Philippine Medicinal Plants

By Zach Thompson

What is alternative medicine? This is a term used to describe the different forms of medicine other than conventional methods. Alternative medicine includes a wide variety of medical practices including non-European (non-Western) medical practices and will include some new approaches to medicine. There is also a term called complementary medicine. This is a combination of conventional medicine coupled with alternative medicine.

With increasing research and new findings in medicine there is a universal rise in the Western nations of alternative medicine. In the Eastern part of the world, namely the Orient, some forms of alternative medicine has been practiced for many centuries. Part of this trend in the West may be due to the growth of medical education among people and the increased amount of travel to different regions. More literature is now available on this subject and medical societies specializing in different forms of alternative medicine are available.

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By Jane Thurnell-Read

Wouldn’t it be good to have a safe, non-drug technique that you could use to minimise allergic reactions? Well, there is one. It was devised by Dr Jimmy Scott, the originator of health kinesiology, a complementary therapy.

It’s a simple way to turn off an allergic reaction by tapping acupuncture points. The sooner you start doing this after experiencing symptoms, the more effectively it works. One of the good things about this procedure is that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what the offending substance is.

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By Eric Cho

Magnetic therapy or magnotherapy is an alternative medicine that cures certain medical disorders by exposing the body to magnetic fields. Although mainstream medical science pooh-poohs the claims made by magnotherapy and have stamped it as a pseudoscience, ardent proponents say that magnet therapy works in a non-invasive way to cure many painful conditions, primarily back disorders, arthritis and joint aches. Magnetic fields from permanent magnets are said to speed up the healing process of the body and relieve pains.

As people started looking for more and more cost-effective and holistic healing practices, a simple yet effective technique was found to be practiced in Germany, Japan and Israel. The principle behind this therapy is fairly simple. The powerful magnetic fields of a magnet stimulate the magnetic fields in the human body thus improving circulation and promoting healing. This paves the way to general good health.

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By Michael Russell

In our western communities, statistics have been offered which account for one person in four dying of cancer and one in four of heart disease. If these figures are accurate, the other half of our population is left to account for all the kidney failures, contagious diseases, arthritis, respiratory problems and other innumerable diseases suffered by so many. To this, we must add the deaths from accidents and now the horrifying forecasts that another one in four of the total population is anticipated to suffer from mental diseases of various kinds. Statistics may present us with certain facts about our society, but it is the human side of the equation that affects us most potently.

To avoid becoming another statistic, we are forced to think about what present day medicine can do to help us. Or perhaps we should ask if modern methods themselves are part of the cause of our problems? In our medical system there is an enormous amount of drug medication. Surgical operations are so heavily in demand that patients have to wait their turn. Pathology is a roaring business and doctor’s waiting rooms are never empty. There is a great deal of activity, tests and treatments going on and no doubt much relief of pain but there seems to be little cure of serious illnesses. The wonderful treatments and surgical skills used in repairing damaged bodies after accidents and severe burns, deserves optimum appreciation in these special spheres of expertise, which are very successful. However, in spite of these and other areas of treatments offering temporary help, modern medicine cannot cure the most common diseases such as cancer, arthritis, asthma and heart disease that still plague us. ‘Cure’ in this case means that the condition is treated and gets better and better, until no further symptoms occur.

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By Michael Russell

If you’re familiar with the terms “pitta” and “vata”, then chances are you’ve been acquainted with one of the most ancient medical practices of Asia. Ayurveda (pronounced eye-your-VAY-da) has just began to break through mainstream Western medical consciousness as more and more people have began to look for drug-free and natural remedies to cure their ailments and spirits.

Ayurveda is the natural system of medicine that has been traditionally practiced in India for more than 5,000 years. It is a Sanskrit word that literally translated means “the science of life” and “science of longevity”. Ayurveda is the health care system that was slowly and steadily developed by traditional seers and natural scientists through centuries of meditation, observation, discussion and experiments. These Ayurvedic teachings were then orally passed on from teacher to student until the sixth century BC, where detailed Sanskrit texts were finally written. It is said that even the ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian,

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By Andrew Bicknell

If you suffer from cold sores regularly then you are familiar with the discomfort and painful blisters an outbreak brings. Finding a home remedy for your cold sores is of the utmost importance when you become aware that an outbreak is going. The signs of an outbreak usually begin with a tingling sensation on your lip. Then you begin to feel the small hard spot that accompanies the tingling and you know in a day or two you will have a painful, ugly, oozing blister on your lip for a good week or more.

A cold sore is normally caused by the herpes simplex 1 virus, although they can be caused by the herpes simplex 2 virus which is more commonly associated with genital herpes. You can get cold sores from someone infected with the virus who has an active blister. You can also get it by sharing eating utensils, towels, drinking glasses, or anything elsethat may have come in contact with an infected lesion.

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By Michael Russell

Historical evidence suggests that tea leaves boiled in water were consumed as far back as 5,000 years ago in India and China. These two countries were the earliest users of tea. Tea also plays a very important part in social rituals of Japan. In Asian countries tea has long played an important cultural role.

Tea is derived from leaves of a plant called Camellia sinensis. The plant is grown in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. There are three types of tea – Green, black and oolong. All of these are derived from Camellia sinensis, the difference lying in the way the leaves are processed. Green tea is prepared from leaves that are not fermented; oolong tea is prepared from partially fermented leaves, while black tea leaves are fully fermented. Green and oolong tea are mostly consumed in Asian countries like China, Japan, India and Thailand, while black tea is preferred in United States.

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By Eric Cho

Long before orthodox medicine took center stage in the health care practices around the world people who were sick used to visit different kind of doctors. These doctors were not the steth-wielding, tech-savvy, white-coated medical geniuses of today. Mostly, they were bearded, wizened and gnarled humans looking less like physicians and more like witches or wizards. But they were revered, loved and even feared because of one particular skill they possessed – the healing touch.

In the early days of civilization, a vast majority of people were cut off from ‘formal’ medical care. Competent physicians were a luxury, to be enjoyed only by the super-rich and royalty. For everyone else, there was the local witch-doctor who was respected for his or her in-depth knowledge of folk medicine. This was the man or woman who treated everything from boils to gangrene, from cesarean to malaria and even small pox.

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By Rita Kennon

At the turn of the twenty first century, an estimated forty two percent of Americans used herbal remedies, raw herbs or other types of nutritional supplements as a part of their self-care routine. There are many thousands of people who have found that the herbal remedies and supplements of yesterday are still working for them today. On the other hand, there are many people who still doubt the virtues of herbal remedies and alternative medicine.

The skepticism of herbal remedies is understandable because of the many companies today that use outdated, low quality, ineffective herbs. One has to search out reliable companies that operate under strict FDA guidelines to find herbs, and high quality herbal remedies that actually work.

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By Kathlene Capelle

While over-the-counter acne treatments and traditional prescription medications are effective for acne, there are other less traditional ways to treat acne. The following provides a broad overview of 7 complementary and alternative acne treatments.

1. Acupuncture. Acupuncture is part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and has been practised for several thousand years. In acupuncture, certain points on the body along the channels of energy (called meridian) are stimulated by the insertion of fine needles. Acupuncture apparently helps to restore health by removing blockages in the energy flow in your body. If you have a blockage in the energy flow, you get disease and illness. The use of acupuncture in the treatment of acne has not been scientifically evaluated. There are however, reports that two acupuncture procedures have reduced the symptoms of acne: auricular acupuncture (acupuncture applied to the ear) and electro-acupuncture (acupuncture using a mild electrical current).

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