The Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Cancer: An Integrative Approach to Prevention, Treatment, and Healing    by Lise Alschuler & Karolyn A. Gazella Order:  USA  Can Celestial Arts, 2007 (2007) Hardcover Read an Excerpt      Reviewed by Deb Kincaid According to the American Cancer Society, more than 1,500 people die every day from cancer. Within the medical community, however, an increasing awareness of integrative medicine's benefits is improving quality of life and cancer survival rates for patients. What is integrative medicine? It's a treatment approach that utilizes the best of both conventional and alternative medicine. If it hasn't already, cancer very likely will touch most of us. Before it does, we'll want to have on hand The Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Cancer by Lise Alschuler, ND and Karolyn A. Gazella. Lise Alschuler is a naturopathic doctor and board certified naturopathic oncologist with years of clinical practice. Her co-author, Karolyn A. Gazella, is a research journalist and health writer who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1995. Gazella herself uses an integrative approach to maintain her health. The two authors have crafted this book with us in mind, calling it a thinker's manual. Thankfully, it is not filled with technical terminology or confusing jargon. Yet, it is comprehensive, authoritative, and thorough. The book is divided into four primary sections: Part I, Understanding Cancer; Part II, Treatment Approaches; Part III, Supporting Key Body Functions; and, Part IV, Addressing Specific Cancers. Within Part II, there is a particularly useful chart describing nutrient and chemotherapy drug interactions. Important pointed information is found in the book's many sidebars, too. A glossary, a cancer treatment center resource, and an appendix of nutrient/herb dosage ranges are included. An impressive 60+ pages of endnotes contain references to articles, medical and scientific studies, and other publications, underscoring the substantiated nature of The Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Cancer. This book's explanations of cancer staging, and the interrelationship of the body's digestive, immune, and endocrine systems, are the most clear and understandable I have ever read. The book is extremely useful not only for the information it imparts, but for the sense of control having that information engenders. The authors encourage us to look at cancer differently, to set aside the hope for a 'magic bullet that will cure all cancers.' Instead, healing from cancer must embrace healing of the mind, body and spirit. Alschuler and Gazella's Alternative Medicine Magazine's Definitive Guide to Cancer illuminates the many effective cancer treatment options that do just that. Listen to a podcast author interview at WrittenVoices.com. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more NonFiction books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews