Customer Reviews

Alternative Medicine and Multiple Sclerosis

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I don't agree with the reviews that state this book as not being helpful. Obviously a MD is careful about recommending alternative therapies (and to do it in writing goes even farther against their grain.) With that said, Dr. Bowling includes a multitude of options and resources that any proactive patient would find of value. And he states right up front that he supports a complementary approach that uses western practices along with the alternative therapies. He offers fact, theory and opinion on these therapies (he's ok with just about every one that doesn't involve infusions/IVs, chemicals and the like) And yes, he has a bias for the ABC&Rebif drugs (and there's nothing wrong with that... I've read a lot of books written by alternative practioners who don't have anything good to say about western options/drugs; so one needs to consider the source and take a proactive approach to his/her own healing.) Just the section on Vitamins, Minerals & Other NonHerbal Supplements is worth it (having that info whittled down to 23 pages versus some oversized volume on the topic was great.) If you've gotten this far (meaning you're interested enough in this title to be reading the reviews), I say Go For It; one can never have enough info and if this book gives you just one new piece of information... then that's one more than what you started with.

To explore alternative medicine is to take a journey into aspects of healing that are outside of patentable pharmacology. The journey is easier with a map, but the map is only a starting point. When considering alternative medicine, we need to make our own decisions about approaches to health that often have not been studied in the way that patentable drugs have been studied. Even so, the journey should begin by learning what has previously been reported on the subject.

Dr. Bowling's book is a fist-rate description of the terrain of alternative medicine. Unlike other MS-specific books about alternative medicine, his is based on a review of published literature rather than on personal experience, anecdote and fancy.

Part of Dr. Bowling's accomplishment is that he has managed to catalogue a diverse and hard-to-define area. More imortantly, it describes, in succint and easy-to-understand and language, the published research that is available on about 40 different areas of alternative medicine.

Don't buy the book thinking there is a cure for MS to be found in its pages. On the other hand, if you are looking for a starting point for understanding alternative medicine, then this book is a useful resource.

After reading some of the reviews I hestitated on buying this. I had just been diagnosed with MS. I started taking the shots (and still am) but wanted to find other things that I could do. From the reviews I thought this would be an alternative medicine bashing book but its not. It states the facts as they are and shows pros and cons, leave a lot for the reader to consider. I found this to be a well-rounded book that had good info.

In Dr. Allen Bowling's Alternative Medicine And Multiple Sclerosis, he enables the reader to find unconventional options that may provide symptomatic relief when conventional therapies for multiple sclerosis are limited or otherwise unsatisfactory. Dr. Bowling explains the potentially dangerous interactions between complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies and medical treatments utilized in the management of MS; identifies CAM therapies that are possibly effective, low risk, and inexpensive; and exposes ineffective, dangerous, or needlessly costly alternative therapies. Alternative Medicine And Multiple Sclerosis is a very highly recommended and informative addition to any personal or professional multiple sclerosis reading list.

I was dxd about a year ago, and I decided not to try the ABC drugs. I use a completely holistic approach, using a modified Swank Diet, supplements, exercise, yoga, etc. I have been in remission for over a year. I know that R/R MS goes in remission naturally anyway, but I feel alternative therapies have a great deal to offer someone with MS. This book discounts most of them or simply says "not enough information" or "no real evidence to prove this therapy." I have a problem with Dr. Bowling discounting the Swank diet when so many MS patients have used it with success. He notes that the diet never went through a clinical trial; however, it is impossible to do a clinical trial on a diet because there cannot be a double blind study (you can't have a blind control group with a diet because they will know they are changing their diet, etc.). This is not a valid reason to discount the diet. Also, he says the ABC's have gone through clinical trials, and have been proven to work. Well, they offer about a 30% reduction in relapses, have severe side effects, and cost $1k a month. This does not seem that great to me. Also, I don't completely trust the results of a clinical trial done on the ABC's too because the group getting the drug may know they are getting something (i.e. the side effects of the drug are pretty severe and this will indicate to the group that they are not in the placebo group), and this in itself may lead to their decrease in relapses (sheer belief that they are taking something to help. Doctors today do not know how or why these drugs work (if they do). They don't even know what causes MS. The book doesn't offer much, in my opinion. It is very wishy-washy about whether any therapy works (except for the drugs, which he strongly advocates). I would advise one going to mercola.com for a better treatment for chronic illness. Diet takes willpower and lots of people say to me that they cannot do it while they are stuffing their face with a doughnut, but I would think having MS would be enough motivation to change one's lifestyle, wouldn't you??

This book was utterly disappointing. If you are at all interested in "Alternative" Medicine, then don't waste your time on this book. The author clearly is biased against alternative medicine - he warns people over and over again not to do certain alternative treatments instead of the ABC drugs available for MS. Those of us interested in alternative medicine don't need this kind of help. Our goal is to avoid those drugs and others that produce countless side effects and weaken our immune systems. I have a large collection of holistic-minded books, but this one went right in the trash!!

This book fulfills its claims. I found useful its review of numerous alternative approaches to MS. Clearly western medicine has not figured out the perfect response to the disease. This book is a way to be informed of developments in both traditional and alternative medicine. Part of the nature of the disease is that no single treatment works for everyone. This is a good book for an overview of what options exist and whether they seem to work.

As a person living with MS there were some things in this book that even I didn't know. Its good to have all the correct information from a medical professional. I carry this book with me all the time and refer to it whenever someone tells me, I should do this or that for my MS. We need lots more books like this.

I was very disappointed. This book is basically an attack on alternative therapies through the lens of self serving conventional medicine politics rather than attempting to find any merit and mechanism of different alternative modalities. For instance the coverage of vitamins and supplements were ridiculously weak and even out of date with modern research recommendations from conventional medical schools e.g. the sunshine vitamin D link to MS in particular and the much higher emerging vitamin D RDAs in general. The vitamin coverage completely failed to examine the true supplement alternatives like the inexpensive, riveting megadose protocols and clinical results of Duke educated Dr Fred R Klenner and, independently, Canadian Dr. H.T.R. Mount. Likewise I found the discussion of enzymes, nutrition, and digestion lame. These are time critical propositions for the consideration of those deteriorating with a conventional sentence of central neuritis and other neuropathies.

It does discuss a variety of alternative treatments for MS, but pretty well dismisses them all as either 1) ineffective but harmless or 2) ineffective and dangerous.