Who coined the phrase, integrative medicine?

Andrew Weil has popularized the term. Has been integrative medicine’s greatest ambassador. Created incredible demand for it.

Pretigious medical schools across the country have developed departments of integrative medicine in the last decade. (Including Duke University, Harvard University, Stanford University, University of California, San Francisco, University of Arizona, Columbia University, University of Maryland, University of New Mexico, Thomas Jefferson University, University of Massachusetts, Albert Einstein/Yeshiva University, Georgetown University, and the University of Minnesota, among others.)

I don’t recall being aware of the terms, integrative health, integrative medicine, integrative healing, before about 1988 or 1989.

Earliest reference I can find to “integrative health” is this (more…)

Herbal supplement manufacturers don’t stress this. (A bottom-line issue for them?) Yet it was foundational in the herbal texts and trainings I went through in the ’70s, ’80s and even early ’90s. I don’t hear it any more.

And I wonder why? It didn’t suddenly quit being true.

I was taught by traditional Chinese, English and American herbalists, that you should always take herbal remedies in cycles, or “rounds.” Such as, take the herb (or herbal combination) for two weeks, then abstain for a week, then resume for two weeks, and then abstain for a week. Or, take for two months and then take four months off. (Sort of a wash, rinse, repeat routine.)

This is because the body adjusts to the herbs, adapts to the herbs, and then develops tolerance or resistance, and the herbs lose their (more…)

The following is an excerpt from my 1985 metaphysical / quantum-physics novel, Conversations with the Moon, (which had a first, small, private print-run under the title, Blue Suede Shoes) © ken winston caine, all rights reserved:

The brunette is uncertain whether she is hearing sounds on The Other Side.

But, she is certain she senses music… Music tickling her; music caressing her… Music filling, feeding, sustaining her.

Here, on The Other Side, she may be music. She may be a sustained chord; a full chord; a sweet chord; a round chord. She may be C Major…

She’s not sure. She is sure she senses music.

Music.

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Music is a drug. The sounds, rhythms affect the brain and encourage the release of endorphins — natural morphine — and can release a cascade of sexual excitement hormones, or any of a prescription list of brain chemicals (more…)

A new study reinforces the healing power of music.

The scientifically rigorous study, published in the current issue of The Journal of Advanced Nursing, finds that listening to music just one hour a day can reduce pain levels by up to 21% and depression levels by up to 25% among long-term sufferers of chronic pain.

Those in the study had been suffering from back pain due to disc disease, arthritis or other (more…)

Seven per cent of men having a heart attack drove themselves to hospital and only 60 per cent went by ambulance, according to research published in Journal of Advanced Nursing in Feburary.

The study, which looked at 890 heart attack patients admitted to six major teaching hospitals in Dublin, Southern Ireland, also found that it took women five times as long as men to (more…)

The Czech Republic is the first country to adopt a dark skies law with real teeth.

Why can’t we see the stars any more?

One picture: worth a million stars. This NASA photo tells the whole story. It’s captioned simply “Earth’s city lights.” View it here: (more…)

by Ken Winston Caine

The air is NOT getting cleaner — despite the nonsense governmental hype that ABC reporter John Stossel has famously cited.

Yes, major cities now are reporting an impressively decreasing number of dangerous smog days compared to 30 years ago — even as populations have grown substantially. They’ve learned to control specific pollutants, scrub them from smokestacks, force industry to implement cleaner technologies, outlaw certain vapor sources, and we’re driving cars now that produce less of the measured pollutants. But that’s not the whole story.

Anyone who has driven around the country over (more…)

Useful resource for holistic practitioners: Boston-area Attorney Michael H. Cohen’s CamLaw Blog — The Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog. Covers latest developments affecting practice of alternative medicine, as well as updates on key issues. While Cohen is a legal wonk who specializes in litigation affecting the practice of complementary and alternative medicine, he writes clearly and (more…)