Herbal News Magazine

I read the most fascinating article about people who are diagnosed with a disease that is clearly related to smoking such as COPD, lung cancer, Emphysema and other commonly related diseases.  You would think people would quit the habit after finding out they ar diagnosed with one of the top causes of death, but many of them don’t. It’s not quite fifty percent of people who don’t quit but let me tell you it’s darn near that.

Roughly estimated, it’s about 40% of people who are diagnosed with one of these devasatating diseases that still do not quit smoking.  This goes to show just how mentally and physically addictive nicotine and tobacco are to the human body.  I even have a personal story to tell about this.

Someone close to me in my family was diagnosed with prostate cancer in his late fifties.  He never did quit smoking the entire time even when he was going through chemotherapy and all the other various poison therapies he unfortunately had to be on.

Now, I get that when a person is near the end of their life and are in the terminal stages of cancer they should just “do what they want”, but there is always a chance to come back, and smoking carcinogens into your lungs is certainly a good way to hasten the disease along.

He really couldn’t quit. He was that addicted to smoking and figured he still wanted to enjoy the habit even after his cancer took a turn for the worse and he became terminal.  Stopping the habit is indeed challenging. I was a smoker in college and had a hard time quitting, even though I had asthma and I never should have picked up the habit in the first place.

My conscious, intelligent mind was telling me to quit, yet my body and mind were also telling me how good it felt to hold that cigarette in my hand, inhale slowly and let the chemicals take control of my mind, giving me that great buzz that cigarettes give you.

It is indeed a huge challenge, but it’s worth it. I’ve been off cigarettes for almost a decade now and feel so much healthier.  It’s a shame that so many people, even after diagnosed with life threatening disease, cannot find the willpower to quit – this is a testament to how addictive and dangerous this pastime is.

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Alternative methods of healing, whether it’s massage therapy, herbal or other methods, used to be almost ignored several decades ago by the medical profession and the American public.  Times have certainly changed.

According to a survey done recently by Consumer Reports, in which 45,000 people were polled, 75% were using some form of alternative therapies.  Of the people polled for the survey, 71 % reported taking vitamins and 20 % reported using the mind-body therapies such as yoga and massage.

For ailments such as depression, 47% reported using vitamin B complex or fish oil as a treatment either by itself or together with prescription medications.  Anxiety was alleviated by 40 % of the people surveyed by deep breathing exercises.

Many of the people who responded to the survey found meditation to be helpful for the treatment of insomnia, migraine and anxiety.  The use of probiotics for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome proved to be popular according to the results of the survey.

Back and neck pain, which is difficult to treat, was helped most by chiropractic methods, according to the people polled in this survey.    Massage therapy was also rated as very helpful in this area by the survey responders.

Fybromyalgia sufferers reported deep tissue massage as one of the most helpful alternative therapies to alleviate their symptoms.  Many of the people who responded to the survey were using alternative therapies in combination with prescription medications.

Often, alternative methods of healing can and should be used as a complementary medical therapy.  Alternative therapies are gaining in popularity and are here to stay.  They are being taken seriously and are used in conjunction with the more traditional medical and prescription methods of healing.

More medical research needs to be done on alternative therapies by themselves and also together with prescription medications.  Surveys, such as this one done by Consumer Reports, while they are not laboratory research, are helpful in assessing the effectiveness of alternative paths of healing in a large segment of the population.

This is a great way to gain knowledge on treating the whole person, mind and body, in a holistic manner to find a combination of treatments for optimum maintenance of health.

Related Posts:

• Taking Control of Your Stressors : Part II
• Over Half the US Population Takes Supplements!
• Would You Quit Smoking After Finding Out You Are Ill?
• Teen’s Sleep Needs
• Yoga and Irregular Heartbeat : News