To subscribe to email version of Healthy Update, fill out the free subscription form, or send email to: update@healthy.net and type just the word "subscribe" in the body text of the email.

HealthWorld Online Launches Premium Content Center with Alternative Medicine Journals, Textbooks and Online Audios
To complement HealthWorld Online's over 40,000 pages of free access content, we are proud to announce the launching the Premium Content Center to offer difficult-to-find journal articles and chapters from natural medicine textbooks and research reports in a convenient shopping cart environment. Featured content includes Nutritional Influences on Illness, Dr. Melvyn Werbach's classic database of over 3,000 pages of nutritional research on more than 100 health conditions, which is now available on a per chapter basis. Articles from over 2 years of issues of complementary/integrative medical journals such as HerbalGram, the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, and the Journal of Naturopathic Medicine are available in the Premium Content Center, which also features 220 Real Audio tapes on treatment approaches for over 80 health conditions from experts in Nutritional Medicine (Jonathan Wright, MD), Homeopathic Medicine (Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman, ND and Robert Ullman, ND) and Naturopathic Medicine (American Association of Naturopathic Physicians). All chapters, articles and audio tapes are accessible online through secure credit card transaction.

Pollutants May Pose Greater Danger to Women
Women may be more vulnerable to environmental toxins than men, according to research presented here Thursday at a conference on women's health. Scientists believe exposure to environmental chemicals, as well as stress, may both increase a woman's chance of developing certain diseases and worsen the symptoms of these diseases, said Anne Sassaman, director of extramural research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C. These diseases include breast cancer and autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis. The reason for women's increased susceptibility, researchers believe, may be their smaller size. The same exposure can mean a higher dose and thus a greater effect.

Alternative Medicine Extends to the ER
As an ever-increasing number of people partake of alternative medicine, even emergency-room doctors must be prepared to use such treatments and warn about important complementary drug interactions to patients they see in the ER, doctors said at a meeting held here recently. At the meeting, ER doctors discussed several methods of alternative, or complementary, medicine, including acupuncture, herbal medicine and guided imagery.

Tai Chi an Ideal Workout for Senior Citizens
Tai chi -- "the grand ultimate" in Mandarin -- is a Chinese martial arts technique at least 1,000 years old. When practiced as an exercise, its slow movements and graceful postures, one flowing smoothly into the next, is an ideal workout for senior citizens. "People think exercise has to be fast to be effective," explains Jerry Ziffer, 43, a professional massage therapist whose tai chi class in this mile-wide retirement community is 1 year old this month. ``I compare tai chi to a microwave oven as opposed to a conventional oven. A microwave cooks from the inside out. It massages and develops circulation in all your organs.''

Dr. Galland's Integrated Medicine
Epidemics of parasitic infection from contaminated water and of bacterial food poisoning from chicken or hamburger serve notice that the U.S. food and water supply is not safe, according to Leo Galland, M.D., in his latest HealthWorld Online column, Eating Safely in a Polluted World: You Don't Have to Choose between Microbes and Chemicals! . Pesticides and preservatives provide no protection from the current crop of microbes and pose health hazards of their own, warns Galland. This column offers several simple, effective measures you can follow to protect yourself and those you love from the effects of eating contaminated food and water, avoiding both microbial and chemical contaminants in food and drink and building resistance to them if you are exposed.

Mind Body Health Newsletter
By definition, "crisis" means that one's life is out of control. When faced with a health crisis, many people experience the information they receive about their condition -- and the way they receive it -- as making their feelings of being out of control worse, not better, notes Dr. David Sobel in his column, Computers: New Prescription for Patients. A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports encouraging results in addressing this problem with a computer-based program, the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS). An interactive, PC-based system with color graphics and a user-friendly format, CHESS is easy to use -- even for people with no computer experience. Patients diagnosed with serious conditions such as breast cancer or AIDS/HIV infection are given a computer at home. At their own convenience, patients can access timely, comprehensible information about their disease and take advantage of a variety of non-threatening and anonymous support opportunities.

