Herbal Medicine, Healing & Cancer [Paperback]

Donald Yance (Author), Arlene Valentine (Author)

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.

Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879839686
• ISBN-13: 978-0879839680
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #24,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #24 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Alternative Medicine > Herbal Remedies
  #45 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Cancer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 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 (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.

28 of 31 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 (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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars check out the table of contents, August 19, 2000

By	Raphael Mendoza (Pasadena) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Herbal Medicine, Healing & Cancer (Paperback)

Yance and Valentine have done a comprehensive job of cataloging the herbal treatment options for people to choose from for their fight against cancer. I did a little reasearch of my own to discover which of these herbs were being sold on-line and what was being said about them. The site, iHerb, not only coroborrated thier research information, but also sold a variety of good products. For those seeking alternatives or companions to their cancer treatments, this book and iHerb would be two great places to begin.