A blog called LiveSmarter which is curiously attached to a site for online nursing degrees has a survey of alternative medicine blogs which may be of interest to some Herblog readers. Several of my regular reads are there, including the informative blog by Tori Hudson, ND the fabulous Portland, OR- based naturopathic physician who has specialized in the sharp end women’s health care for many many years, as well as The Herbal Science Research site run by ozzie Shayne Foley, also now from Portland. His site aggregates feeds from different botanical medicine sources including PubMed, herbal blogs and podcasts and others in a compiled news format. Herbal Science Research is a must read for any herbalist, and many Herblog entries are initially gleaned from this valuable aggregator. Shayne is an accomplished specialist in on-line botanical education system design and delivery, and a capable multi-media consultant - if you are planning an on line herbal education project that requires content management systems check out Shayne’s services at Digitalis Media.
Top 50 Alternative Medicine Blogs - A Survey
Scudder Text Pdf’s ex google
Paul Bergner quicklysnagged the pdf files from Google Book of their scanned versions of several of Scudder’s Eclectic texts before they were inexplicably removed by Google…
Here are additional temporary links to 3 of the pdfs … Its likely that herbal internet maven Henriette Kress will be finding a permanent home for these, possibly in a searchable format…but meanwhile here they are.
The Eclectic Practice of Medicine - 12th edition ~48 Mb
Charles Kane - Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest
Talking of Southwest materia medica, for sure Michael Moore is the best known writer on the subject of Southwestern plants, but a recent new title (published January 2006) by herbalist Charles W Kane, Herbal Medicine of the American Southwest, by Lincoln Town Press is another great resource on the subject. Kane’s book is good for ID, has quality photos , some unique original paintings, and succinct practical indications and usage profiles of over 200 mostly SW desert plants by a herbalist who walks his talk. IF you want to know more about these precious and in some cases powerful medicines, check out Kane’s book here at his Tucson clinic website. Its a fine deal at 416pp with 332 illustrations for $29.95.
February herbological webstats
The first full month of HERBLOG led to a big increase in herbological.com site traffic too. For February, the BLOG averaged nearly 3000 hits per day. The most frequent file downloads from the herbological site were the reprint of my paper on nettle seed and creatinine clearance (344 downloads), the Weiss facsimile Chapter (289), and my Food Medicine Poison article (234) followed by Herbal Hypotheses Two with over 200 downloads in the month.
Herbal Hypothesis Two is about to appear in print the Journal of the American Herbalists Guild, and has been well received by several who have got back to me with feedback. My favorite comment came from Dr Bill Mitchell, author of Plant Medicine in Practice (see Herbalbookworm Review - Channelling Bastyr) who said it should be compulsory reading for all US citizens over the age of 18.
HH2: MEDLINE and the Mainstream Manufacture of Misinformation
Blockbuster Book Buys: Functional vs. Naturopathic medicine
Want to drop a wad on textbooks? At around two or three hundred bucks there are a couple of good recent options…it’s not hard to spend that much, but is it worth it?
The Institute of Functional Medicine have recently launched the first edition of the “Textbook of Functional Medicine”. The IFM is the Gig Harbor (WA) based Jeff Bland inspired organization that includes some excellent physicians on its faculty /board - for example, Yale pediatrician Sidney Baker, (author of Detoxification and Healing) along with notable primary care IFM physicians like American Herbalist Guild member Dr Bob Rountree of Boulder CO, and from my home town Ashland OR, IFM president Dr David Jones. Functional Medicine docs are among the more progressive and open-minded physicians in the country, and have an approach that is fairly consistent with the core principles of natural medicine, including central emphasis on the individual patient and the complex web of causative factors that underly their chronic health issues, as well as the use of nutritional and botanical derived natural compounds as therapeutic agents. This book should be compulsory reading for all conventional medical students and practising physicians…it will be of use to many practitioners of non-conventional medical modalities too. Check it out. While you are at their web site, check out the rest of their booklist, as well as the annual seminar notes. Cutting edge stuff and right on the money. Of course, IFM docs do not really understand herbs, but that’s not the point. Relative to most of mainstream medicine they are almost enlightened!
The second blockbuster is the new 3rd edition of the huge 2 Volume Textbook of Natural Medicine, edited by Pizzorno and Murray, with 2100+ pp, 90+ contributors and 10,000+ references. Authors include many well known names from North American naturopathic medicine. The fatter Vol 1 deals with philosophy, supplementary diagnostics and special topics, and also includes about 80 monographs on botanical and nutritional remedies, while Vol 2 covers about 70 specific health conditions. Interestingly, the philosophy section contains contributions by Jeff Bland and others from IFM. A huge reference, the Harrisons of naturopathic medicine.
Add these two heavyweights to the Life Extension Foundation’s Disease Prevention and Treatment (expanded 4th Edition) with 1500 pp and 130 conditions and you have the basis of a reasonable reference library for integrative healthcare providers. The LEF book is the bargain basement buy at only $49.95.
Reviews of these books from the herbal or botanical medicine perspective will be posted to The Herbal Bookworm pages of herbological.com as soon as I can read the four thousand+ pages…meanwhile check out the revamped Herbal Bookworm review pages if you haven’t done so. The bottom line is that for herbalists who are clinical full-timers, all of these books would be useful to have. Better put up your hourly rate….