Health with Nature

We have to start with a slight problem of definition. The practice of massage varies significantly between different cultures. In some countries, it is not considered a part of medicine but serves a more social purpose, designed to improve mood and help people relax. In other countries, massage is fully integrated into the healthcare service as one of the many possible processes of physical therapy. In the US, massage would be considered a complementary or alternative medical treatment, i.e. it serves as a back-up to conventional medicine. Thus, when combined with other treatments, massage therapy helps to improve the mobility of joints, reduce swelling, ease muscle spasms and reduce pain. In accepting massage, the US medical profession is recognizing patients can get the best of both worlds: the healing powers of Western science and the more spiritual and relaxing powers of Eastern wellness. Massage is therefore increasingly made available to treat both physical conditions causing neck and back pain, nerve pain, etc., and also mental disorders such as anxiety, stress-related insomnia, etc.

In accepting massage in its hospitals, the US healthcare service is opening itself to the increasing body of scientific evidence showing massage as an effective treatment. Until a few years ago, the medical profession resisted holding clinical trials to test “alternative” remedies. Such studies as existed in other countries were treated with some contempt. continue reading…

Drugs are made in such a way that the patient feels they are useful, profitable and safe. When it comes to creation of a drug, we must say the process is very difficult. It takes years to produce a drug that would actually help and be effective. Most manufacturers want their medicine to cover all the investments therefore they need to be given a patent protection. This is what FDA usually requires. The patent protection grants you the promise of no other similar drug or the copy of this medication for several years as indicated in the agreement. This is a good possibility for the trademark to become famous and a nice chance of making the drug you created a one of a kind piece.

Most patent protected companies gains lots of money on their drugs being the monopolists. They stock the medicine they manufacture to the market and make a good advertising for it. Their drugs become famous but this happens due to the fact that they are the only providers there are. continue reading…

An increasing percentage of the older population are boomers. When they started off their lives back in the period just after the war, the average life expectancy was depressingly low. As they grew up, they watched their ageing relatives dropping around them. Never a year went by without a grandparent, great uncle or more recent family disappearing from view. Walking around the neighborhood and talking at school also produced a familiar story. Older men retired, seemed to shrivel up and were dead a few months later.

Men just died young. The last sixty years has seen a quiet revolution. It’s partly improved nutrition, better health care and a better, cleaner and safer environment. But it’s also a change in attitude. Back in the 1940′s and 50′s, men were the breadwinners. continue reading…

There is a common belied that yoga exercises help reducing weight and burning fat effectively. Of course, yoga is widely known for improving the overall health of the body, toning the muscles, joints, increasing flexibility, eliminating certain health problems, fighting stress and providing general relaxation. But how effective it is for losing excessive weight and can it replace such drugs as Phentermine?

The answer is not as simple as you may want it to be. There are many types of yoga available for practice, each having its own peculiarities and aiming at a certain result. And some types of yoga just don’t provide the necessary heartbeat increase in order to be used as a weight loss exercise. It also strongly depends on how frequently you are doing yoga exercises and which yoga type you are following.

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There is always a point where science collides with belief systems and sparks fly. Looking around the US right now, the continuing confrontation over the teaching of evolution is a classic example. At a slightly lower level of intensity is the continuing conflict between the “hard science” doctors and those who are persuaded that there are alternative approaches to treatment with equally good outcomes. Take acupuncture as an example. This comes out of nearly two thousand years of medical experience in China. Even though some of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) methods have been displaced in favor of Western methods, the healthcare service in many Asian and ASEAN countries continues to rely on acupuncture as an effective treatment for a range of different problems. Putting TCM to one side, there are also major claims made for different forms of meditation. Some are explicitly rooted in religions. Others are directly adapted to the management of pain. Unfortunately, the Enlightenment and the adoption of the scientific method by Western doctors leads them to a quick dismissal of everything not backed up by their science. Even when shown perfectly respectable research proving some of the claims for “unscientific” methods, they still refuse to even consider them. Their prejudices are deep-seated.

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