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About This Story
At week 25 of her pregnancy, Tammy has been hospitalized with pre-term rupture of the membrane. This puts her unborn baby at extreme danger of contracting a deadly infection. Tammy is learning how meditation can reduce the risk of infection and improve her baby's chance of survival.
About the Common Therapies List
The therapies listed in the orange sidebar are not necessarily meant to treat conditions directly. Often they are used to reduce stress, therefore increasing a person’s ability to cope and/or heal.
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Treating Infections: Essential Oils
Doreen Lafferty, OTR/L, NCBTMB, Massage Therapist
Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine
About Essential Oils
An essential oil is a highly concentrated extract from a plant containing oxygen, nutrients, and chemicals. It may be compared to blood or hormones in a human being. Also, it is considered the life source or spirit of the plant. Essential oils serve many functions in maintaining the life and health of a plant. They protect the plant by preventing attack from herbivores, insects, bacteria, viruses and fungi. Essential oils also aid in pollination, help to heal wounds in the plant, prevent dehydration, and help the plant survive difficult growth conditions. It is easy to see that essential oils could provide the same help to human beings as they do for the plant. Aromatherapy is the controlled use of true essential oils to promote balance and harmony in the body, mind, heart, and soul. Inhalation, massage, baths, and compresses are methods that holistic aromatherapists recommend for using essential oils.
Viral Infections & IM
Tanya Edwards, MD, MEd
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Excerpted from The New Medicine Interviews
We’ve all heard the term “alternative medicine,” which most people feel is the concept of using some form of therapy instead of conventional medicine. Complementary medicine, in most cases, refers to when patients use mostly Western, conventional medicine, and then complement it with a few of the therapies on the side as an adjunct. Integrative medicine, in my mind, is using whatever works.
So my first option for certain things may be something that someone might consider alternative. [For instance], if somebody comes in with a viral infection, my first option is not necessarily an antihistamine and decongestant, which would be more conventional. My first preference would be for them to use an herb, something like echinacea and vitamin C and a zinc lozenge, in order to help abort the symptoms as soon as possible.