Integrative Sleep Medicine

Sleep is one of the key underpinnings of human health yet sleep deprivation and impaired sleep are rampant in modern life. Sleep and wake are a true yin yang phenomenon, each affecting the other and together forming a harmonious whole. Healthy sleep is a whole-body process impacted by circadian rhythm, daily activities, and emotional well-being, among others. When properly aligned, these work in concert to produce restorative and refreshing sleep. When not in balance, however, sleep disorders result. Yet too often, the conventional medical approach to treatment of sleep disorders is compartmentalized, failing to recognize all of the complex interactions that are involved. The first book in its field, Integrative Sleep Medicine offers a true comprehensive approach to sleep and sleep disorders by delineating the many factors that interplay into healthy sleep. Health care practitioners can learn how to better manage their patients with sleep disorders by integrating complementary and conventional approaches. Using an evidence-based approach throughout, this book describes the basics of normal sleep, then delves into the foundations of integrative sleep medicine, including the circadian rhythm, mind-body sleep connection, light, dreaming, the gastrointestinal system, and botanicals and supplements. Specific sleep issues and disorders are then addressed from an integrative perspective, including insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, sleep related movement disorders, and parasomnias.

"Sleep has been found to affect nearly all aspects of health, both individual and societal. Despite this, it has long been neglected in the medical literature until relatively recent times. Different perspectives of sleep are discussed, including historical views of sleep and alternative sleep patterns. The development of sleep as a medical specialty is described as are limitations to the conventional medical approach to sleep. The foundations of a truly integrative approach to sleep are enumerated"--

As a field, men's health is far behind women's health in terms of the availability of reliable, scientifically based information that men, their partners, and health care providers can rely on when seeking information and treatment. Moreover, integrative approaches are becoming more popular with men whose healthcare providers understand that most of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in men, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, urologic disease, and sexual dysfunction, can be ameliorated using an integrative approach, with more emphasis on the patient-provider relationship, lifestyle change, and the use of proven complementary modalities. Integrative Men's Health provides an evidence-based perspective on the health problems that affect men and the ways in which such problems may be prevented or treated utilizing a broad armamentarium of approaches - from conventional tools to complementary modalities. All chapters take into consideration of all the factors that influence men's health including body, mind, and spirit in a way that neither rejects alternative approaches nor accepts any of them uncritically.

'Integrative Environmental Medicine' looks at the history and changing landscape of environmental issues in the United States, including water supply, air quality, extensive plastic pollution, harmful chemicals in cleaning and personal care products, radiofrequency radiation, food additives, pesticides, and medications

Drawing on solid scientific evidence as well as extensive first-hand experience, this manual provides the practical information you need to safely and effectively integrate complementary and alternative treatment modalities into your practice. It explains how alternative therapies can help you fight diseases that do not respond readily to traditional treatments... presents integrative treatments for a full range of diseases and conditions, including autism, stroke, chronic fatigue syndrome, and various forms of cancer...explores how to advise patients on health maintenance and wellness...and offers advice on topics such as meditation, diet, and exercises for back pain. 24 new chapters, a new organization, make this landmark reference more useful than ever. Provides dosages and precautions to help you avoid potential complications.Delivers therapy-based pearls to enhance your patient care.Facilitates patient education with helpful handouts. Offers helpful icons that highlight the level and quality of evidence for each specific modality.Includes bonus PDA software that lets you load all of the therapeutic review sections onto your handheld device.Presents a new organization, with numerous section headings and subheadings, for greater ease of reference.Provides additional clinical practice and business considerations for incorporating integrative medicine into clinical practice.

Women have made it clear that they desire a broader, integrative approach to their care. Here, for the first time, Integrative Women's Health weaves together the best of conventional treatments with mind-body interventions, nutritional strategies, herbal therapies, dietary supplements, acupuncture, and manual medicine, providing clinicians with a roadmap for practicing comprehensive integrative care. Presenting the best evidence in a concise, accessible format, and written exclusively by female clinicians, this text addresses many aspects of women's health, including feminine perspectives on aging, spirituality and sexuality, specific recommendations for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, headaches, multiple sclerosis, depression, anxiety, and cancer, as well as integrative approaches to premenstrual syndrome, pregnancy, menopause, fibroids, and endometriosis. Homeopathic, Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners provide insight into the ways in which these systems manage reproductive conditions. As leading educators in integrative medicine, editors Dr. Maizes and Dr. Low Dog demonstrate how clinicians can implement their recommendations in practice, but they also go beyond practical care to examine how to motivate patients, enhance a health history, and understand the spiritual dimensions of healing.

