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Alcoholism: CAM Therapies for Specific Conditions
- Acupuncture, particularly applied to the inner ear,
has helped patients withdraw not only from opiates but also from alcohol and
other addictive drugs.
- In a 1987 controlled study on hard-core
alcoholics, a group that received acupuncture had half as many drinking episodes and
admissions to detox centers as did a control group, which received sham
acupuncture.
- Studies show acupuncture is successful in preventing relapse with
severe alcoholics.
- Milk thistle extract has been proven in clinical
studies to be effective for hepatitis, alcoholic cirrhosis, and liver damage
from exposure to harmful chemicals.
- In a study of sixty-six patients, most of
whom had alcohol-induced liver disease, thirty-one patients received a
standardized milk thistle preparation, and showed significant improvement in liver enzyme levels.
- Valerian is a very safe herb, and unlike
barbiturates and other conventional drugs for treating insomnia, it does not
interact synergistically with alcohol. There is a potential interaction with
other sedatives but there are few if any reported contraindications, warnings,
or adverse effects.
- In Ayurvedic medicine, pitta types are disturbed by consuming too
much alcohol.
- A thirty-five-year study found that
individuals who described parents in positive terms in the 1950s were far less likely to
have developed later illnesses, such as alcoholism.
- One reason Swedish citizens may enjoy better health and one of the world's longest life expectancies is lower use of alcohol.
Caution: A study of beta-carotene found increased risk for lung cancer in people who smoked and also drank alcohol, or who smoked heavily; another study found neither harm nor benefit.
From THE
BEST ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: WHAT WORKS? WHAT DOES NOT? by Dr. Kenneth R.
Pelletier.
Copyright © 2000 by Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier,
Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Simon &
Schuster, Inc., New York, New York.
Unless otherwise indicated,
Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier. All Rights Reserved.
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