Our Words and Images Can Kill or Cure

Vol. 8, No. 2. Summer, 2007

On the Dangers of Polypharmacy

According to Dr. Charles Sullivan, a reader of Holistic Primary Care, physicians who decry their patients' combining herbs and nutraceuticals with conventional drugs would do well to pay closer attention to their own far more dangerous practice of prescribing multiple drugs in combinations that have never been scientifically tested.

Letters to the Editor

HPC readers write in about the details of sleep phase cycles, and a novel approach to preventing Alzheimer's disease.

Letter to the Editor

HPC readers write in about the details of sleep phase cycles, and a novel approach to preventing Alzheimer's disease.

Letters - Response to Letter regarding Chinese Herbs

6/25/01

Your approach to Chinese herbs (in the article, "Six Chinese Herbs Every Doctor Should Know," HPC June 15, 2001) is very Western. Chinese herbs are not taken individually, but complexed in unique formulas which balance them.

Also, other herbs are used to neutralize potential ill-effects of the toxic herbs. For example, when Fu Zhi is cooked with licorice, the toxicity is almost eliminated. This concept of taking individual herbs for symptoms is so anti-Oriental medicine.

Cinnabar (a mercury containing compound mentioned in the article) is not even available any more from reputable herbal companies.

Please try looking at herbs from the paradigm they come from.

TO THE EDITOR

Your recent article on Insulin Resistance in the Winter 2006 edition was an excellent review of many issues confronting the clinician in diagnosing and treating Metabolic Syndrome. Several issues, however, require further clarification.

From the Editor

Five years ago, Holistic Primary Care was little more than a dream and an 8-page prototype. Fired up with all the enthusiasm and naivete typical of a start-up, Meg and I set out to build an information bridge between conventional and "alternative" medicine, between ancient healing wisdom and modern scientific knowledge.

Reader Challenges Outcome of Internal Cleansing

I just had to write to comment on the silly pictures you included in the article, "Spring Cleaning: Internal Cleansing for Optimal Health" (Holistic Primary Care, April 15, 2003).

Naturopaths Pioneer Holistic Residency Training

I recently finished reading your October 15 edition. The article, "Nation's First Holistic Medicine Residency on the Horizon" surprised me. You write, "The University of Colorado's department of Family Medicine is boldly going where no medical school has gone before: residency training in holistic medicine." Though your audience is also comprised of naturopathic physicians, the article had no mention of the several residencies in family medicine at naturopathic medical colleges such as National College of Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM).

Letters - Response to Letter regarding Chinese Herbs

6/25/01

Your approach to Chinese herbs (in the article, "Six Chinese Herbs Every Doctor Should Know," HPC June 15, 2001) is very Western. Chinese herbs are not taken individually, but complexed in unique formulas which balance them.

Also, other herbs are used to neutralize potential ill-effects of the toxic herbs. For example, when Fu Zhi is cooked with licorice, the toxicity is almost eliminated. This concept of taking individual herbs for symptoms is so anti-Oriental medicine.

Cinnabar (a mercury containing compound mentioned in the article) is not even available any more from reputable herbal companies.

Please try looking at herbs from the paradigm they come from.