Book Review: Complementary Medicine in Clinical Practice

This eminently practical resource targets mainstream health professionals at a time when complementary and alternative therapies and services are increasingly being utilized in the United States and other Western countries, often in addition to, rather than instead of, conventional health care. The book is designed to introduce conventional practitioners, particularly physicians, to an integrative approach to healing and to familiarize them with the range of therapeutic options available for integration. The book is well organized into 10 major sections: expanding the continuum of care, clinical nutrition, exercise and fitness, mind-body medicine, self-care, therapeutic massage, acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal therapy, and models of integrative medicine. Within these sections, 70 chapters written by 63 contributors who are experts in various aspects of complementary and integrative care present a range of perspectives and topics useful to the practicing health professional. The first section, “Expanding the Continuum of Care,” presents both a rationale for integrating complementary and alternative approaches into conventional practice, as well as a philosophical perspective on a holistic, integrative approach to care. Such an approach emphasizes prevention as well as low-cost, low-tech therapeutic strategies. This section also contains a “how-to” on phasing in integrative practice, steps to a viable therapeutic business, and creating a virtual group integrative practice. The sections that follow describe elements of integrative practice, with emphasis on their utilization within a framework that promotes preventive care, self-care, and the empowered, motivated patient. Emphasis is on those therapies for which there is research evidence of efficacy and effectiveness. For many sections, resources are provided for further information. Many of the topics are focused on preventive strategies that are now relatively well accepted in mainstream medicine, although often underutilized in current practice. For example, there are excellent chapters on nutritional assessment, medically supervised exercise, and group support. Other topics are likely to be new to most conventionally trained practitioners. For example, the nutrition section introduces the concept and practices of functional medicine as well as novel and unconventional testing procedures for nutritional and digestive status. The section on mind-body medicine includes chapters on the role and application of group therapy, biofeedback, Heartmath, health coaching, imagery, hypnosis, and spiritual counseling. Surprisingly, mindfulness meditation is not included in this section, although it is discussed in the following section on self-care, along with relaxation and breathing exercises. These therapies are perhaps grouped together because they are particularly well suited to be implemented as part of a self-care regimen.