Alternative & Integrative Health Archive

Ask the doctor

Q. I find myself getting more and more anxious, but I don't like to take medications. Is there an alternative natural treatment I can try instead?

A. Anxiety is an incredibly common problem. Although there are many FDA-approved medications that have been widely studied and proved effective, studies show that up to 43% of patients with anxiety use alternative medicine to treat it. Among alternative therapies, herbal treatments are widely used both for therapeutic purposes and for comfort.

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Do you worry yourself awake frequently? Cognitive behavioral therapy can help.

If you have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep, that's insomnia. It happens to everyone from time to time. But it can also become a chronic problem. For some men, fretting about whether they will be able to sleep—and the emotional upset of not being able to when they try—can itself become the root cause of insomnia.

In the journals

Dietary supplements containing the herbal ingredient yohimbe often contain prescription-strength active ingredients that are potentially dangerous, according to a study in Drug Testing and Analysis.

Scientists analyzed 49 popular brands of supplements with yohimbe. They found evidence that 39% of the products tested appeared to contain a pharmaceutical-grade extract of the herb.

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Research we're watching

An analysis published online Sept. 17, 2015, by the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that doing tai chi enhances the quality of life for people with common chronic conditions.

Researchers analyzed data from 33 studies involving nearly 1,600 adults. Most were in their 60s or 70s, and all had one or more chronic conditions: osteoarthritis, breast cancer, heart failure, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). All 290 participants in the breast cancer studies were women. There were 452 women (85% of participants) in the arthritis studies, 76 (16%) in the heart failure studies, and 92 (19%) in the COPD studies.

Almost everyone suffers from trouble sleeping at one time or another. Insomnia — defined as trouble falling asleep or staying asleep — isn't a single disorder itself, but rather a general symptom, like fever or pain.

Because insomnia is so common, you can walk into any drugstore and find a bewildering variety of over-the-counter sleep products. And people are buying them. One small survey of people ages 60 and over found that more than a quarter had taken nonprescription sleeping aids in the preceding year — and that one in 12 did so daily.

Q. Some of my friends take saw palmetto supplements to reduce urinary problems caused by an overgrown prostate, which I was recently diagnosed with. My friends swear by it, but is there any good evidence this stuff helps? Is saw palmetto safe?

A. The short answer is that we don't have great scientific evidence that taking saw palmetto truly reduces male urinary problems. On the other hand, it doesn't appear to cause major side effects either.

Q. Are there any benefits to taking vitamin E supplements? Or any risks?

Tap into your brain's circuitry to boost treatment for your health condition.

Wear sunscreen, and avoid direct exposure to the sun.

Physical therapy and weight loss can relieve knee pain and protect your mobility.