Breast Cancer: Beyond Convention: The World's Foremost Authorities on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Offer Advice on Healing - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743410114 ISBN 13: 9780743410113

Publisher: Atria, 2002

Synopsis

Some of the world's leading experts on complementary and alternative medicine explain how to incorporate these popular therapeutic options into traditional medicine to provide the best possible treatment for breast cancer, discussing such topics as the benefits of soy foods, nutritional supplements, the positive impact of spiritual practices, and more. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Mary Tagliaferri, M.D., L.Ac. (center), is one of the founders of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program at the University of California, San Francisco's Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center. She opened the first traditional Chinese medicine clinic at UCSF and has lectured extensively on alternative therapies for treating breast cancer. She is also a breast cancer survivor.

Reviews

More and more Americans, especially those with serious illnesses such as breast cancer, are turning to complementary and alternative medicine to supplement their Western treatments. This collection of essays edited by oncologist Tripathy and acupuncturist/herbalists Cohen and Tagliaferri (who herself is a breast cancer survivor) is intended to serve as a guide to the alternative therapies most often used by women with breast cancer. The book includes dense and sometimes meandering chapters on approaches such as Chinese Medicine, vitamin and mineral supplementation, meditation and prayer. The authors maintain that little research has been conducted on these therapies because of lack of funding and the difficulty in evaluating alternative medicine separately from conventional, but that data has become increasingly available. Although most of the chapters are largely based on research, others rely simply on seemingly improbable anecdotes (for example, one chapter describes a patient who recovered from inflammatory breast cancer after she began following a macrobiotic diet). Despite its inconsistencies, women with breast cancer looking for alternative therapies might find this book to be a good start in their own research.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

In the preface, Tagliaferri writes that this is the book she wished existed in 1996 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. A licensed acupuncturist, certified herbalist, and director of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic (Univ. of California, San Francisco), Tagliaferri joins forces with Debu Tripathy (Mt. Zion Breast Care Ctr.) and Isaac Cohen (American Acupuncture Ctr.) to create this empowering guide for breast cancer patients. In addition to the editors, who each authored a chapter, contributors to the book include such notables as health guru Dean Ornish and breast surgeon Susan Love. Of the book's 15 chapters, 13 cover the physiological, psychological, emotional, and spiritual aspects of dealing with breast cancer and speak directly to the cancer patient about integrating conventional medicine and complementary therapies. One chapter focuses specifically on a clinic in San Francisco for low-income women and would have been more appropriate for the resources section. A chapter on evaluating health information, on the other hand, is quite helpful. The book concludes with an extensive resources and notes section. Recommended for public libraries with women's health collections and hospital consumer health libraries. Valeria Long, Grand Valley State Univ. Lib. at the Van Andel Inst., Grand Rapids, MI
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743410114
• ISBN 13: 9780743410113
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496
• Editor: Tagliaferri Mary M.D. L.A.c