Natural Medicine Research Update
As we have known for many years, essential hypertension is one of the most common risk factors for cardiovascular disease and strokes. Although pharmaceutical medicines have been helpful in decreasing blood pressure in hypertensive individuals, some of these medicines have also proven to have significant side effects. says Dr. Ray Sahelian in his column, Magnesium and blood pressure . The non-pharmacological approach to treating blood pressure is an attractive concept. Recent research has pointed to the benefits of increasing fruit and vegetable intake in lowering blood pressure. A few epidemiological studies have hinted that perhaps magnesium plays a role in controlling BP. Recently, a Japanese study tried to discover whether oral magnesium supplementation had any effect on healthy subjects with positive results.

The Healer Within
Slow, non-intense, daily practice of moderate exercise, as it has been done in China through Qigong and in India through Yoga for centuries, is now emerging, with scientific authorization as the fitness enhancement practice of choice, according to Dr. Roger Jahnke in this column, Gentle Movements and Postures, Part I . While it seems belated in a culture so scientifically evolved, this information is a real miracle in a time of serious crisis in our health care. Now, especially when we look to how the Asian traditions have refined this idea over time, the unwell, the bedridden, those limited to wheel chairs, elders and even the partially paralyzed can derive significant fitness building through moderate self-applied practices of Qigong and Yoga.

Discussion Forums
Participate in our online discussion forums! Our forums, moderated by experts in their respective fields, include: "Mother-Friendly Childbirth," "Vaccination," "Issues in Integrated Health Care," "Legal/Legislative Issues," "Mind/Body Approaches to Chronic Illness," and Qigong." Interact with our forums leaders: Elliot Dacher, MD; John Travis, MD; William Collinge, PhD, MPH, Emmett Miller, MD; Randall Neustaedter, OMD; Roger Jahnke, OMD; and William Dailey, Esq. Let your voice be heard!

Children's Health Update
Any teenager or adult who gets the mumps should receive medical attention, and so should any child who also experiences difficulty hearing or who has convulsions, neck stiffness, severe headache, or great weakness. In this article, Mumps™ excerpted from his book, Homeopathic Medicines for Children and Infants, Homeopathic expert Dana Ullman, M.P.H. explains how homeopathic medicines are often effective in treating the average case of mumps, and help reduce the chances of complications.

Association Network -- Hot Pick
Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians supports two major goals: to create a professional society for naturopathic physicians who specialize in classical homeopathy. And second, HANP offers standards by which the community can assess the experience and expertise of these practitioners. In this way we support the public's access to professional homeopathic care. Visit Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians.

Global Health Calendar -- Hot Picks

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Myofascial Pain Conference: Am Exploration of Practical, Usable Solutions for Myofascial Pain Management - With Leon Chaitow, ND, DO, Judith (Walker) DeLany, LMT, John C. Hannon, DC, Cert. Feldenkrais Practitioner, Thomas Myers, Certi. Advanced Rolfer, Benny Vaughn, LMT. October 23-25, 1998, Berkeley, CA -- presented by The International Alliance of Healthcare Educators - 561-622-4334 ext 4548

1998 Clinical Herbalism Case Conference: Case-based education in medical herbalism. October 23-25, 1998, Boulder, CO -- presented by The Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies and the Medical Herbalism Journal - 303-442-6861

4th Annual Florida Health Show- Focus: Living Longer & Quality of Life. November 12-14, 1998, Lake Buena Vista, FL -- presented by InterShow - The Health Show - 800-226-0323

Body & Soul San Francisco: A weekend conference of keynotes and workshops presented by national leaders in mind/body healing, spirituality, creativity & contemplative practices. November 13-16, 1998, San Francisco, CA -- presented by New Age Publishing, Inc. - 800-937-8728

American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) - Fall Convention: Cardiovascular Disease in the 21st Century: Prevention, Reversal and Permanent Restoration. November 19-22, 1998, Phoenix, AZ -- presented by American College for Advancement in Medicine - 949-583-7666

Free Medline Search

Professional Referral Network

Alternative Medicine Center

Disease Center

HealthWorld Online Vision and Mission

HealthWorld Online Advisory Board

Editor, Healthy Update: James Strohecker

Suggestions & Comments: We welcome your suggestions and comments to help us provide the highest quality service. If you are aware of late-breaking news or information that would be useful to our subscribers, please contact us at: info4update@healthy.net

To subscribe to email version of Healthy Update, send email to: update@healthy.net and type just the word "subscribe" in the body text of the email.