Holistic Medicine is defined by the Canadian Holistic Medical Association as follows.

Holistic medicine is a system of health care which fosters a cooperative relationship among all those involved, leading towards optimal attainment of the physical, mental emotional, social and spiritual aspects of health.

It emphasizes the need to look at the whole person, including analysis of physical, nutritional, environmental, emotional, social, and spiritual and lifestyle values. It encompasses all stated modalities of diagnosis and treatment including drugs and surgery if no safe alternative exists. Holistic medicine focuses on education and responsibility for personal efforts to achieve balance and well being.

Suzan Walter, President of the American Holistic Health Association (AHHA), put together an excellent summary of the principals of Holistic Health. The summary can be found on the AHHA Web page. For those unfamiliar with Holistic Medicine, I strongly encourage reading this short summary.

Other Terms Associated with Holistic Medicine

• Alternative Medicine is often used by the general public and some healthcare practitioners to refer to medical techniques which are not known or accepted by the majority “conventional” or “allopathic” medical practitioners (usually M.D.’s). Such techniques could include non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical techniques such as Medical Herbalism, Acupunture, Homeopathy, Reiki, and many others. However, the term Alternative Medicine can also refer to any experimental drug or non-drug technique that is not currently accepted by “conventional” medical practitioners. As non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical techniques become popular and accepted by large number of “conventional” practitioners, these techniques will no longer be considered Alternative Medicine.

Alternative Medicine refers to techniques that are not currently accepted by “conventional” practitioners, but what is currently accepted is quickly changing. Even the definition of “conventional practitioners” is quickly changing. Therefore, techniques that are now considered part of Alternative Medicine will soon be considered part of “conventional” medicine. The terms Holistic Healing and Holistic Medicine are slightly more stable than Alternative Medicine and are therefore preferable.

• Complementary Medicine is often used by “conventional” medical practitioners to refer to non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical techniques used as a complement to “conventional” medical treatments such as drugs and surgery. The term implies that “conventional” medicine is used as a primary tool and the non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical techniques are used as a supplement when needed.

In many cases, properly chosen non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical healing techniques plus properly chosen lifestyle changes can completely and safely heal both acute and chronic illnesses. In other cases, “conventional” medicine is only needed in emergencies or when the safer non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical methods fail. In some cases “conventional” medicine will be a major part of a Holistic Healing Plan, but in some cases it is not needed at all.

• Natural Healing usually refers to the use of non-invasive and non-pharmaceuticals techniques to help heal the patient. When most people use the term Natural Healing, they are usually referring to physical healing techniques only.

The American Journal of Medicine - “The Green Journal” - publishes original clinical research of interest to physicians in internal medicine, both in academia and community-based practice. The American Journal of Medicine is the official journal of The Association of Professors of Medicine, a prestigious group comprised of chairs of departments of internal medicine at more than 125 medical schools across the country. Each issue carries useful reviews as well as seminal articles of immediate interest to the practicing physician, including peer-reviewed, original scientific studies that have direct clinical significance, and position papers on health care issues, medical education, and public policy. The journal’s ISI factor - the international measure of cited manuscripts and scientific impact - is eleventh in the world among all general medical journals.

The AJM publishes studies performed by multi-center groups in the various disciplines of medicine, including clinical trials and cohort studies from large patient populations, specifically:

• Phase I, phase II, and phase III studies performed under the auspices of groups such as general clinical research centers, cooperative oncology groups, and the like.
• Reports of patients with common presentations or diseases, especially studies that delineate the natural history and therapy of important conditions.
• Reviews oriented to the practicing internist and diagnostic puzzles, complete with images from a variety of specialties.
• Careful physiological or pharmacological studies that explain normal function or the body’s response to disease.
• Analytic reviews such as meta-analyses and decision analyses that use a formal structure to summarize an important field.

Basic chemistry and how diet and slimming pills work

To learn how diet and slimming pills work, we need to begin with basic chemistry. There are two major categories: inhibitors, or suppressers of appetite, and non-inhibitors.

Diet pills work by biasing the basic body chemistry. First of all, like any other drug, they need to pass into the bloodstream to do their job. They get to the bloodstream either through the intestine or the lymph, lungs, veins or dermis. Diet pills should follow two basic conditions:

• The molecules in the pill must be very small to move into the stomach and intestinal lining.
• The molecules in the drug should stay untouched by stomach acid. If broken down, the medication does not work.

All diet pills contain different active ingredients. Diet pill information reveals that each of them works basically by chemistry. That means the human body is liable to certain internal reactions which are hard to control and regulate from outside, even by physicians. Diet pills have significant side effects. Thus medical approval is recommended. Basically, there are two types of diet pills available now:

Inhibitors

Pills influencing appetite by either suppressing or decreasing it. In this case, everything has to do not with obesity, but the brain, which coordinates what happens within the human body. These pills stimulate the central nervous system, increasing the heart rate and blood pressure. In this case, the eating drive usually ordered by the brain is modified.