The question about the function ofsleep remains one ofthe major challenges scientists are faced with. Wherein lies the fascination with sleep? I am convinced that it is the necessity for sleep. No one has failed to experience the overpowering urge to fall asleep after a disturbed night's sleep or after sleep was curtailed or deprived, especially when our daily activities impose restrictions on motor activity. The demand ofour body and brain to sleep challenges our understanding ofwhy this is the case, and which are the benefits ofa night ofprofound sleep. Also in animals prolongation of waking consistently increases their attempts to fall asleep. It has been stated that sleep is more necessary to animals than even food! The need for sleep and some insight into the consequences of the preceding daily waking activities on subsequent sleep was wonderfully formulated by Shakespeare in Othello: Not poppy nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups ofthe world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou owed'st yesterday It is interesting that the most powerful single intervention which invariably influences sleep in a positive and predictable manner is the prolongation of waking. The activities which people or animals engage in during the wakefulness episode are secondary in the magnitude oftheir effects on sleep.

The second edition of "Integrative Nursing" is a complete roadmap to integrative patient care, providing a guide to the whole person/whole systems assessment and clinical interventions for individuals, families, and communities. Treatment strategies described in this version employ the full complement of evidence-informed methodologies in a tailored, person-centered approach to care. Integrative medicine is defined as healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit) as well as all aspects of the lifestyle; it emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of appropriate therapies, but conventional and alternative. -- From publisher's description

Most of the psychiatric disorders like Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and Posttraumatic Disorder comes with sleep disturbance. Some of them are easily treatable and some not so. Many times, it is easier to treat the core psychiatric problems as compared to the sleep issues. As the name suggests, this book is about sleep coaching. A coach is someone one who instructs and trains. The primary focus of this book is to coach easy ways to promote sleep. People may wonder and question, since so much information is freely available on the internet, why another book? Although sleep problems have inflicted civilized people for hundreds of years, research on sleep medicine is relatively new. There is yet to be a sleep medication to be discovered, which can be taken for a long term without adverse effects. Research shows that taking the conventional sleeping pills, in the long run, poses serious health hazards. Don't get me wrong. Sleeping pills can be lifesaving when used prudently, but their long-term safety is questionable. As every physician has to take the Hippocratic oath and abide by the "primum-non-nocere" (first do no harm) doctrine; I began my search for SAFE sleep solutions. Since sleep science is new, many physicians are not yet aware of the dangers of sleep deprivations. Physicians themselves are one of the most sleep-deprived members of the society. Thus in-spite of having many solutions available for sleep-related problems, many patients are struggling with their sleep and are forced to take sleeping pills, which is not healthy in the long term. This has prompted many physicians like me to seek safer sleep solutions for our patients. If you are among the millions of Americans who struggle with sleep each night and are tired because of lack of sleep - this book is for you. If you want to improve sleep to maximize your productivity, creativity, and the efficiency-this book is for you. Also, if you are someone who has to travel across multiple time zones; or if you are a shift worker with irregular work hours- then this book will guide you to get better sleep. The book will also coach you to harness the power of sleep to get more energy, lose extra weight, look younger feel happier, and fight better against diseases. Lastly, this book can help internists, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers- anyone and everyone who is there to help people with sleep sufferings. Clinicians will find many useful practical tools to coach their clients and solve sleep problems.

In this volume in the Weil Integrative Medicine Library, the authors describe a rational and evidence-based approach to the integrative therapy of mental disorders, integrating the principles of alternative and complementary therapies into the principles and practice of conventional psychiatry and psychology. The authors will examine what works and what doesn't, and offer practical guidelines for physicians to incorporate integrative medicine into their practice and to advise patients on reasonable and effective therapies.