Article I wrote on Integrative Medicine

[Val Pfeiffer]

hi everyone!
Stephanie wrote me and asked me how my article was coming along--it is complete and was published this month in the Scene (the same local magazine in which my last story on breast cancer was published). Here is the link:

http://www.valleyscene.com/toyourhealth.html

Thanks for all the help and support you guys give me for my writing. I wish I had time to do it more often :-)

Val

[StephN]

Hi Val -
Well, you did it again, woman!
And thanks for putting in the difference between "Alternative" and "Integrative" as this is really a new direction for main stream cancer center such as mine. More of the integrative concept is being added in the offerings to patients.

[AlaskaAngel]

Nice to see among us yet another person who is so competent in connecting and communicating!

The growing awareness of credibility of integrative medicine I think is also happening because there are more and more highly qualified students and practitioners in the west whose origins are in cultures that are aware of and value the knowledge from the past.

At the major cancer center where I am treated in Seattle, in the last 5 years alone the incorporation of integrative medicine has grown a great deal. I notice the change in emphasis all the more because I travel there fairly infrequently.

Thanks, Val.

AlaskaAngel

[CLTann]

I am taking liberty of sending a copy of Val's article to my brother, who is a practician medical doctor with conventional western medical degree as well as the integrative medicine at Tucson, AZ. I often seek advice from him for various medical problems. My dietary intakes are very much influenced by his inputs.

Thanks for your very informative writing.

[Heart Sutra]

Deleted by author.
;) p m' d instead

[AlaskaAngel]

Thank you for carefully acknowledging personal authorship of your thoughts here, Kevin.

The perspective and experience of a person who actually has been told they have a potentially deadly disease is truly different than the perspective of even the most intensely involved and well-intentioned family members.

<O:pMost of those who are here have had to make the hard personal choices involved with considering the standard western toxic therapies. These choices have to be made knowing that there is no guarantee of success, and in fact with some awareness that these therapies have limited success, particularly in the case of those with metastasis.

Skepticism applies as well to a lot of the "standard" western practices commonly used in the past that have been abandoned in favor of better and better treatments over time. Please don't confuse the effort toward disciplined and documented integrative medicine with quackery.

The narratives of some of the people here who have personally struggled at great cost through toxic therapies week after week are heartbreaking. It is not foolish to be willing to try to encourage the integration of western medicine with disciplined research involving less toxic therapies from other cultures, ancient or otherwise. Quality of life is a very real part of the equation.

<O:pCordially,

<O:pAlaskaAngel<O:p

[Val Pfeiffer]

As you may be able to infer from reading my article, I do not support abandoning Western medicine in favor of 100% alternative. In my opinion, integrated medicine is strongly encouraged.

I am sure that the Scene would love to get some "letters to the editor" regarding this topic, so if any of you would like to do that in response to this story, I think that would be appropriate and appreciated :-)

Val