

came back with virtually no red ink but take full responsibility that any

remaining errors or omissions are my own.

I owe a great debt to my ‘publishing family’ too: Alison Yates, Commissioning

Editor; Rachael Chilvers, Project Editor; and Mike Kelly, Developer at Wiley

have been patient and helpful throughout and contributed a great deal.

Thanks to Julia Lampam and Jamie McOuat (Publicity and Rights) for work￾ing their magic too.

And the last word goes to my good friend, Ted Katchuk OMD, Assistant

Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, USA, and also godfather to

my son, for one of my favourite quotes. When asked in a magazine interview,

‘What is the greatest danger to complementary and alternative medicine?’ he

swiftly replied, ‘Lack of humour’. I think he may be right. Hopefully some of

the anecdotes and cartoons in this book, in between the more serious stuff,

may put a bit of humour back in!

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Publisher’s Acknowledgements

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration

form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and

Media Development

Project Editor: Rachael Chilvers

Development Editor: Mike Kelly

Content Editor: Steve Edwards

Commissioning Editor: Alison Yates

Executive Editor: Jason Dunne

Executive Project Editor: Martin Tribe

Brand Reviewer: Jennifer Bingham

Copy Editor: Kate O’Leary

Proofreader: Lesley Green

Cover Photo: © GettyImages/ Digital Vision

Cartoons: Rich Tennant,

www.the5thwave.com

Production

Project Coordinator: Jennifer Theriot

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers,

Brooke Graczyk, Stephanie D. Jumper,

Melanee Prendergast, Christine Williams

Proofreaders: Todd Lothery, Susan Moritz

Indexer: Aptara

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director, Consumer Dummies

Kristin A. Cocks, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies

Michael Spring, Vice President and Publisher, Travel

Brice Gosnell, Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Contents at a Glance

Foreword....................................................................xxi

Introduction .................................................................1

Part I: Finding Out about Complementary Medicine ........7

Chapter 1: Understanding Complementary Medicine ...................................................9

Chapter 2: Diagnosing in Complementary Medicine ...................................................19

Chapter 3: Reading Your Body .......................................................................................31

Part II: Exploring Traditional Healing Systems..............39

Chapter 4: Uncovering Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) ....................................41

Chapter 5: Revealing Ayurveda’s Science of Life .........................................................55

Chapter 6: Balancing Health with Tibetan Medicine ..................................................71

Chapter 7: Exploring Japanese Medicine ......................................................................85

Chapter 8: Dipping Your Toes into Nature Cure.........................................................107

Part III: Using Popular Complementary Therapies .......121

Chapter 9: Getting to the Point of Acupuncture.........................................................123

Chapter 10: Homing In on Homeopathy ......................................................................143

Chapter 11: Unearthing Herbal Medicine....................................................................161

Chapter 12: Nibbling on Nutritional Therapy .............................................................177

Chapter 13: Diving into Naturopathy...........................................................................199

Part IV: Treating Your Body.......................................215

Chapter 14: Opening Up with Osteopathy ..................................................................217

Chapter 15: Getting to the Crunch with Chiropractic................................................237

Chapter 16: Moving with Bodywork Therapies..........................................................253

Chapter 17: Enjoying Massage Therapies ...................................................................267

Part V: Healing Your Mind and Spirit.........................283

Chapter 18: Calming Down with Breathing, Meditation,

and Relaxation Therapies ...........................................................................................285

Chapter 19: Scenting Out Aromatherapy ....................................................................297

Chapter 20: Connecting with Healing Therapies........................................................309

Chapter 21: Getting Your Head Around Psychological Therapies ...........................321

Chapter 22: Feeling the Buzz of Energy Medicine ......................................................337

Chapter 23: Having a Go with Creative Therapies .....................................................351

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Part VI: The Part of Tens ...........................................369

Chapter 24: Ten Complementary Medicine Tips for Healthy Living........................371

Chapter 25: Ten Superfoods for Great Health.............................................................377

Chapter 26: Ten Great Herbal Remedies .....................................................................383

