Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Cancer: An Integrated Approach to Prevention, Treatment, and Healing (Alternative Medicine Guides) (Hardcover)

~ Lise N. Alschuler (Editor), Karolyn A. Gazella (Editor)
Key Phrases: chemotherapy chart, integrative cancer treatment, key body functions, Addressing Specific Cancers, American Cancer Society, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The second edition of this comprehensive guide to cancer helps patients and their caregivers learn about causes and prevention of cancer; offset the side effects of conventional medicine; evaluate effective alternative treatments; utilize natural therapies involving diet, lifestyle, and nutritional supplements; and achieve deep healing through a mind-body-spirit approach. Featuring in-depth discussions of 20 specific cancers, including detailed descriptions of integrative treatments, this accessibly written guide is an invaluable tool for understanding and implementing integrative and complementary cancer care.

From the Publisher

* An extensively revised and updated second edition of Alternative Medicine magazine's definitive guide to integrative cancer prevention and treatment.
* Includes current cancer research, expert interviews, and real-life stories from practitioners, patients, and caregivers.
* Peer reviewed by an editorial board of integrative practitioners.
* The American Cancer Society reports that one in four Americans dies from cancer.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Celestial Arts; 2 edition (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587612801
• ISBN-13: 978-1587612800
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #245,544 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not definitive by any means, July 27, 2009

By	Curious (Corvallis, OR USA) - See all my reviews

As a practitioner of natural medicine, I have been surveying the books that address the interface of conventional oncology and integrative medicine. I found this book had a number of unique useful features, but calling the book 'definitive' seems a bit of an overstatement. I also compared this book with the first edition, and they bear no relation to each other.

Overall I found the book vastly understated the potential value of natural therapies, and deferred to conventional cancer therapy as 'the way.' The stance the authors/editors take is one of supporting conventional therapies more or less without question, with 'alternative medicine' taking a back seat and offering palliative care. Thus this book is not really about Alternative Medicine and what it has to offer; it should rather be titled, "What Alternative Medicine can do to support Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy."

For instance, right at the core of the interface between conventional therapy and integrative medicine is drug/herb/nutrient interactions. The book contains a brief chart 11 pages long with a handful of 'major' chemo drugs and known nutrient and herbal interactions, both +/-. However, the reader is not provided with any resources for broader application: how do I find this information for the rest of the 500 chemo drugs in use? Has this info been gathered, or is this an area that direly needs more work? The reader is left to guess.

The book omits mention of the critical factor of general nutritional status in determining how well people come out of (cancer) surgery...and even whether they do survive surgery. For example, magnesium stores in the body are critical for protecting against blood clots and other brain and cardiovascular surgical and post-surgical complications. 2/3 of the general public are siginificantly deficient in Magnesium.

The book treats antioxidants as potentially useful, but further research is needed, it says on page 184. Russell Blaylock MD has been using a combination of diet and supplements along with conventional cancer therapies for more than two decades and found that his experience validates the scientific research: healthy cells are protected, and the mechanisms that cancer cells use to grow and proliferate are deactivated. I don't understand why the authors of this book have such a tentative understanding of and approach to their use.

As a whole, the book promotes the usefulness of supplements, but never addresses the key issues of supplement sourcing and quality, and the fact that many available supplements can be detrimental to health...they may actually contain carcinogens (talcum powder), immune system suppressants (stearic acid), prions (animal gelatin caps) and are often made from petroleum derivatives rather than natural sources, which perforce means they will include other unhealthy tagalongs (traces of chemical reagents, etc.). The bottom line is that synthetic supplements may not be in the specific form that the body actually benefits from. I would suggest readers turn as well to Russell Blaylock MD's book, Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients.

The section describing chemotherapy admits that the treatment typically causes numerous side effects, and gives a lot of attention to ways to minimize the experience of those. It does not cover key issues, such as what is defined as a 'successful' chemo treatment. Is a 'successful response' defined as a reduction in tumor size for a specific (short) period of time, which has been a typical cancer industry measure? Or is it 5-year survival, or is it actual increased longevity over no treatment at all (the true measure to the patient of whether it really works)? Often chemo studies report shrinking tumors as a successful response and imply to the lay public that it equals living longer, but the two are absolutely not the same thing. How does a patient honestly and critically evaluate the therapies offered?

Remission often means the tumor mass in the body [not removed by surgery] has gone dormant -- but is not gone, and can be re-awakened down the road. How does integrative therapy address that dynamic? What kind of long-term (natural) follow up care is indicated? What kind of permanent life style changes are indicated? These subjects are also not covered.

