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HealthWorld Online Launches HealthyTravel.net
HealthWorld Online is proud to add HealthyTravel.net to its group of internet service companies. HealthyTravel.net, the Healthy Alternative to Conventional Travel--was launched Dec. 1 and is growing very fast in popularity. The Healthy Travel site features a live booking engine where the traveler can book airline tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals directly online. The site features a very large selections of Healthy Vacation alternatives from world's leading spas, wilderness adventures in Africa and other continents, and spiritual journeys to the Himalayas and Machu Picchu. Obtain Continuing Education credits sailing the seven seas on the worlds most luxurious cruise ships, or hike with a Naturopathic doctor and a Maroon bush doctor/shaman through the Jamaican Rainforest to gather medicinal herbs. Healthy Travel can handle all your travel needs: from Business and Vacation ..Either by email or by phone at 888-888-0717.

Survey Shows Surge in Use of Alternative Healing
A new survey shows that the use of alternative medicine has surged in the 1990s and Americans are now making more visits to alternative healers than to primary care medical doctors. An estimated 4 in 10 Americans used at least one alternative, or "complementary," remedy in 1997, and among people 35 to 49 it was 5 in 10. Visits to alternative practitioners in 1997 jumped by 47 percent from 1991, to a total of 629 million -- exceeding all visits to primary care medical doctors, said the study.

Dr. Galland's Integrated Medicine
In this column, "Foods that Heal ," Dr. Galland discusses detoxifying foods which protect against the effects of environmental pollution, free-radical induced cell damage and cancer through dietary anti-oxidants. Foods that are richest in these anti-oxidants are red, yellow and green vegetables, uncooked nuts and seeds (like almonds and sunflower seeds), and fish. He also outlines the important infection-fighting foods such as garlic, ginger, onions, and tumeric, as well as vegetables containing a high concentration of a group of natural chemicals called saponins, which have immune-stimulating and antibiotic effects--soybeans, chickpeas, bean sprouts, asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes and oats.

Mind Body Health Newsletter
Patients undergoing surgery often experience a loss of control, feeling more like victims than participants. Anxiety, fear of the unknown, fear of pain, dependency, uncertainty, and helplessness are common emotions which can intensify the perception of pain associated with invasive medical procedures. Physical and psychological stress can also contribute to prolonged postoperative recovery and a suppressed immune system, reports Dr. David Sobel his latest column, Guided Imagery Speeds Surgical Recovery. Guided imagery may also help patients strengthen their immune system and enhance their own healing according to recent studies.

The Healer Within
The presence of special breathing practices in the ancient cultures has always been a mystery to people in the Western world. In this first column, Breathing Practices, Dr. Jahnke explains the numerous beneficial physiological mechanisms that are triggered when we turn our attention to the breath and then increase it's volume. When volume, rate and attention level are all altered, dramatic physiological, and even emotional, changes can occur. As it turns out, unknown to science until very recently, the action of the lungs, diaphragm and thorax are a primary pump for the lymph fluid, a lymph heart. This mechanism may be more important to the lymph heart than body movements. In addition, the breath is the source for oxygen which is the key element in the body's ability to produce energy. And the act of relaxed, full breathing moves the function of the autonomic nervous system towards balance or homeostasis. Subsequent columns will focus on specific breathing practices to enhance your health.

Medical Cybrarian Service
Your own real life medical librarian on the Internet! HealthWorld's innovative Cybrarian Service will gather and carefully select bibliographic citations, suggest helpful URL's, and offer brief descriptions of sites or documents that would be useful to you, all for reasonable fees. You can request answers to clinical and health-related inquiries, learn how to effectively search the Internet, and find out what's moving and shaking in the world of alternative and conventional medical practice. Visit our Cybrarian, where no health-related question is too small, no disease is too obscure, no stone goes unturned.

Online Discussion Forums
Visit the many HealthWorld Online discussion forums, including, "Vaccination," "Mind/Body Approaches to Chronic Illness," "Issues in Integrated Health Care," "Legal/Legislative Issues," and Qigong." Interact with our forums leaders: Elliot Dacher, MD; William Collinge, PhD, MPH, Emmett Miller, MD; Randall Neustaedter, OMD; Roger Jahnke, OMD; and William Dailey, Esq.

Professional Referral Network
The latest addition to the HealthWorld Online Professional Referral Network is the American Association of Oriental Medicine (AAOM). The Professional Referral Network contains searchable directories from 17 leading professional associations in complementary and integrative health care, with over 10,000 professionals. You can search for acunpunturists, homeopaths, naturopathic physicians, nutritional experts, practitioners of holistic health care, behavioral optomentrists and more. We welcome the AAOM and all of its members to our network which serves to make the leading complementary health professoinals accessible to the public.

Children's Health Update
Chickenpox is a highly contagious childhood disease that is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, a member of the herpes family. Very few children escape chickenpox infection. It spreads quickly. Coughing and sneezing-even laughing and talking-spread the illness. A child with developing chickenpox will be contagious for one or two days before any symptoms show. A child who plays with an infected child during this period will almost certainly catch the disease. An infected child is contagious from a few days before symptoms develop until all of the blisters are dry and have formed scabs.

In her article "Chicken Pox," excerpted from her book, Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child, Dr. Janet Zand outlines a comprehensive program for helping your child's s chickenpox, including guidelines for conventional treatment, as well as dietary guidelines, recommended nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathic remedies, acupressure and Bach Flower remedies.

Association Network -- Hot Pick
Citizens For Health is the national grassroots advocacy organization committed to protecting and expanding consumer natural health choices. Through a nationwide network of community-based chapters and members, Citizens For Health initiates and monitors legislation with the goal of ensuring access to health information and the freedom to choose from a broad range of health options.

Visit the Citizens For Health.

Global Health Calendar -- Hot Picks

The Third Annual Health Sciences Institute Symposium and Spa Retreat: A program of advanced scientific discovery and personal rejevenation for the health professional and educated consumer. 1/13-1/17/99. Palm Springs, CA USA. Contact: Health Sciences Institute - 800-926-6575

United Plant Savers Conference. 1/23/99 Captain Cook, HI USA Contact: United Plant Savers - 802-479-9825

Free Medline Search

Professional Referral Network

Alternative Medicine Center

Disease Center

Healthy Travel

Natural Products Industry Center

HealthWorld Online Vision and Mission

HealthWorld Online Advisory Board

Editor, Healthy Update: James Strohecker

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To subscribe to email version of Healthy Update, send email to: [email protected] and type just the word "subscribe" in the body text of the email.