Appendix: An A–Z Guide to

Complementary Therapies..........................................389

Index .......................................................................401

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Table of Contents

Foreword.....................................................................xxi

Introduction..................................................................1

About This Book...............................................................................................1

Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2

Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................3

How This Book Is Organised...........................................................................3

Part I: Finding Out about Complementary Medicine .........................3

Part II: Exploring Traditional Healing Systems...................................4

Part III: Using Popular Complementary Therapies ............................4

Part IV: Treating Your Body ..................................................................4

Part V: Healing Your Mind and Spirit ...................................................4

Part VI: The Part of Tens .......................................................................5

Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................5

Where to Go from Here....................................................................................6

Part I: Finding Out about Complementary Medicine .........7

Chapter 1: Understanding Complementary Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Finding Out about Complementary Medicine ............................................10

What do all the names mean?.............................................................10

What is complementary medicine?....................................................11

What’s the evidence? ...........................................................................12

All in the mind?.....................................................................................13

Going carefully but breaking down barriers .....................................13

Using Complementary Medicine..................................................................13

Things you need to check out: Safety and effectiveness ................14

What’s complementary medicine good for? .....................................15

Choosing the Right Complementary Therapy............................................16

Counting the Cost of Complementary Therapies ......................................17

Chapter 2: Diagnosing in Complementary Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Finding Out about Diagnosis in Complementary Medicine......................20

Questioning ...........................................................................................20

Observation ..........................................................................................22

Physical diagnosis................................................................................25

Clinical signs .........................................................................................26

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Complementary versus Orthodox Medical Diagnosis ..............................27

Taking the necessary precautions .....................................................28

Weighing up the evidence ...................................................................29

Chapter 3: Reading Your Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Finding Out about Self-Diagnosis .................................................................31

Exploring Tongue Diagnosis .........................................................................32

Reading signs of the tongue proper...................................................32

Observing tongue coatings .................................................................33

Organ correspondences ......................................................................33

Tongues in Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine ...................................35

Exploring Face Diagnosis ..............................................................................35

Checking out face shape......................................................................35

Investigating the eyes ..........................................................................35

Examining the nose ..............................................................................36

Observing the mouth...........................................................................36

Considering Other Forms of Self-Diagnosis ................................................36

Ayurvedic urinalysis ............................................................................36

Stool analysis ........................................................................................37

Taking the Necessary Precautions...............................................................37

Part II: Exploring Traditional Healing Systems...............39

Chapter 4: Uncovering Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) . . . . . . .41

A (Very) Brief History of TCM ......................................................................41

Understanding TCM Concepts of Health and Disease...............................42

Exploring yin and yang .......................................................................43

Understanding the power of qi...........................................................44

Traversing the meridians ....................................................................45

Exploring the Five Elements .........................................................................45

Taking the Five Elements quiz ............................................................47

Helping yourself: Five Elements self-care..........................................49

Diagnosing in TCM .........................................................................................51

Chapter 5: Revealing Ayurveda’s Science of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

A (Very) Brief History of Ayurvedic Medicine............................................56

Deciphering Disease in Ayurvedic Medicine..............................................57

Understanding Your Health the Ayurvedic Way ........................................59

Making Diagnoses in Ayurvedic Medicine ..................................................61

Restoring Balance with Ayurvedic Therapies............................................62

Ayurvedic medicines ...........................................................................64

The Panchakarma purification techniques.......................................65

Ayurvedic dietary therapy..................................................................66

Lifestyle modification (pathya) ..........................................................67

Exercise and massage therapy ...........................................................67

x Complementary Medicine For Dummies

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Meditation and other spiritual remedies ..........................................67

Deciding when to use Ayurvedic therapies ......................................68

Finding Out Whether Ayurvedic Medicine Works .....................................68

Finding a Practitioner of Ayurvedic Medicine............................................68

Chapter 6: Balancing Health with Tibetan Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

A (Very) Brief History of Tibetan Medicine ...............................................72

Grasping the idea behind Tibetan medicine.....................................73

Understanding Tibetan medical concepts of

health and disease............................................................................73

