Customer Reviews

The Alternative Health & Medcine Encyclopedia 2 (Alternative Health and Medicine Encyclopedia)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is too bad some people see these review forums as the place to spew their closed-minded attitudes by posting negative (and usually generalized) commentary about a topic instead of posting informed critiques of books they've actually read. The reader who posted a one star review in NOV 99 found it necessary to criticize alternative healing in general but obviously they hadn't even opened this particular book. If that is logical, then it would be fair to respond by saying, "All reviewers who remain anonymous are ignorant fearful cowards." But of course that is neither fair nor true. If you have nothing better to do than spew hatred for all things unlike yourself, then yours must be a very sad & empty life. But why broadcast this sorry state here?

For those of you who read these reviews to see what *informed* reviewers who have bothered to read the book in question, I found this to be a solid & useful overview of 18 alternative healing practices. If you're looking to get a general sense of what each approach has to offer, this book may be your best choice. If you want/need a more in-depth discussion of one or more practices, I'd say look elsewhere.

When you are faced with a major illness, allopathic (western) medicine can not always help you. When our 13-year-old son was diagnosed with bone cancer, we were overwhelmed. We looked into several alternative healing options before deciding on a combination of chemotherapy, surgery, plus several alternative (complementary) methods. This book offers an excellent overview of dozens of viable (and successful) alternatives to the sometimes toxic side-effects promoted by western medicine. It may be that what you need is a combination of the best of both; if so, this book can lead you toward finding adjunct healing methods which can make the difference between comfort and pain, and sometimes success in healing. Had we followed western therapies alone, our son would have lost his leg--that's what the hospital doctors recommended. Instead, we used some modalities that allowed us to save his leg.

Do we really need still more deceptive propaganda promoting chiropractic for systemic ailments, shark cartilege for cancer, homeopathy for everything and the whole grab bag of alternatoid medicine rot? The authors have no credentials in any health-related fields and they are obviously not capable of evaluating scientific literature, if they bothered to read any. They supply no references to support their preposterous conclusions. This book is rubbish and it is very disappointing to see it as a "best book" selection on this website.