Non-Inhibitors

Pills that reduce the amount of fat absorbed by the human body. They have a lot to do with digestion. Their mission is to inhibit pancreatic lipase, an enzyme. Enzymes speed up reactions by a factor of one thousand. Without enzymes, chemical reactions are slower. When they are absent, it is presumed that fat is eliminated through the intestine. Bowel movements occur too frequently and may become uncontrollable. Inhibitors take the edge off the appetite by tricking the brain into thinking that there is no hunger, whereas non-inhibitors do not allow for the absorption of fats.

• When diet pills are chosen for whatever reason, an eating regimen and a regular exercise plan are essential. A magic diet pill which works overnight have not yet been invented.
• Medical supervision is also required. Non-prescription diet pills are extremely dangerous.

Any natural ingredient that has a 4,000 year history of treating a wide variety of ailments is worth knowing more about. Green tea falls right into that category. In fact, Chinese people have been touting the benefits of green tea since the first Dynasty and earlier.

Although green tea has been a “folklore medicine” for all of that time, recent scientific research into the curing properties of green tea indicates that there is something there after all.

As early as 1994 an article published by the Journal of the National cancer Institute showed that a regular diet that included green tea could reduce the risks of esophageal cancer by as much as 60%. The study found that certain compounds found in green tea tended to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. As a side benefit, green tea was also shown to reduce total cholesterol levels and increase the ratio of HDL (good) cholesterol to LDL (bad) cholesterol.

The Chinese already knew that and they also believe that green tea is an effective remedy for rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, and certain immune deficiencies.

So, what’s in green tea that’s so good?

Apparently it’s the fact that green tea is high in an anti-oxidant known as “epigallocatechin gallate” , or EGCG for short.

Clinical tests show that EGCG not only inhibits the growth of new cancer cells, but it kills some existing cancer cells without harming normal cells. EGCG also reportedly inhibits the unnatural formation of blood clots which have been known to cause thrombosis, one of the leading causes of heart attacks and stroke.

Green tea and black tea both come from the Camellia sinensis plant yet only green tea has been found to have these medicinal properties. Researchers believe this is because green tea is manufactured using a process where the tea-producing plant’s leaves are steamed instead of being fermented like the other varieties. This steaming process leaves the EGCG compounds undamaged. The fermenting process, on the other hand, converts the EGCG into an inert substance which loses its medicinal properties.

The dark side of drinking green tea.

Well, the good news is that there isn’t any bad news other than the fact that green tea contains caffeine which may or may not be something that you want in your body. The caffeine count is substantially lower than coffee and other teas, however, and the benefits of drinking green tea seem to greatly outweigh the side effects of caffeine; at least for most people.

How much green tea is right for you?

That depends upon who you listen to. Some Chinese homeopathic health practitioners call for 10 cups a day, while some health researchers say that 2 to 3 cups will do the trick. When you look at all of the varying research, and take the average, 4 to 5 eight ounce cups of green tea per day should be good enough for most people.

If you don’t like drinking green tea, or find the process of brewing green tea to be more that you are willing to go through 4 to 5 times per day, there are companies who produce “Green Tea Capsules” which contain doses of EGCG.

It’s been said that anything that doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Since no one has found any instances of “death by green tea”, it certainly can’t do you any harm (and it just might do you some good), to introduce green tea into your life.

How do you actually reduce the levels of chronic stress in your body and enhance your lifespan, boost immune system function, protect your nervous system and your sanity, and give your endocrine system a much-needed rest?

Fortunately there are several easy ways to do this. Let’s start with the easiest one: laughter.Laughter is a healing activity. You may have seen the movie called “Patch Adams,” which is a movie about a real life doctor who still practices today and uses laughter as healing. He’s quite correct in using laughter as a healing therapy, because it is one of the most healing activities in which you can engage.

Laughter operates on at least three different levels. They are the biophysical, the biochemical, and the bioenergetic levels.

Laughter moves lymph and oxygenates your organs
At the biophysical level, laughter moves lymph fluid around your body simply by the convulsions you experience during the process of laughing; so it boosts immune system functionand helps clear out old, dead waste products from organs and tissues. Remember that your lymph system doesn’t have a separate pump; your body needs to move around to properly circulate lymph fluid so that your immune system can carry out its natural functions. Laughter is a great way to support that.

Secondly, laughter increases oxygenation of your body at both the cellular and organ level. By laughing, you intake vast amounts of oxygen in huge gulps, and you repeat this process in a sort of temporary hyperventilation session. This is the natural result of laughter, and if you watch someone laugh, you will notice these biophysical effects.

Now, why is oxygen so good for your body? Oxygen is one of the primary catalysts for biological energy in the human body. Remember, we breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, so oxygen is an element of intracellular energy that’s absolutely necessary to sustain human life.

It’s also interesting to note that cancer cells are destroyed in the presence of oxygen. In fact, many parasites and bacteria don’t survive well in the presence of oxygen, and to the extent that you can circulate extra oxygen throughout your body, you can help prevent, or in some cases treat, these diseases.

