Herbal Medicine, Healing & Cancer: A Comprehensive Program for Prevention and Treatment [Paperback]

Donald Yance (Author), Arlene Valentine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 1999

More and more people who have been diagnosed with cancer or related illnesses embrace alternative medicines, and seek out holistic practitioners who use vitamins, herbs, nutrition, homeopathy, and acupuncture to treat the disease. This long-awaited book by Donald Yance--one of the nation's most respected herbalists--is a major contribution to the literature of natural healing and cancer.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A certified nutritionist and master herbalist, Yance here touches on the very broad areas of herbs, natural healing, and cancer. While critical of the established medical community for its attitude toward natural healing, whose scientific basis he tries to explain with extensive references, he nevertheless combines conventional therapies with herbs, nutritional supplements, and lifestyle changes to achieve the best results. Yance covers many topics but not in enough depth to make this book useful for lay readers, except for the sample recipes and coverage of the natural ways to relieve the side effects of chemotherapy. The chapters on the chemical composition of herbs and supplements are more suitable for medical doctors, herbalists, and nutritionists. Recommended for specialized collections of herbal medicine.ALily Liu, Arkansas Children's Hosp. Lib., Little Rock
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Donald Yance, C.N., M.H., is a certified nutritionist and clinical master herbalist who specializes in nutritional and herbal approaches to cancer, AIDS, heart disease, and other chronic health conditions. He has written for several nutritional/herbal journals and has been a contributing writer for a number of books on healing.

Arlene Valentine is a freelance writer based in Connecticut.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Keats Publishing; 1 edition (September 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879839686
• ISBN-13: 978-0879839680
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly helpful herbalist, November 13, 2000

By 

Gail Merrill (New Canaan, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Herbal Medicine, Healing & Cancer: A Comprehensive Program for Prevention and Treatment (Paperback)

This author has rave reviews from cancer patients in my area. I have gone through breast cancer treatments with this author's help, one year after my mother died of breast cancer (most breast cancer is environmentally caused ). I am doing very well. I also learned of a man with prostrate cancer who was cured with Donald Yance's help; he wrote his story in the local newspaper. In my opinion he is brilliant and a very loving human being who had so many cancer patients that he wrote a book to make his infomation available to others. I am so very grateful for his help and recomend this book as a first choice resource.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost, May 3, 2004

By 

Michael Shea "Cancer Doc" (Phoenix, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Herbal Medicine, Healing & Cancer: A Comprehensive Program for Prevention and Treatment (Paperback)

A cooperative working relationship between "allopathic" physicians and "naturalists" is long overdue in my opinion, and my opinion ought to be worth something. I am a physician with 25 years experience in cancer medicine and I have board certifications in internal medicine, medical oncology, hematology, and radiation oncology. Mr. Yance's book is a step in the right direction, and I feel it is a worthwhile reference for any physician who is interested in the nutritional welfare of his patients. The book is far from perfect, however. For example, Mr. Yance overstates the risk of carcinogenesis from therapeutic radiation, presents site-specific side effects such as dry mouth as if they were general effects of radiation, underplays the value and effectiveness of radiation for common adult tumors such as breast cancer, and claims benefit for herbal or nutritional remedies for side effects of cancer treatment even when they have been shown to be ineffective in clinical trials. Administration of vitamin B12 and folate to prevent chemotherapy-induced neuropathy is the most egregious example. At the same time, glutamine is not mentioned for prevention of neuropathy though it is known to be useful, at least for prevention of nerve injury from vinca alkaloids.

Another problem is that much of the nutritional information is too technically advanced for most lay readers. One would have to know more biochemistry than the majority of phyicians to wade through the terminology.

Despite its shortcomings, I think Mr. Yance's book is a valuable resource and would recommend it to my medical colleagues. My advice to the general public is to go to the best source for information about cancer treatments. As a medical and radiation oncologist, I wouldn't try to inform my patients about nutritional therapies, and I sure wouldn't ask a nutritionist their opinion about radiation or chemotherapy. Discuss all the therapeutic issues with your main healthcare provider. If he or she won't discuss herbal, nutritional, and other alternative or complementary modalities, ask for other opinions.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book Review, August 19, 2006

By 

Charles Rodgers (U.K.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Herbal Medicine, Healing & Cancer: A Comprehensive Program for Prevention and Treatment (Paperback)

Several times in the course of completing a 4 year degree in Phyto Medicine I came across the work of Donnie Yance. He is well known for his work in treating cancer with Herbal Medicine. This book provides an excellent insight into his experienced approach and use of Herbal Medicine as an adjuvant to "conventional" treatment. Clearly influenced by the great American physicomedicalist, Eli G. Jones (who treated many cancer patients in the early 20th century - when Herbal Medicine was the conventional medicine), he brings the historical evidence base & treatment approaches up to date and expands upon them in the light of modern scientific research.

For the layperson looking for a reputable source of information on Herbal Medicine in cancer treatment & prevention, this would certainly be one of the books to read. As well as being eminently readable for the layperson it is also sufficiently referenced with primary sources for the use of medical practitioners.

From reading the book it is immediately clear that Donnie is a religious man, often mentioning his beliefs in explanation of his own personal approach to the therapeutic relationship with his patients. Rather than clouding or detracting from the scientific content of the book, it helps repeat a common theme in his treatment approach - "compassion" and "treatment of the person, not the disease".

In short, one of the very few non-conventional medicine books relating to this subject that I have on my bookshelf.