Herbal Medicine Wins a Nobel Prize This Year

nobelExciting news: half of the recent Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded for a treatment for Malaria derived from an herb, used as a traditional Chinese medicine known as Artemisia Annua.

Although the artimesinin derived from this herb has been somewhat purified from the original source, it is very gratifying to see that the greatest honor of the year goes to an Herbalist/Chinese medicine practitioner and scientist.

This award puts an important spotlight on the value of traditional herbal medicine as a healing force on our planet, on a par with the development of a drug treatment for parasitic diseases for which the other half of Nobel Prize was awarded.

The world is waking up to vital importance of traditional and herbal medicine as a crucial pillar of our health care.  Hopefully our government and insurance industry will also awaken to the value of this balance.

To your health,

Dr. Alan M Dattner, MD

Holistic Dermatology & Integrative Medicine


Turmeric: Great Foods for Your Skin ~ Best Natural Skincare Diet

Turmeric is a wonderful root that has tremendous uses of spice and herb that is a key component to curry in Indian cooking. It has many different protector properties including being anti-cancer being anti-inflammatory and be anti-microbial so that it kills bad organs in the body. It has a lot of different in flavoring and it has one big caution it’s such a powerful dye that it stain not only your clothing but even your table. Be sure to be careful when you’re using and be careful what you wearing.


Garlic: Great Foods for Your Skin ~ Best Natural Skincare Diet

Garlic is a wonderful food although some people around you may not appreciate that it is as wonderful as it is for you if they haven’t eaten it, you probably noticed that. Garlic has some tremendous properties, it’s been known to lower your cholesterol, it may have some blood pressure lowering effects, it may also have affects killing variety of different organisms that bother the body simply be very protective in that way it can be used for anything from colds to deeper infections. It’s a spice that blends a lot of flavor to foods and it can be used to prepare foods in order to cure organisms, like let’s say fish or meat is just beginning to turn, because it’s powerful antimicrobial. I highly recommend using garlic, but sharing it with your friends and people who are close to you because they may not appreciate it if you’re the only one around eating it.


Oregano: Great Food for Your Skin ~ Best Natural Skincare Diet

Oregano and various herbs that are commonly used for spicing Italian foods are wonderful properties of being pain antimicrobial. They help kill fungus and bacteria in various foods and plants. If you have tomatoes just a little bit beyond what they should be then making a tomato sauce with them can help destroy any organisms in them and any fungus. The cautions although is that you can still have an allergic reactivity to the fungus that has been killed in those sauce and the second question is these important herbs have essential oils and those essential oils although they can be beneficial to killing viruses in bacteria and fungus in your body, can also cause hypersensitivity reaction. Some people do get allergic to these oils and those people need to avoid them. Oregano is a very valuable herb as well is related herbs, but you need to know not to use it if you have a hypersensitivity and not to depend upon it to destroy the presence of allergens that were previously infectious in your foods.


Holistic Dermatology, Ann Wigmore, Wheat Grass, Vegetarian Anti-Cancer Diet

“What can you tell me about the effective wheatgrass juice?”


“Well wheatgrass juices has a lot of anti-oxidants in it. It’s reported to have a lot of beneficial effects even in conditions such as diabetes and in cancer. I had the privilege of meeting Ann Wigmore in Cambridge in around 1970. She was still alive and there were a lot of very devoted people who were coming to her for help. I didn’t have a chance to really go through a lot of case histories in ascertain exactly what was going on but I had a very strong sense that people were getting better from the stories that were told to me.”


“Now do they apply wheat grass topically or is it mainly internal?”


“People were using it internally and it was part of a very rigorous program that was vegetarian in yet still had methods for obtaining important nutrients like B-12 with the Rejuvelac. She had a very extensive program so it wasn’t just that you took some wheat grass you were used they were eating watermelon rinds for Diuretic and watermelon. It was they had many different steps that were put together in order to be vegetarian and yet still do cleansing and yet still be healthy having the essential nutrients.”

What Food You Might Eat to Prevent Alzheimer’s?

6a00e55255b462883401901b980627970b-200wiWell, not exactly curry…

Some of the best features of natural, unprocessed remedies made from plants is that they are often less toxic and less expensive than pharmaceuticals. However, as an integrative physician and holistic dermatologist, I believe in using the medicine that is best for each individual patient at each individual time.

Some of the best medicines that exist and are being developed are naturally occurring remedies which are strengthened through pharmaceutical concentration. For example, a friend of mine developed a highly concentrated form of blue-green algae in the form of a pill which may be beneficial for fighting virile strains of the flu.

An exciting development from researchers at New Delhi Jamia Hamdard University in India: they have successfully used cucurmin–extracted from turmeric and turned into nano form–to control and cure cirrhosis of liver in animal model experiment. The experiment has been shown to reverse severe damage to the liver.  Human trials are starting and researchers hope for major breakthroughs.

The university studies and develops traditional methods of treatment and medicines, “We have all come across references to turmeric’s healing powers in history and mythology. So, we decided to check its efficacy. It was found that when used in large doses, turmeric wasn’t particularly useful. But broken into nano particles, it worked wonders. It even reversed cirrhosis which is incurable,” said S. Ahmad, vice-chancellor of Jamia Hamdard.

Curcumin extract is an antioxidant that helps revive dying cells. As a repairing agent, it can regenerate cells that have begun to break. The experiments on animals have proved that it has no toxic effect. “The trouble with traditional medicines is that not enough studies have been done to prove their efficacy. Neither do we know how their utility could be enhanced. We are trying to fill in the blanks. In this case, the result has been fascinating and we are confident that the human trials will be successful as well,” added Ahmad.

I am excited that this and other experiments like it could pave the way for treating diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s!

To your health,

Dr. Alan M. Dattner, MD

Holistic Dermatology
New York, New York

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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.

 


Wild Medicine with Dr. Andrew Weil

6a00e55255b46288340192aa258db3970d-200wiOn Saturday, I attended the opening ceremony of an event at the New York Botanical Garden entitled “Wild Medicine: healing plants from around the world.” I enjoyed hearing and (re-)meeting the featured speaker Dr. Andrew Weil.

I probably met Andy Weil at various holistic events I was part of in the 80’s or early 90’s, but the time I remember best was at the American Holistic Medical Association Meeting, I believe in Kansas City in March 1993, where he was scheduled to lead a presentation, and presented a Japanese group who demonstrated the traditional technique of Jo Rei Healing. I learned how to receive energy with one hand and send it out with the other. I met Andy during that time and spoke briefly with him then.

Dr. Weil’s main message this week was similar to what I have learned over the years from studying with herbalists, is that the total composition of the products available from plants has a more benficial effect than any of the isolated most active compounds.

In this, he differs markedly from the thinking of pharmacologist’s, drug companies, and the mainstream physicians, who have come to believe that the, most active product isolated from a plant, is the only component to use.  We both take exception to the fact that medicine has built up a repertoire of drugs commonly used that have much higher toxicity than the plants they were derived from.

I have always believed that there is a synergy in the various components within the plant, which offer it protection that we are seeking to use for ourselves as a result, I often use whole food or whole plant products or extracts in my practice.

Dr. Weil’s talk reinforced my thinking on the use of whole plant extracts in treating diseases.  Seeing the incredible array of medicinal plants from around the world reminded me that the cures for many of our illnesses are as natural as the illnesses themselves.

To your health,

Dr. Alan M. Dattner
Holistic Dermatology
New York, New York

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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.