This is one reason why we see an increasing number of so-called “oxygen bars” in the United States and other countries. People enjoy going to these bars and breathing a much higher concentration of oxygen, because they say it gives them greater mental clarity. They like the feeling of this extra oxygen: it’s almost like that “natural high,” as they say. Now, personally, I’ve tried this myself and I didn’t notice any effect whatsoever. But it could be because my body is able to carry oxygen so efficiently in the blood that I’m already experiencing peak oxygenation and didn’t get any extra benefit from a higher concentration in the air I was inhaling. But, who knows? You might experience a benefit or I might have been at a lousy oxygen bar. But the point is, oxygen is good for you, and when you laugh, you get more oxygen into the cells of your body. If you can laugh at an oxygen bar, that’s even better!

Laughing also boosts circulation, so at the same time that you’re distributing oxygen around your body, you’re boosting the circulation of your blood; you’re exercising abdominal muscles; you’re exercising the muscles of your face; and you’re enhancing the flexibility of various joints throughout your body. So it’s a bit of physical exercise and healthful body movement as well.

The harder you laugh, the greater this effect. If you can find a way to put yourself into a state of rolling, outrageous laughter, you’re going to get a fantastic physical workout from it. In fact, the next day, you may even find your stomach muscles are sore. Have you ever laughed so hard that your stomach hurt and your facial muscles were exhausted? That’s some serious exercise, and it’s the kind of exercise in which we should all engage on a regular basis.

The chemistry of laughter
Now let’s look at the biochemical impact of laughter. When you laugh, there’s a lot more going on in your body than just the physical effect. You’re also experiencing a biochemical benefit.

Your body manufactures chemicals based on certain needs and then distributes them throughout your body. When you laugh, you generate a wealth of healing biochemicals. I’ve often stated that for every minute of laughter, you produce somewhere around $10,000 worth of healthy body chemistry, and what I mean is that if you had to go out and actually purchase these refined chemical compounds from labs or pharmaceutical companies, you would have to pay at least $10,000 for the very same chemistry that your brain is producing free of charge when you engage in laughter.

Some of these are brain-altering chemicals such as serotonin; others are immune-boosting chemicals such as interleukins. If you were to make a long list of all the chemicals created by engaging in healthy laughter, you would have quite a list of healthy body chemicals that would carry a hefty price tag if you purchased them retail. And yet, once again, you can create these chemicals for yourself at no cost by simply engaging in laughter.

You will find that these chemicals have extraordinary positive healing effects on your body and mind. They will boost immune system function; they will improve your outlook on life; they will tend to diminish any symptoms of depression; and because they help reduce stress, they will also prevent all of the various diseases and disorders that are caused by chronic stress.

Botanical Name : BOSWELLIA SERRATA Common Name: INDIAN OLIBANUM TREE, OLIBANUM, SHALLAKI

Boswellia serratta, of the botanical family Burseraceae, is the scientific name for a tree of moderate height which grows in the dry hilly areas of India. The therapeutic value of the dried resinous gum (guggul), derived from tapping the Boswellia tree, has been known since antiquity. Boswellia gum was first mentioned in the ancient Ayurvedic treatises Sushrita Samhita and the Charak Samhita. It is also known as “dhup” or Indian frankincense

USES:

Traditionally, Boswellia gum has been used for the treatment of diabetes, skin and blood diseases, fever, cardiovascular disorders, neurological disorders, rheumatism, dysentery, diseases of the testes, and myriad of other disorders.

Today its major use is as an anti-inflammatory agent for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, low back pain, myositis, fibrositis, and osteoarthritis. In one study conducted at the Government Medical College in Jammu, India, nearly 60 percent of arthritic patients tested experienced good to excellent results against stiffness and pain. Over three-quarters of the patients in the study were either bedridden or incapacitated from doing normal work. Within two to four weeks after starting on the B. serrata extract, they reported a lessening of morning joint stiffness, pain, and improved grip strength. In another study of 26 patients suffering from arthritic knees, dramatic improvement was experienced within four weeks.

Experimental and clinical usage of boswella indicates it has none of the side effects on blood pressure, heart rate of the gastric irritation and ulcers associated with many anti-inflammatory and antiarthritic drugs. It is now an approved herbal medicine in India for use against osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, soft tissue rheumatism, low back pain, myositis and fibrositis.

In the United States, physicians are giving boswella high marks for effectiveness. Dr. E. W. McDonagh, a Kansas City physician, has reported success among some 350 patients suffering from a variety of advanced muscular and skeletal conditions for which other treatments had failed to help. “Many were taking multiple prescription and non-prescription medication and had developed side effects from them,” McDonagh says. “Once taking boswella as prescribed, pain significantly reduced &shyp; or even vanished &shyp; in two to four weeks’ time. All patients were able to eliminate other medication or reduce the dosages significantly.”

Supplement Facts:

Serving size: 1 Vegicap
Servings per container: 60
Each 250 mg capsule contains: Boswellia Extract

Dosage: 1-2 Capsules two times a day after meal or or as directed by your health practitioner.

Morpheme Shallaki is the highest quality, most potent and most effective form of Boswellia Extract available in Vegetable capsules. Free from Colour, Yeast, Gluten, Wheat, Corn and Dairy Products. Global leader in scientifically validated herbal medicines