As I prepared for a recent MS Ireland Indescribable pieces webcast – this one on the Uses of Medical Cannabis for MS — I consulted a reference book that I have used since the early days of my diagnosis, in 2001.
The first edition of Allen C. Bowling, MD, PhDthe book Complementary and alternative medicine and multiple sclerosis was published the same year. I upgraded to the second edition (2007, Demos Medical Publishing) as soon as it came out. This was the multiple sclerosis since then, the resource shelf of my study.
It’s a dog-eared old thing now, but it’s still helpful when someone asks about something they’re considering trying for MS or its symptoms.
As I continued my research for this webcast, using the search words “complementary and alternative,” I kept coming across another term that I had never seen used on the Internet before: integrator.
RELATED: What are alternative, complementary and integrative health approaches?
What can CAM or integrative medicine do for MS?
Mind you, I may not have looked for a while, but I don’t know if I’ve seen the term “integrative” used much when it comes to what is collectively called Western medicine.
In fact, when I searched for the term on well-known MS and other health sites, I found very little.
And then I went looking around the National Institute of Health (NIH) website to see what they might have to say on the subject. And didn’t I find not only a description, but an entire NIH-sponsored center for the study of these things, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
This one was new to me. They even have a page dedicated to integrative health and multiple sclerosis.
No one is suggesting that complementary or complementary medicine will cure MS (well, no one on these sites, nor on this page). But a lot people with MS We will find comfort in the fact that research is underway (albeit slowly) and that while some things have not been proven, many of the integration measures we are taking may be safe and may not necessarily have been refuted (again).
RELATED: Natural Remedy Dos and Don’ts for Multiple Sclerosis
Where are we with integrative medicine?
Both CAM and integrative health have their limitations and flaws, as an article on holistic health in the Western Journal of Medicine describe. But most things in life don’t live up to the expected results most of the time.
I find it interesting that the article above discussing the pros and cons of a holistic health approach was published in 1982.
The author concludes the article with the following thought: “It is certainly time to create holistic model programs in a variety of communities and in conventional medical settings, to assess whether a combination of health promotion and health education public to Western and alternative approaches can meet people’s health needs. needs more efficient and less costly than the current system.
Of course, wouldn’t we still like to see this happening more than 30 years after the author of the paper thought it was a good idea?
I wish you and your family the best of health.
Cheers,
Trevis
My book Chef interrupted is available on Amazon. Follow me on Life with MS Facebook Pageand learn more about Life with multiple sclerosis.
