Dr. Kenneth Pelletier is the Director of the National Institute of Health's funded complementary and alternative medicine program, Stanford University School of Medicine. His most recent book is The Best Alternative Medicine. The NIH has been funding research on alternative medicine for a number of years. Dr. Pelletier has done an amazing job in examining the massive results of this clinical research and has presented his findings in a clear lucid style. This is the first book to provide authoritative, and scientifically based answers to the numerous questions about alternative medicine. He explores Mind/Body Medicine ( which includes hypnosis and hypnotherapy ), European Herbs, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Spiritual Healing, Acupuncture, Dietary and Nutritional Supplements, Ayurvedic--East Indian--Medicine.

      The framework of the book is interesting. It is threefold, "What Works", "What Does not Work", and concludes with, "What's in the Works". In this last section he cites the most promising unpublished and ongoing research in that field. The Best Alternative Medicine also has a section that is organized by condition, with short bulleted points of research information. This section is arranged alphabetically and provides recommendations for prevention and treatment, as well as numerous references to further resources for numerous illnesses.

      From the cover of TIME magazine to the innovative research funded by The National Institutes of Health, there is a virtual explosion of recent interest in complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine. Rather like any "overnight" phenomenon, this research and clinical practice has been in gestation for decades in the United States and hundreds of years in indigenous healing traditions in every nation on earth. (1)

      Complementary Alternative Medicine, CAM, is now the fastest- growlng sector of American health care. Despite continuing objections from the rear guard of the scientific establishment, many forward-looking doctors have begun to recognize the virtues of complementary medicine. As for the American consumer, millions are voting with their feet and their pocketbooks for treatments other than those conventional physicians are trained to provide. Alternative medicine is clearly moving into the mainstream, Moreover, what is happening in this country is happening around the world. In fact, some countries, most notably Germany and China, are far ahead of us in recognizing the validity of alternative therapies and are working to integrate then with conventional, Western Medicine. In the Uniter States, the National Institute of Health has created the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NCCAM to study complementary and alternative medicine. Also, a special presidential commission was established in 1999 to study this subject. Clearly, this movement is not a fad but rather a global sociocultural trend with deep historical and intellectual roots.

      In the United States the changes began in the 1960s with loss of blind faith in technology. Up to that time our culture was captivated by a technological dream, the belief that science and technology would do away with all human ills, including poverty, illiteracy, disease, and possibly, even death. Science and technology revolutionized medicine at the end of the nineteenth century, and throughout the first half of the twentieth century enabled us to make great strides in understanding human biology and intervening in cases of illness. Then in the 1960s came the realization that technology creates as many problems as it solves. (2)

      The Best Alternative Medicine challenges the polarized, dogmatic thinking that often surrounds the conflict between conventional medicine and CAM. Both of these medical traditions need to be evaluated objectively, using the best research available. Perhaps, surprisingly, many conventional medical practices lack any real scientific basis. A 1990 report from the United States Office of Technology Assessment of the United States Congress concluded that upwards of 80 percent of conventional medicine lacked an adequate basis in research. During 1991, Dr. Richard Smith, editor of the "British Medical Journal", examined twenty-one common medical practices and concluded that the evidence for seventeen out of twenty one was "poor to none" in an editorial commentary on the necessity of research-based medicine. (3)

      There are sixteen page references to hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

What Works:

* During 1989, Dr.Giuseppe de Benedttis of the University of Milan demonstrated that hypnosis has a positive effect on the relief of pain due to ischemic heart disease with those patients who had high hypnotic susceptibility.
* A 1991 study by Dr. Edward J, Weinstein and Dr. Philip K. Au found that hypnotized patients undergoing the painful procedure of angioplasty could keep the balloon used in this procedure inflated 25 percent longer than nonhypnotized patients, reducing the need for surgery.
* In fibromyalgia patients, eight sessions of hypnosis reduced muscle pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbances, according to Handerdos in 1991.
* A 1993 study using hypnosis for smoking cessation by Dr. David Spiegel, an expert on hypnosis at Stanford University School of Medicine, evidenced a 23 percent success rate in quitting smoking.
* More significantly, a study conducted in 1989, also by Dr. David Spiegel of Stanford, found that social support group(hypnosis) therapy doubled the survival time for women with metastatic breast cancer.

What Does not Work:

* A study by Dr. Marcia Greenfield in 1992 indicated that if only a single session of hypnotism was performed, it did not increase recovery rates in coronary bypass patients.
* Breast cancer patients enrolled in an eight-session course of hypnotism had less depression and produced more "natural killer" immune cells. However, results were not substantiated at a three month follow-up.

What's in the Works:

Here the book examines two areas of on-going research funded by NCCAM in 1997; one on cancer and the other on pain. (4)
This is highly informative book that clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the clinically tested alternatives. It is a handy tool to use in response to challenges!

Footnotes:
1. P.23
2. Ibid
3.P. 33
4. P.P. 70-71