Determining Your Body Type According to Tibetan Medicine ................75

Taking the Tibetan medical humour quiz .........................................75

Determining your type.........................................................................77

Helping Yourself with Tibetan Medicine Self-Care Approaches...............78

Exploring Disease Types in Tibetan Medicine ...........................................79

Restoring Balance with Tibetan Medicine Therapies................................81

Examining the Evidence for Tibetan Medicine...........................................82

Finding a Tibetan Medicine Physician.........................................................82

Chapter 7: Exploring Japanese Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

A (Very) Brief History of Japanese Medicine..............................................85

Deciphering Disease in Japanese Medicine................................................87

Understanding Your Health – the Japanese Way .......................................88

Determining your type according to Japanese medicine................88

Adopting self-care for your type.........................................................89

Understanding Diagnosis in Japanese Medicine........................................91

Diagnosis by palpation (Setsu-shin) ..................................................91

Diagnosis by observation (Bo-shin) ..................................................92

Diagnosis by listening and smelling (Bun-shin) ...............................93

Diagnosis by questioning (Mon-shin)................................................93

Restoring Balance with Japanese Therapies..............................................94

Japanese acupuncture and moxibustion (warming therapy)........94

Kanpo (herbal medicine) ....................................................................97

Japanese massage techniques (including shiatsu and anma).......98

Ampuku (abdominal massage and therapy)...................................100

Japanese manipulation techniques..................................................101

Japanese hydrotherapy .....................................................................102

Japanese dietary therapy..................................................................103

Spiritual medicine ..............................................................................103

Deciding When to Use Japanese Therapies..............................................104

Exploring the Evidence for Japanese Medicine........................................104

Finding a Practitioner of Japanese Medicine............................................105

Chapter 8: Dipping Your Toes into Nature Cure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

What Is Nature Cure? ...................................................................................107

A (Very) Brief History of Nature Cure .......................................................108

xi Table of Contents

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Deciphering Disease in Nature Cure..........................................................110

Diagnosis in Nature Cure.............................................................................111

Restoring Health with Nature Cure............................................................112

Nature Cure dietary therapy.............................................................113

Finding out about fasting...................................................................114

Hydrotherapy: The wonders of water cure.....................................116

Electrotherapy ....................................................................................116

Heliotherapy: The healing power of the sun ..................................117

Air baths ..............................................................................................117

Other Nature Cure therapies ............................................................118

Finding Out if Nature Cure Works ..............................................................119

Deciding When to Use Nature Cure Therapies.........................................120

Finding a Practitioner of Nature Cure........................................................120

Part III: Using Popular Complementary Therapies........121

Chapter 9: Getting to the Point of Acupuncture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123

Finding Out about Acupuncture.................................................................124

A (very) brief history of acupuncture .............................................124

Acupuncture today.............................................................................125

Understanding How Acupuncture Works..................................................125

Exploring Different Types of Acupuncture ...............................................126

Discovering Whom and What Acupuncture Is Good For ........................129

Evidence that it works .......................................................................130

When not to use acupuncture ..........................................................130

What to Expect in a Typical Consultation.................................................131

Questioning .........................................................................................131

Diagnostic methods ...........................................................................132

Having acupuncture ..........................................................................132

Other types of treatment...................................................................134

Finding yourself at the end of the treatment ..................................135

Duration and frequency.....................................................................136

Knowing Whether Your Acupuncture Is Working ....................................136

Common Questions about Acupuncture Treatment ...............................136

Finding a good acupuncturist...........................................................138

Questioning your acupuncturist ......................................................139

Counting the cost of acupuncture....................................................139

Acupuncture safety tips ....................................................................140

Ensuring satisfaction .........................................................................140

Helping Yourself with Acupuncture...........................................................141

Chapter 10: Homing In on Homeopathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

Finding Out about Homeopathy.................................................................144

A (very) brief history of homeopathy .............................................144

Grasping the idea behind homeopathy ...........................................146

Homeopathy today.............................................................................150

Exploring Different Types of Homeopathy ...............................................150

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