Homeopathy

A unique, comprehensive compilation of information on homeopathic medicine This new book provides an introduction to classical homeopathic medicine. This includes an understanding of its unique view of health and disease, its place (current and ideal) within the health-care system and a taste of homeopathic clinical practice. This text has been written from the perspective that patient well-being is paramount and homeopathic medicine is an effective means of achieving that goal.

This "how-to" book outlines and explores the clinical method by which homeopathic prescriptions are chosen and their effects, appropriately assessed. It provides a broad foundation of understanding in homeopathy and clearly defines principles to apply when working through complex clinical decisions. Offers challenging insights into our understanding of disease and disease processes.

Homeopathy, as a medical system, presented a significant institutional and economic challenge to conventional medicine in the nineteenth century. Although contemporary critics portrayed homeopathic physicians as part of a sect whose treatment of disease was beyond the pale of acceptable medical practice, homeopathy was in many ways similar to established medicine. Anne Taylor Kirschmann explores the strategic choices and consequences for women practitioners. Not only were female homeopaths respected within their communities, they also enjoyed considerable professional advantages not available to women within regular medicine. A Vital Force: Women in American Homeopathy offers a new interpretation of women's roles in modern medicine. Kirschmann strengthens and clarifies the history of homeopathic women physicians and creates a framework of comparison to "regular, " or orthodox, physicians. Women medical practitioners chose homeopathy in dramatic numbers from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, although the reasons for this preference varied over time. Linked to social reform movements in the nineteenth century, anti-modernism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth, and countercultural ideals of the 1960s and 1970s, women's advocacy of homeopathy has been intertwined with broad social and cultural issues in American society.

From reflexology and rolfing to shiatsu and dream work, we are confronted today by a welter of alternative medical therapies. But as James Whorton shows in Nature Cures, the recent explosion in alternative medicine actually reflects two centuries of competition and conflict between mainstream medicine and numerous unorthodox systems. This is the first comprehensive history of alternative medicine in America, examining the major systems that have emerged from 1800 to the present. Writing with wit and with fairness to all sides, Whorton offers a fascinating look at alternative health systems such as homeopathy, water cures, Mesmerism, Christian Science, osteopathy, chiropractic, naturopathy, and acupuncture. He highlights the birth and growth of each system (including European roots where appropriate) and vividly describes both the theories and the therapies developed within each system, including such dubious practices as hour-long walks barefoot in snow or Samuel Thompson's "puking and steaming" regimen. In particular, Whorton illuminates the philosophy of "natural healing" that has been espoused by alternative practitioners throughout history and the distinctive interpretations of "nature cure" developed by the different systems. Though he doesn't hesitate to point out the failings of these systems, he also shows that some "cult medicines" have eventually won recognition from practitioners of mainstream medicine. Throughout, Whorton writes with a light touch and quotes from contemporary humorists such as Mark Twain. His book is an engaging and authoritative history that highlights the course of alternative medicine in the U.S., providing valuable background to the wide range of therapies available today.

Mosby's COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE is the only comprehensive book on complementary medicine set up in a true textbook format. It covers the history, philosophy, and mechanisms of complementary medicine and alternative therapies, and includes a thorough review of the clinically controlled trials, indications and contraindications of each therapy. It is the only research-based textbook to present a comprehensive, encyclopedic look at alternative medicine. All sections are complete within the discipline addressed and have been reviewed by experts in each particular field.

Takes on controversial issues like alternative treatment for cancer and research funded by pharmaceutical companiesExplores the historical roots of anti-vaccination movementsExamines the role of food in alternative medicine and the health food movement of the mid-20th century

"Standing on the shoulders of previous ethnographers of everyday life in different Mexicos, Napolitano sees yet farther into the interstices and intricacies of the quotidian, its social forms, and how it is experienced and expressed. Just as a glass prism refracts white light into a spectrum of gradated colors, so is this book a dazzling refraction of a wide spectrum of feelings, identities, and social forms in a neighborhood situated between tradition and modernity, between rural and urban, and between poverty and affluence."--Michael Kearney, author of "Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective

"The ethnographic result of Napolitano's work is splendid-it gives one the fascinating sensation of zooming back and forth between intimate real time conversations with the people of Polanco and a wide angle view of the city and the region through recent history."--Chris Kiefer, author of "Health Work with the Poor

"Throughout this theoretically adept ethnography, Valentina Napolitano explores the embodied experiences of women and men to highlight their humanity. Covering topics as diverse as Christian Base Communities and alternative medicine, migration, and growing up female in Guadalajara, "Migration, Mujercitas, and Medicine Men provides insights and analysis sure to provoke discussion in medical anthropology and Latin American studies."--Matthew C. Gutmann, author of "The Romance of Democracy: Compliant Defiance in Contemporary Mexico.

"By providing rich detail on an 'ordinary' rather than an 'exotic' community in suburban Guadalajara, Napolitano offers a telling analysis of the transformative impact of urbanization, internal and international migration,social movement mobilization, and Liberation Theology on the formation of women's identity at different life stages."--Judith Adler Hellman, author of "Mexican Lives

"Richly textured, enlivened, and analytically elegant, Napo

"Christopher Wanjek uses a take-no-prisoners approach in debunking the outrageous nonsense being heaped on a gullible public in the name of science and medicine. Wanjek writes with clarity, humor, and humanity, and simultaneously informs and entertains." -Dr. Michael Shermer, Publisher, Skeptic magazine; monthly columnist, Scientific American; author of Why People Believe Weird Things Prehistoric humans believed cedar ashes and incantations could cure a head injury. Ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the center of thought, the liver produced blood, and the brain cooled the body. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates was a big fan of bloodletting. Today, we are still plagued by countless medical myths and misconceptions. Bad Medicine sets the record straight by debunking widely held yet incorrect notions of how the body works, from cold cures to vaccination fears. Clear, accessible, and highly entertaining, Bad Medicine dispels such medical convictions as: You only use 100f your brain: CAT, PET, and MRI scans all prove that there are no inactive regions of the brain . . . not even during sleep. Sitting too close to the TV causes nearsightedness: Your mother was wrong. Most likely, an already nearsighted child sits close to see better. Eating junk food will make your face break out: Acne is caused by dead skin cells, hormones, and bacteria, not from a pizza with everything on it. If you don't dress warmly, you'll catch a cold: Cold viruses are the true and only cause of colds. Protect yourself and the ones you love from bad medicine-the brain you save may be your own.