The News Review:
- Iraq returns to its alternative medicine roots
- Natural approach to infertility treatments gains acceptance
- Take Back Your Health With Bernard Rabinowicz
- Massage therapist brings healing touch to Ashland
- Does chelation therapy work for MS?
Iraq returns to its alternative medicine roots
USA Today
Insurgents and weapons poured in from neighboring countries. So, too, did illegal pharmaceuticals, says Sayed Kathem Khawasiya, the Ministry of Health’s inspector general. Unlicensed medicine companies and sidewalk stands sprung up around Iraq, selling unregulated drugs from China and elsewhere. Today, 70% of drugs on the Iraqi market are illegal, and one in five are total fakes, such as starch pills pawned off as legitimate antibiotics, Khawasiya says. “The demand for herbal remedies has skyrocketed because of fake pharmacies and counterfeit medicines that don’t work,” says Faris Kadhem, director of the Health Ministry’s herbal medicine center. The government has raided and closed 120 illegal pharmacies across Iraq in the past two months, Khawasiya says. Many more continue to operate, she says.
Natural approach to infertility treatments gains acceptance
Salt Lake Tribune, United States
Patients are told it may take 24 months to get pregnant, compared with IVF, which may work in months. NPT also won’t work for men who have very low sperm count and women who can’t ovulate or have blocked fallopian tubes that can’t be repaired. A study by Stanford, published in the September-October issue of The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, found that 26 percent of couples who used NPT in a clinic in Ireland between 1998 and 2002 had a baby after two years. Excluding the couples who stopped treatment midstream, the success rate jumped to 53 percent. By comparison, 25 percent of IVF cycles (using unfrozen, nondonor eggs) resulted in a birth in 2000. Five years later, the rate was 28 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But infertility doctors say it’s not accurate to compare two years of trying to one cycle of IVF.
Related from Murtoughsupply: Northwest Natural Gas Company Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript
Take Back Your Health With Bernard Rabinowicz
Five Towns Jewish Times Online, NY
As part of his training in family medicine, Mr. Rabinowicz did a clinical rotation with a physician who was voted as one of New York’s Best Doctors. “I have a long relationship with this physician, and I used this opportunity to show him much of the research that has been done in ‘alternative medicine. ‘”
As a health practitioner, Bernard Rabinowicz enjoys educating people about health care choices that do not involve drugs or surgery. Rabinowicz recalled reading a recent advertisement from a pharmaceutical company for a “great new drug.
Massage therapist brings healing touch to Ashland
Wahoo Newspaper, NE
She was fascinated with the skeleton and posters of muscles that adorned her uncles’ offices. “I was always very curious about human anatomy and how the body worked,” said Lowitz-Colson after an appointment recently. Even with a background in alternative medicine, Lowitz-Colson did not immediately study massage therapy after high school. She attended art school on a year, intent on becoming a teacher. But as she studied art, the thought of being a massage therapist kept coming back to her. She did some research and found that Nebraska offered the best program for massage therapy. She attended the Lincoln Myotherapy Institute, graduating in 2003.
Does chelation therapy work for MS?
Calgary Herald, Canada
Because MS does not have such an association, chelation therapy is not indicated for it. By the way, I’ve always been skeptical of claims that IV chelation effectively removes plaque from arteries (supposedly by extracting calcium from it). This issue may finally be settled when the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine completes a five-year, $30 million study of EDTA chelation therapy in patients with heart disease. The study, called TACT (Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy), is recruiting volunteers and will conclude in 2009. For more information, go to clinicaltrials. Bottom line: Chelation therapy, whether oral or IV, has no role in the treatment of MS.