Реферат: Alternative Medicine Essay Research Paper Throughout recorded

Furthermore, recent studies also show acupuncture to be effective in

alleviating bronchial asthma, bronchitis, and stroke-induced paralysis

(Apostolides). “I’m a healthy skeptic,” says Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Mary

McCaul (Apostolides). “But look, we don’t have all the answers. Patients who

choose acupuncture feel calmer. Even if it’s a placebo effect, placebos are

powerful things.”

Mind-Body Healing

Relaxation techniques like meditation and biofeedback–which teach patients

to control heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and other involuntary

functions through concentration–have also given respectability to

alternative medicine and are routinely taught to patients and medical

students. The basic premise of mind-body medicine is that the power of the

mind can be used to help heal the body by improving the person’s attitude

and also, as recent research has shown, by direct effects on the immune,

endocrine, and nervous systems (Epiro and Walsh). Although many of the

biochemical and physiological mechanisms remain to be identified, an

increasing body of evidence is showing that the healthy mind is indeed

capable of mobilizing the immune system-and that the troubled mind can

dampen the functioning of the immune system and contribute to physical

disease.

There is little doubt that state of mind and physiological processes are

closely linked. The connection between stress and immune system response,

for example, is well documented (Epiro and Walsh). Some scientists suggest

that the power of prayer and faith healing, like some forms of meditation,

might also be physiological in that they may protect the body from the

negative effects of stress hormone norepinephrine. In addition, experience

shows that relaxation techniques can help patients enormously. “Medicine is

a three-legged stool,” says Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School

(Epiro and Walsh). “One leg is pharmaceuticals, the other is surgery, and