Ayurveda, India’s 4,000 year-old “science of life” is quietly but steadily moving out of the margins and toward the forefront of modern health care. Advocates say it has the potential to remedy much that has gone wrong in American medicine.
Essential oils of Sage, Lavender, Rosemary and a number of other aromatic medicinal plants contain compounds that have direct stimulatory effects on memory formation, while at the same time helping to reduce stress, a major contributor to memory loss.
In the US, most people use aromatic essential oils for relaxation and other forms of aromatherapy. In France, they have a long history of internal use for the prevention and treatment of common infections. Corinne Andrion-Israelsen, who trained in the French tradition, explores the history and clinical application of plant essential oils.
According to Marilyn Youngbird, a Native American healer from North Dakota, fear is the root of most illnesses. Fear, guilt and self-judgment induce chemical changes in the mind and body that result in sickness. She and other Native American medicine people believe that healing the soul pain underneath the physical symptoms is the key to long-lasting health.
Many medical clinics are drab, joyless environments. But they don’t have to be this way. Dr. Barry Sultanoff shows how the principles of Feng Shui, the Chinese art of environmental design, can be easily applied to health care settings, transforming them from sterile and depressing treatment rooms to energized healing spaces.
Tibetan medicine is one of the world’s oldest medical systems, providing insight into the ways consciousness and the physical body are inter-related. It has survived the tests of time, political upheaval, warfare and exile. Can it survive the American health care system?
Heart disease and diabetes were virtually unheard-of among Alaskan Eskimos, until the 1970s, when they abandoned their hunting and fishing lifestyle, and their marine diet. They began eating a lot of processed foods and saturated fats, and living in more sedentary ways. Thirty years later, these diseases are rampant. Dr. Sven Ebbeson is working with Eskimo communities to reverse these deadly trends.
The University of California, San Francisco recently sponsored the first ever collaboration between allopathic medical oncologists and a traditional Tibetan physician. Dr. Yeshi Dhonden, the Dalai Lama’s personal physician, was invited to participate in the treatment of women with advanced breast cancer, as part of an investigation of the efficacy of Tibetan herbal medicine for cancer.
Use of herbal medicine is widespread in Latin American communities, according to a study by researchers at the University of Texas. People from Hispanic cultures tend to favor herbs in tea and tincture form, rather than as pills or capsules. They are also more likely to use herbal plasters, baths and poultices than members of other ethnic groups.
UCSF’s landmark study of Tibetan herbal medicine in the treatment of breast cancer had its roots in one woman’s personal struggle with the disease. When UCSF cytogeneticist, Helene Smith, was diagnosed with breast cancer, she turned to the services of Yeshi Dhonden, a Tibetan Buddhist physician, and one of the major exponents of Tibetan medical traditions.
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