Category: Health/Natural

Acupuncture, one of the oldest medical therapies in the world, is steadily gaining popularity in the United States. The November issue of "Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource" offers a fresh look at this ancient practice and how it is being incorporated into Western medicine.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, vital energy flows along specific pathways within the body, called meridians. The belief is that one way to unblock energy flow -- and promote the body’s ability to heal itself -- is to insert hair-thin needles to various depths at strategic points along this meridian. That process is called acupuncture.

A small, tantalizing new study shows that dark chocolate may help reduce hypertension.

The November issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter highlights a recent German study that found eating a small amount of dark chocolate every day reduces the top (systolic) blood pressure number by almost 3 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and the bottom (diastolic) blood pressure number by about 2 mm Hg.

A dash or two of herbs and spices might offer health benefits, according to the November issue of "Mayo Clinic Health Letter."

Studies are exploring the therapeutic benefits of many herbs and spices, for example, turmeric as an anti-inflammatory to help regulate the immune system, ginger to prevent or relieve postoperative nausea and garlic to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

A new Mayo Clinic study shows that massage therapy decreases pain levels for patients after heart surgery.

During a five-month period in 2005, 58 patients undergoing surgery participated in a pilot study to examine the effect of massage on pain after surgery. Of the 30 who received massage, the mean pain scores were less than 1 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 as the most painful.

University at Buffalo geologists are studying the surface characteristics of a broad range of naturally occurring antimicrobial clays, including some clays from France, to determine why they are such effective killers of bacteria, including MRSA.

What makes some clays such powerful antimicrobial agents capable of killing MRSA and other virulent bacteria? It's a question that University at Buffalo researchers have been studying for several years.

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UB professor Rossman Giese and colleagues
are studying the surface characteristics of
naturally occurring antimicrobial clays, some
of which have been shown to kill MRSA.

Vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplements can help complement a healthy diet and lifestyle, but consumers shouldn’t count on them to boost their immune response, says the new edition of a Harvard Medical School report, "The Truth About Your Immune System: What you need to know."

The immune system defends the body against invading microbes such as bacteria and viruses. Many supplement manufacturers claim their products “support” immunity. But so far, there is not enough scientific evidence to back up the claims. The reason, according Michael N. Starnbach, Ph.D., the Harvard Medical School expert who edited The Truth About Your Immune System, is that science has not yet determined what level of immune system cells will best help the body resist disease. While some proponents of vitamins and supplements claim that boosting the number of immune cells improves immunity, that link has yet to be established. The variety of immune cells is vast, and their interactions remain largely unknown.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered that the topical use of an extract from broccoli sprouts can protect you skin in ways that mere sunscreens can't.

A team of Johns Hopkins scientists reports in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that humans can be protected against the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation — the most abundant cancer-causing agent in our environment — by topical application of an extract of broccoli sprouts.

In some countries, physicians are well trained in alternative medical techniques, and are able to refer their patients to complementary practitioners. In the USA, however, this is very hit and miss.

Some physicians have a hard time in identifying alternative medicine treatments because they were not taught them at medical school. They must learn to rely on the text from various researchers who have made it their life work to study such things as the therapeutic alternative medicine treatments that come from herbs, and those that come from various massages.

This article provides an overview of Ayurvedic Medicine, one of the oldest medical systems in the world. Ayruveda principles are rooted in living in balance with nature and the earth.

Ayurveda is an ancient and holistic system of medicine, which originated in India more than five thousand years ago. The word Ayu means life (span) and Veda means knowledge i.e. knowledge of life or the science of life. One of the basic tenets of Ayurveda is that life is meant to be lived in balance and in harmony with nature. Illness happens when we move away from a life of balance to excesses or deficiencies of any kind, whether it is the way we eat, sleep, work, exercise, think or feel. Ayurveda believes that one has to live in harmony with the seasons, the time of day, the place you live etc.

Surprise! Surprise! Meditation is good for you and reduces stress! Film at eleven.

A team of researchers from China and the University of Oregon have developed an approach for neuroscientists to study how meditation might provide improvements in a person's attention and response to stress.

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Yi-Yuan Tang of China's Dalian University of Technology, left, and
Michael Posner of the University of Oregon are researching the
mechanisms behind meditation and well being.