|
|
|
As someone who has been interested in natural health alternatives for over twenty years, I've read many, many books on subjects such as vitamin & mineral benefits, herbs for specific health conditions,
nutritional effects on health, and healing energy therapies. But since the internet is now flooded with health information, it's difficult sometimes to discern the good advice from the bad advice. Consequently, over the years, I've found quite a few trusted sources of helpful
information that I use and share with my family.
Bad
health advice?
To avoid losing one penny of their billions of dollars in profits to all the helpful natural health advice out there,
it has been reported that the pharmaceutical companies have started up websites with misinformation to discourage
and scare people from trying alternative therapies. And to keep the average consumer from knowing the true source of that misinformation, these companies have disguised their websites to look as if they belong to some natural health expert.
Most recently, RealAge.com, which appears to be helping you find out your "Real Age" by asking many personal questions about your health
conditions, family history, and health habits, was found to be taking your personal health information and
forwarding it to the pharmaceutical companies, according to a New York Times article. To date, RealAge has not disputed the facts exposed in that
article, But since that article was published, at least they now allow
you to delete all your personal information on their website (if we can
trust an already deceptive company to actually do that).
Where do I find
good health advice?
Since massage therapy is considered a part of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), I
figured that my massage website could also be a place where I can help point you in the direction of some of the natural health experts whom I trust. Armed with their information, you can make decisions about your health and natural alternatives that your doctor probably has minimal knowledge of (unless he or she is considered an "Alternative MD").
What works well for information on a topic you'd like to learn
more about is to search trusted sources of alternative health
information. If you ask any successful person in any field how they became so successful,
they will tell you that didn't get all their information to make decisions from just one source--they found sources that they trusted and extracted and combined the advice that was best for them. So why should we take our health advice from just one
source--if our doctor was only trained in one method of treatment (pharmaceuticals &
surgery), that may not be the healthiest choice for us. Most important
of all is that we are successful at staying healthy, so why should we trust just one source of information on what's best for us?
How do I search
for a topic that I need more information on?
On my Products
and Health Info
web page, you'll find a custom Google Search in the left column.
Google limits each search box to just four websites--the Web (default)
plus three custom websites. Since I have six sources of natural health
information that I trust, I had to set it up into two separate search
boxes. Here is what the search box looks like:
For any condition, vitamin, supplement, therapy, or topic that you'd
like more information on, just enter the word or words into the search
box that's just above the buttons, then select the button next to one of
the three natural health websites, and click on the Google Search
button.
For example, let's assume that your doctor has told you that you have
"high cholesterol" and wants to put you on one of the
dangerous statin drugs (e.g., Lipitor, Vytorin, Zocor), but you'd like
to research other natural health options before you start that drug
therapy. You could simply type statin in the search box,
click on the Mercola.com button, then click on the Google
Search button. Google will then give you a search results
page with links to all types of statin information from Joseph Mercola
MD, such as The Truth About Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs (Statins)
or Lower Cholesterol Naturally without Statins, which, by
the way, are both very educational and informative articles that he
wrote.
Once you've learned what Dr. Mercola has to say about that topic, you
can then go back to the Google Search on my web page and with the same
topic (statin), click on another one of the sources, such as DrWhitaker,
to read what Julian Whitaker MD has to say about the same subject.
What if I get
conflicting information from these trusted sources?
Much like a visit to multiple doctors to get
advice on a single health challenge (e.g., a second opinion), you may
find different or even conflicting information from the trusted sources
that I use. So it will take researching the information as much as
possible to decide which information feels right for you. As with
most therapies, natural or traditional, one that helps one person may
not help another with the same condition. The good thing about most
natural alternative therapies is that they are safe to try on their own.
But some natural therapies do have warnings, especially about
interactions with pharmaceuticals, so do your research carefully and
check with your doctor if you don't feel comfortable trying something.
Disclaimer:
I am not a medical doctor and do not give medical diagnoses or
recommendations. I only provide an easier method to search sources
of online natural health information that are readily available to the
public. Each person who uses my search tool is responsible for making
his or her own health choices.
|
|