Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM)

Evolutionary Philosophy of Healing

Summary of Types of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine), Understanding our Evolution from Nature for better Human Health.

Alternative Medicine owes a lot to Eastern Philosophy and their correct realisation of the interconnection of all things. Thus the body and mind are intimately interconnected, not only to one another but also to the cosmos and nature from which we evolved. This correct understanding of what we are as humans is central to understanding how we should live wisely to be healthy (Know Thyself Heal Thyself).

We hope you enjoy reading the following articles and think about your subtle connection to the cosmos from the scientific foundation of the Wave Structure of Matter!

Karene Howie & Geoff Haselhurst

Alternative Medicine / Evolution Articles

Brain Study Shows How Emotions Affect Immunity

Sad, fearful and angry thoughts can weaken the body's protective immune system and make it more vulnerable to disease, according to a brain scanner study published today.

Researchers have long known that a link exists between psychological states and immune response, notably between depression and vulnerability to a wide range of diseases. However, the mechanism behind this link is poorly understood. Now a direct connection between brain activity and immune function has been demonstrated in an experiment by a team at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A paper by the team in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today pinpoints one of the mechanisms underlying the link, revealing it to lie in the brain's prefrontal cortex. This region has long been associated with emotions, as well as planning and awareness. Dr Richard Davidson and colleagues asked 52 female subjects to recount either the best or worst times of their lives by thinking and then writing about these subjects. As the subjects wrote, the researchers measured physiological indicators of emotional reactions and used electroencephalograph recordings to measure electrical activity in the brain. Each participant was then given a flu shot, and flu antibody levels were measured at intervals in the six months afterwards. Those subjects who exhibited more intense negative emotions while recounting negative experiences produced a weaker response to the vaccine, suggesting they had impaired immunity. While earlier studies had linked emotional and physical health, as well as brain activity and emotion, Dr Davidson said none had established a direct link between brain activity and immune function.

Brain Study Shows How Emotions Affect Immunity
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/02/wmind02.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/09/02/ixworld.html
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor, The Telegraph, UK

Mental Health

Toxic Culture USA

A series of groundbreaking studies point to a growing toxicity in American culture. They may help to explain the skyrocketing use of legal and illegal psychoactive drugs, our growing problems with obesity and psychosomatic illness and the general sense of cynicism that is enveloping our culture.

A recent World Health Organization (WHO) study revealed that the incidence of schizophrenia has increased 45 percent in developing nations since 1985. By far the hardest hit have been women. A separate WHO study of 14 countries showed women have twice the rate of depression as men. In Santiago, Chile, the rate was five times as high for women. (Chinese women, a previous study found, had nine times the rate of neurosis and depressive neurosis as men, and 75 percent more schizophrenia.

The WHO findings reinforce what Myrna Weissman and colleagues reported in a 1992 JAMA report on depression. In most of the countries they studied, people born since 1950 are at a much higher risk for depression than those born earlier. What makes the WHO studies so remarkable, though, is that they focus on developing nations such as India and Egypt, whose populations have seen dramatic improvements in medicine and infrastructure.

This appears as puzzling, at first glance, as the Vega studies on Mexican immigrants. But closer scrutiny solves the mystery. The very changes that have brought improved health and infrastructure in these countries have also led to significant disruptions in cultural practices, social routines, and traditional roles in work and family. To paraphrase David Byrne, These people got what they wanted, but lost what they had.

When we look closely at patterns of mental disorders around the world, one thing becomes clear: rising wealth does not improve mental health. In fact, globalization seems to leave mental degradation in its wake. Canadian psychologist Bruce Alexander has come to the same conclusion.

"Because [our] western free-market society proves the model for globalization," he says, "mass addiction is being globalized, along with the English language, the Internet, and Mickey Mouse."

If the mental environment is so toxic, why aren't we all sick? For the same reason we're not all suffering from colds or the flu. People differ biologically and developmentally in their vulnerabilities - which may explain why, in the calculus of a society's mental health, the impact of toxic culture tends to get overlooked. Mental disorders are considered the problems of individuals. But let's be clear: the crisis in mental health that we face is a crisis of ecology and culture, not one of brains, biochemistry, and medicine.

The WHO predicts that depression will become one of the most common disabling disorders in the world by 2020, second only to heart disease (it has already reached the number one spot for women). Pretty soon, Mexicans and other immigrants won't have to come to North America to be exposed to toxic culture, USA. It will come to them. Culture is, after all, America's greatest export.

As discussed in Adbusters #36, this study shows the negative impact that the American way of life can have on one's psychological well being. Examining the prevalence of psychological disorders in Mexican-Americans, Vega and colleagues found that the longer Mexican immigrants lived in the US, the greater their likelihood of experiencing psychological problems. After 13 years, whatever cultural protection a Mexican heritage could offer had worn off, with Mexican immigrants approaching the same incidence of depression, anxiety, and drug problems as those in the US population generally. In some cases the effect was quite dramatic. The lifetime prevalence of any disorder was 18 percent for Mexican immigrants with less than 13 years in the US, 32 percent for those with more than 13 years, and 49 percent for Mexican-Americans born in the US. Also, Mexican men born in the US were five times as likely to experience a "major depressive episode" as were Mexican men who had recently immigrated. Similarly, for women, drug misuse was seven times greater for those Mexican women born in the US.

The Changing Rate of Major Depression

This is the most intensive study of the changing rates of depression ever conducted, looking at 39,000 people across nine epidemiological surveys. Myrna Weissman and the Cross-National Collaborative Group found that depression is being experienced more often in the US and elsewhere; depression is being experienced at younger ages; episodes are becoming more severe; and episodes are more frequent throughout individuals' lifetimes. The rate of depression has doubled in the US since WWII, with each generation showing greater rates of the depression than the last. Before 1905, about one percent of Americans experienced depression by age 75. By 1950, six percent experienced depression by age 24.

(The Cross-National Collaborative Group, JAMA, vol. 268, 1992)

Melancholy Nation

This article provides an example of how the popular press responds to the idea that depression is on the rise-by advocating that people take more, or stronger, drugs. In the discussion of "treatment-resistant depression," the article states: "All but lost in the clamor are some dispiriting facts: Prozac has not turned out to be a magic bullet against depression, and the problem is now worse than ever. In fact, many who study depression say that we are entering an 'Age of Melancholy,' where people are getting depressed at younger and younger ages, with episodes that are severe and frequent."

Melancholy Nation
http://www.usnews.com - Joannie M. Schrof & Stacey Schultz, US News and World Report, March 8, 1999

Good Websites on Alternative Health and Healing

Share the Wealth - http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/index.htm
A very good website on alternative health - we have been on their mailing list for over a year now - they have lots of good articles / latest research. From the site:
An individual who wants to be self sufficient in all aspects of life and help/educate others become self sufficient also. I especially like the comment . "That a person is only as valuable as they are of help to others". I really appreciate efforts by all who are able to take themselves away from commercial only aspects of life. Hence this site in alternative medicine and energy.

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