Therapies, natural

Hydrotherapy — water therapy — is the use of water to promote healing. It is one of the oldest, simplest, and most effective of all the natural therapies. Water treatments include taking natural spring water internally for its beneficial mineral content, and external treatments such as bathing, douches, and taking exercise in water (Thomas, 1997 and General References). 

Arabs discovered the herb and named it al-facl-facah, or father of all foods, which the Spanish changed to alfalfa. It is rich in nutrients and minerals, including calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, and zinc. A source of eight essential amino acids, alfalfa is used in China to treat fever, in India to treat ulcers, in Iraq and Turkey to treat arthritis, and in the U.S. in some natural therapies for cancer. It has also been employed for urinary infections, menopause, fatigue, and as an antibiotic and an antiasthmatic. 

Head, K.A., Natural therapies for ocular disorder, part two cataracts and glaucoma, Alternative Medicine Review A Journal of Clinical Therapeutic, 6, 141-166, 2001. 

Hydromorphone and its natural opioid relatives have been used to relieve pain, treat a variety of ailments, and create euphoric feelings at least as far back as the time of the ancient Greeks. In early Greek history, the priests controlled the use of opium and ascribed to it supernatural powers. In the fifth century bc, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, dismissed the supernatural attributes of opium. Hippocrates believed opium had cathartic, narcotic, hypnotic, and styptic properties. He believed that all diseases had a natural origin and could be cured by natural therapies. All of the natural opiates historically were derived from opium poppy plants. The liquid extracted from the poppy seeds was typically dried to create a concentrated powder. These extracts were then smoked, eaten, or drank. 

NATURAL THERAPIES THAT REDUCE STRESS AND KICK ACID... 

It is a curious assumption, and illogical that a complementary therapy could have sufficient pharmacological activity to improve health (however imprecisely that may be defined), and yet these properties are automatically insufficient to cause harm. Part of the problem is that adverse reactions to natural therapies are not reported in the same way as for orthodox drugs (Barnes et al., 1998). Reporting bias also tends toward the association of adverse effects with the condition being treated rather than from the harmless over-the-counter or herbal remedy that has been administered. The only complementary therapies that are safe in overdose are those that are homeopathic, with even these carrying the clinical hazard of under-treatment. 

Mayo Clinic. 2007. Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine The New Approach to Using the Best of Natural Therapies and Conventional Medicine. Parsippany,NJ Time Inc Home Entertainment. 

Part of the problem is that adverse reactions to natural therapies are not reported in the same way as for orthodox drugs (Barnes et al 1998). Reporting bias also tends towards the association of adverse effects with the condition being treated, rather than from the harmless over-the-counter or herbal remedy that has been administered. 

Hormone replacement therapy has a checkered history. At one time, the medical community was convinced that it reduced a woman s risk of heart disease after menopause, but the accumulated data don t bear this out. While there is evidence that the therapy increases bone strength and reduces the risk of osteoporosis, studies have also shown a link with breast cancer. These days, a significant number of women are looking instead to natural therapies, which they perceive to be safer. 

Gow, P.J., N.J. Connelly, R.L. Hfil, P. Crowley, and P.W. Angus. 2003. Fatal fulminant hepatic failure induced by a natural therapy containing kava. Med. J. Aust. 178(9) 442-443. 

In 1971, levamisole, an anthelmintic compound widely used in catde and swine, was shown to improve the effects of an experimental Brucella abortus vaccine in mice. Since that time, the veterinarians and physicians have explored the effects of levamisole in such diverse areas as arthritis, lupus erythematosis, cancer therapy, respiratory diseases, Newcastle disease, foot-and-mouth disease, mastitis, and vaccine potentiation. Although the exact mechanism of action has as yet not been deterrnined there is substantial evidence that, under defined circumstances, levamisole can augment the animal s natural immune response (9). New immunostimulants include Staph Ijysate acemannon, NLAB-31. 

Natural Sensitizing Dyes and Photodynamic Therapy. The chlorophylls are, of course, among the natural sensitizers for photosynthesis. Considerable iaterest exists ia chlorophyll and related pigments as photosensitizers ia biology and medicine (75), isomeric retinal chromophores as visual pigments (76,77), and the use of synthetic photosensitizers ia neurobiology (9), hematology (78), and photodynamic therapy (79). 

Riechmann, L., et al. Reshaping human antibodies for therapy. Nature 332 323-327, 1988. 

Porphyrins, modified natural chlorophylls, chlorins, phthalocyanins, xanthenes, phenothiazine, and phenoxazine dyes as new sensitizers for photodynamic therapy 98MI50, 98MI51, 98MI52, 98MI53. 

The reduced symmetry of the chromophore, which still contains 187t-electrons and is therefore an aromatic system, influences the electronic spectrum which shows a bathochromic shift and a higher molar extinction coefficient of the long-wavelength absorption bands compared to the porphyrin, so that the photophysical properties of the chlorins resulting from this structural alteration render them naturally suitable as pigments for photosynthesis and also make them of interest in medical applications, e.g. photodynamic tumor therapy (PDT).2... 

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