From the Publisher: Based on the findings of the annual conference co-sponsored by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine and the National Cancer Institute, a uniquely authoritative guide to the integration of conventional, complementary, and alternative medicines for cancer care. Of the 1.5 million Americans diagnosed with cancer annually, fully half will seek alternative or complementary care for their disease. Drawing on the studies and critiques of many of the world’s most gifted researchers and clinicians, this book scientifically explores the most promising complementary and alternative therapies — and sifts through the often frustrating and confusing barrage of information and misinformation about them — to provide readers with the direction and help they need to create an individualized cancer-care strategy. A powerful tool for making wiser decisions and more sensible choices to both treat and prevent cancer, the book includes: Reports on the most accepted and researched complementary and alternative practices, including assessments of their efficacy, side effects, and cost effectiveness, and how they can best be integrated with conventional care Empowering advice for patients with clear action steps for speaking to doctors and evaluative guidelines for researching available treatment approaches Critical discussion of cutting-edge interventions-nutrition, Chinese medicine, herbal therapies, mind-body approaches, and energy medicine-that have undergone clinical trials and those which are now beginning to be employed.

Color Code: Red – G

Availablility: Brackenridge

From the Publisher “Here we have a truly remarkable book. Unlike anything in the alternative literature, Choices in Healing gives a scrupulously nonjudgemental review of the world of alternative treatments for cancer. Michael Lerner is a talented, scientifically astute and well-educated individual…. His compilation of both orthodox and alternative approaches to cancer is superb…. This is essential reading.” — Karol Sikora, New Scientist “A bridge that many skeptics can at least approach. The text is both critical and hopeful toward both conventional and complementary methods of therapy. Physicans will certainly find this book, with its in-depth index and extensive appendixed resource guide, the best single available source if they are willing to explore this area.” — John M. Merrill, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association Written by one of the country’s leading authorities on alternative and complementary cancer treatments, Choices in Healing is designed for the cancer patient or health professional who seeks a comprehensive overview of the available choices, both in treatments and in living with cancer. Choices in Healing offers valuable information and guidance for the whole life cycle of cancer — from the initial shock of diagnosis to decisions about choosing a physician and conventional therapies, selecting complementary therapies, coping with treatment, and the art of living fully with the possibility of recurrence. There are detailed explanations and evaluations of a wide range of complementary therapy programs, including spiritual and psychological approaches, nutritional therapies, physical therapies, pharmacological therapies, and traditional medicines from around the world. There are sections on prayer and other forms of spiritual healing; psychotherapy, support groups, visual imagery and hypnosis; massage, therapeutic touch, yoga, and Qi Gong; macrobiotic diet and other cancer diets; acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines; and numerous other unconventional therapies used by American cancer patients. With an unusual combination of compassion and objectivity, Michael Lerner describes his conclusions following more than a decade of study of unconventional cancer treatments in North America, Europe, India, and Japan. He also draws extensively on his work with hundreds of cancer patients who have participated in the Commonweal Cancer Help Programs, the residential support program depicted by Bill Moyers in his 1993 PBS documentary “Healing and the Mind.”

Color Code: Red – G

Availablility: Brackenridge