And what about natural therapies alone? It is implied in this book that there are no viable natural therapies for treating cancer without cut, burn and poison...is that true? Of course there is no black and white answer for all cancers, but a complex question like this is one that a 'definitive' guide should at least outline for the reader.

For me, one central fault of this book is that it neglects to address the core issues of self-empowerment, of choice for the patient. This includes the process of finding and screening sympathetic practitioners for your integrative team, and together deciding when you should and should not choose chemotherapy, radiation, and other mainstream or integrative therapies.

This book has an unspoken attitude that the advice of the oncologist should be accepted without question, and the sole issue is whether and how to supplement his/her work with natural therapies. In terms of balance, while this book puts a fair amount of attention into debunking of alternative therapies and supplements that 'don't work,' it does not address the frequent unnecessary use of chemo and the need to help patients exercise discretion (such as oncologists that use prophylatic systemic chemo after surgery to chase down 'micro-metastases', a procedure that weakens patients in search of a scientifically unproven entity.) It's yet another example of the lack of even-handed approach here that does not provoke the same attitude of critical thinking toward the mainstream therapies.

The invaluable Moss Reports, the gold standard of layperson cancer treatment reviews (there are over 200 of them, which review current research on the clinical effectiveness of cancer therapies) are not mentioned. Is it because Moss will raise the hackles of oncologists with his investigative reportage?

In discussing causes of cancer, vaccines are not mentioned, even though viruses such as SV-40 which has produced cancers in lab animals (but not yet shown to do so in humans) have inadvertently been included in widely-used vaccines. The ongoing practice of vaccination is certainly of questionable medical value in general, if you look at the actual data (and not just the summaries of the studies). With potent immune system provoking agents in common use as adjuvants (added ingredients) in many current vaccine recipes, many of which agents/vaccines have been shown by studies to lead to chronic inflammation of the brain and other tissues (and inflammatory processes often being a precursor to dysplasias and then cancers), shouldn't we be reviewing vaccine histories in cancer patients?

My overall impression is that this book works so hard to avoid areas of controversy between mainstream and alternative therapies that the big picture of truth suffers in the process. It reads like a book written by an ND with an MD looking over their shoulder, their presence acting as a silent censor. In a sidebar about aspartame, after listing all the health problems associated with it, regarding the question of aspartame and cancer the authors conclude: "Until additional human studies are done and a final verdict is determined, aspartame consumption should be minimized or avoided." Are they saying that if it doesn't cause cancer, we should eat it? Go on, just say it: 'Even if aspartame does not cause cancer, there are already more than sufficient grounds to eliminate this poison from your diet immediately."

There are many issues that could -- and should -- be thoughtfully covered in a definitive book covering the integration of mainstream and complementary methods for preventing, treating and healing cancer. This is a useful book, but there's a lot more to the story. Keep on reading.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for cancer patients and health care providers, June 7, 2007

By	Paul E. Reilly (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If knowledge is power, Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Cancer is a real powerhouse. Eschewing medical or technical jargon, this book helps readers decipher the terminology used by oncologists. I especially appreciated the discussion of 10 ways to analyze internet information. This alone is worth the cost of the book for patients desperately sorting through reams of information and claims.

The book is organized into four distinct parts, plus a useful appendix. Part I covers cancer basics, detailing early detection and diagnosis techniques in clear, accessible language. Each form of conventional treatment such as radiation, surgery, and chemotherapy, is addressed in Part II, which explains what to expect and how to minimize side effects. Part III contains a detailed discussion of supporting key body functions and explanations of how and why each step is desirable. Handy charts of common chemotherapy agents list which supportive nutrients to increase and which may be contraindicated. These are invaluable to help patients and providers design supportive plans and avoid undesirable interactions. Part IV discusses individual cancer types, detailing the basic biology of the organ, common treatment options, and best supportive therapy ideas. The appendixes include a nutrient directory, a glossary of medical terminology, and copious references.

Included throughout are first-person patient stories that humanize the technical information, allowing a deeper understanding of the impact a diagnosis of cancer can have on patients and their loved ones. These stories also remind us how important it is to treat the whole person, not just a diagnosis, and how each patient must find their own pathway to healing.

Overall, this book provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date information available for cancer patients and providers. I would strongly recommend that anyone living with cancer or treating patients with cancer get a copy and use it regularly.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As a physician...., June 14, 2007

By	SWR (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

As a physician, I have and will continue to recommend this book to anyone who is newly diagnosed with cancer. This book is readable and yet so thorough in its scientific research. This should be the standard for all healthcare-consumer books.

Medicine can no longer afford to ignore Integrative Healthcare offerings.
It is informative and empowering. You want this on your shelf at home because someone you know and love will one day NEED this.