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Kava Root is the Hot Herb for Anxiety
Although there are other herbs that are said to allay anxiety, kava seems poised to take off like St. John's Wort, the herbal antidepressant that was virtually unheard of a couple of years ago in this country and now commands $200 million a year in sales. "The kava market has come out of nowhere. It's gone from next to nothing to $40 to $50 million in sales in one year," says Thomas Aarts, executive editor of the Nutrition Business Journal in San Diego. At that, it's still a small chunk of the booming business in dietary supplements, which has grown 14 percent a year for the last three years to $11.5 billion now, driven in part by the popularity of herbals.

A Cancer Doctor Changes His Views about Alternative Treatments
The slow entrance of alternative treatments into mainstream U.S. medicine has mostly been conducted on tiptoe. Every once in a while, though, a giant step brings the two camps closer. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, one of the most mainstream and prestigious medical centers in the world, recently took one of those leaps: It announced the formation of a program in "integrative oncology."

The initiative will allow specialists to treat patients with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy and with nutrition, meditation and other alternative techniques. Besides helping individuals, it may fill a broader need: Sloan-Kettering's close scrutiny could provide the hard scientific data that nonstandard therapies need to compete against traditional medicine. Heading the program is Dr. Sidney Winawer, until recently the head of the hospital's gastroenterology and nutrition programs. Initially, alternative medicine was as foreign to him as it was to his institution. Then his wife, Andrea, was diagnosed with aggressive stomach cancer in 1990. The blend of treatments she adopted may have extended her life by years; simultaneously, he turned into a profoundly different doctor.

Dr. Galland's Integrated Medicine
Although the body readily makes most of the fat that it needs from dietary starch or sugar, humans lack the ability to make essential fatty acids (EFAs) and must get them in food. EFAs are found in all foods but are most abundant in certain oils, according to Dr. Leo Galland, in his column, Essential Fatty Acids--The Key To Health, They come in two distinct families, based upon their chemical structure. The two EFA families are not interchangeable and, in fact, tend to compete with one another in the body's metabolic pathways.

The larger family, called "omega-six" EFAs, are abundant in many vegetable seed oils, including corn, sunflower and safflower. Deficiency of omega-six EFAs causes impairment of growth and fertility, hormonal disturbances and immunologic abnormalities. An excess of omega-six EFAs may promote the development of cancer. People living in North America and Europe have rela-tively high levels of omega-six EFAs in their diets, because of the increasing consumption of vegetable oil during the twentieth century.

Natural Medicine Research Update
Over the years you have come across claims with every type of diet imaginable, from low fat to high fat, low carbohydrate to high carbohydrate, and even extreme diets bordering on the illogical. How important is fat, or the lack thereof, in relation to health and disease? In this column, Low-fat Diet, Cholesterol, Mood, and Suicide, Dr. Ray Sahelian reports on recent studies indicate that the extreme position of consuming very little fat can lower mood, and even lead to violence and suicide.

Reducing fat intake in those who are McDonald's junkies is certainly a worthwhile goal. Most members of the medical establishment, health writers in the media, and other fitness experts stress the importance of a reducing excessive fat intake. But, tipping the scale too much of the low end can lead you to the local health food store or pharmacy urgently groping for a bottle of St. John's wort.

The Healer Within

The technique described in Dr. Roger Jahnke's latest column, The Abdominal Lift, is a traditional yoga practice called Uddhiyana bandha. Stand with feet at about shoulder width, bend the knees slightly, bend forward, exhale completely, brace the hands above the knees. Either lift and hold the abdomen upward against the spine or rhythmically contract and release the abdomen while maintaining the exhalation. Complete by returning to erect position and inhaling before needing to gasp.

Keeping Fit with Dr. Wayne Westcott
We live in a generation that is generally characterized as underfit and over-fat. Population studies show that 90 percent of Americans do too little exercise to receive any measurable fitness benefit (Centers for Disease Control, 1989). In spite of our national emphasis on fitness and sports, it seems that most people are observers rather than participants. On the other side of the coin, reports Dr. Wayne Westcott in his column, Exercise: Does It Work For The Overfat Population?, research reveals that one out of three Americans is obese, making over-fatness nothing short of a national epidemic (Harvard Health Letter, 1994). In spite of over 30 billion dollars spent annually on diet programs (New York Times News Service 1991), the incidence of obesity has increased by 25 percent in the last 15 years (Harvard Health Letter 1994).

Children's Health Update
Mumps is a viral infection of childhood that affects the salivary glands, most commonly the parotid glands, located near the ear (hence its medical name, parotitis). The illness begins with a fever, headache, loss of appetite, malaise, and muscle aches. Pain in the ear and under the jaw begins about twenty-four hours later. Over the next one to three days, the salivary glands swell and become very tender. The swelling typically lessens over a course of three to seven days. The illness is spread by contact with infected saliva. It is somewhat less contagious than either measles or chickenpox. Once a child is infected with the virus, it can incubate for two to three-and-a-half weeks before signs of infection appear. A child is contagious from about six days before the onset of illness to nine days after the glands have become swollen.

Mumps is most common in children from age five through fifteen. It is usually self-limiting and runs its course without complications. One possible long-term complication that does exist occurs in boys, when the virus attacks the testicles. This may result only in pain and swelling initially, but in some cases it can cause infertility the long run, especially if a boy contracts the disease as a teenager or young adult.

In her article " Mumps," excerpted from her book, Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child, Dr. Janet Zand outlines a comprehensive program for helping to deal with mumps, including guidelines for prevention, conventional treatment as well as dietary guidelines and recommended nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathic remedies, and acupressure.

Bookstore
Environmental dangers pose the greatest health threat in history to our children. Sensitivities to everything from foods to furnaces and pesticides to paints are behind many children’s unexplained illnesses and behavioral and emotional problems, including learning difficulties. Now, in her book Is This Your Child’s World?: How you can fix the schools and homes that are making your children sick, Doris Rapp, M.D., a leading specialist in environmental medicine, offers the first comprehensive source book on environmental illnesses--and the common, often unsuspected toxic substances and chemicals found in America’s schools and homes. The book also offers fast, easy and inexpensive solutions to many of the common environmental problems in homes and schools.

Association Network -- Hot Pick
The Optometric Extension Program (OEP) Foundation is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to educating the general public about the importance of visual hygiene, the prevention of visual and ocular problems, and the development and enhancement of vision. Behavioral optometry seeks to treat the causes of visual disorders rather than merely compensate for refractive error.

Visit the Optometric Extension Program Foundation.

Global Health Calendar -- Hot Picks

The Health Show: Maximizing Your Longevity and Quality of Life. Learn the natural healing benefits of homeopathy, acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and more! Get the best medical advice from an impressive team of integrated health care professionals - only at The Health Show - Austin Premiere.Three day conference, August 14-16, 1998. Keynote Speaker: Dr. Andrew Weil. Renaissance Austin Hotel. Austin, Texas. Presented by InterShow - The Health Show - (800) 226-0323

23rd Annual National Wellness Conference: The Potential of Wellness. July 11-17, 1998, Stevens point, WI -- presented by National Wellness Institute (715) 242-2969

62nd Annual NNFA Convention and Trade Show. July 13-16, 1997, San Antonio, TX -- presented by National Nutritional Foods Association - (800) 966-NNFA

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