Alternative & Integrative Health Archive

Dietary supplements may be natural but not risk-free.

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A quick stroll through your pharmacy or supermarket wellness aisle will show you that dietary supplements and herbal remedies are big business. Americans spend over $32 billion annually on thousands of herbal products, many of which claim to improve heart health.

Popular misconceptions

People look to herbs and supplements as a natural, safe alternative to the conventional medications they're taking, says Dr. Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Providers, on the other hand, may think of supplements as fancy placebos — expensive but benign. "These are all misconceptions," says Dr. Cohen.

This ancient practice can be used alone or with conventional therapy to help ease your pain.

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Men looking for an easy and effective means to manage pain should consider acupuncture.

"There are many different types of pain — neuropathic, muscular, degenerative joint — all of which can make management complex," says Hugo Lopez, a licensed acupuncturist with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. "Sometimes you need to treat not just the physical components, but also the psychological ones, and that is where acupuncture can help, as it addresses both problems."

There is growing evidence that the placebo effect is at work in most successful medical therapies.

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When you were a child, your mother or grandmother might have used a home remedy that made you feel better, especially when it was delivered with a soothing hand on the forehead or a kiss on the cheek. Perhaps she assured you that a cup of warm milk would help you fall asleep, and you found that it did.

Unbeknownst to you — or her — she was probably harnessing the placebo effect, loosely defined as a favorable response to a medical intervention that doesn't have a direct physiological effect. Although you may have learned later in life that there isn't much scientific evidence to support the practice, you may still sleep better after a cup of warm milk at bedtime.

It’s unclear why, but it appears that people with psoriasis are more likely to also suffer from diabetes.

The nutrient appears to have modest prevention power.

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Vitamin C is often touted as a natural cold remedy. The nutrient is featured in supplements promising to boost the immune system. Nobel laureate Dr. Linus Pauling famously claimed that taking large doses of vitamin C helps thwart a cold. Is there something to these claims? "The data show that vitamin C is only marginally beneficial when it comes to the common cold," says Dr. Bruce Bistrian, chief of clinical nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

About vitamin C

Our bodies don't make vitamin C, but we need it for immune function, bone structure, iron absorption, and healthy skin. We get vitamin C from our diet, usually in citrus fruits, strawberries, green vegetables, and tomatoes. The Recommended Dietary Allowance for men is 90 milligrams (mg) per day, and for women, it's 75 mg per day.

Electroacupuncture may be an effective alternative to medication for relieving hot flashes causing sleep disturbances in postmenopausal women.

It appears that electroacupuncture may be a treatment option for people with chronic severe functional constipation.

Massage therapy can help relieve pain, speed recovery from injury or surgery, and reduce stress.

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Men may think of massage as an occasional treat or a vacation indulgence, but this type of therapy could be a natural way to stay healthy and pain-free.

One of the most common health issues for older men is chronic pain, defined as pain that lasts more than 12 weeks. This includes back pain, headache, cancer pain, and arthritis pain. Then there are the everyday aches from daily living. All of these act as barriers to a healthy lifestyle.