Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) has become big business internationally, in particular with regards to a range of women’s health issues. With this context in mind, Women's Health and Complementary and Integrative Medicine constitutes a valuable and timely resource for those looking to understand, initiate and expand CIM research and evidence-based debate with regards to a wide range of women’s health care issues. The collection brings together leading international CIM researchers from Australia, the USA, the UK, Germany and Canada, with backgrounds and expertise in health social science, statistics, qualitative methodology, clinial trial design, clinical pharmacology, health services research and public health. Contributors draw upon their own CIM research work and experience to explain and review core research and practice issues pertinent to the contemporary field of CIM and its future development with regards to women’s health. The book outlines the core issues, challenges and opportunities facing the CIM-women’s health field and its study and will provide insight and inspiration for those practising, studying and/or researching the contemporary relations between CIM and women’s health and health care.

Takes an evidence-based approach to complementary and integrative medicine in women's health, examining when, how, and for whom these therapies can be effective--

This book covers the most common areas of concern in women's health. It provides a truly integrative approach, showing when, how, and for whom complementary/integrative therapies can benefit women in continuity with their regular medical care. This is an evidence-based, clinically-oriented book that presents the background and range of complementary and alternative therapies related to common medical conditions and functional complaints and disorders. It summarizes and analyzes scientific studies on the safety and efficacy of these therapies for various women's health conditions. Each chapter includes a description of commonly used treatments, discussions of safety issues (including adverse effects and drug interactions), a comprehensive summary and methodological assessment of clinical trials on the subject (with animal and in vitro data included as appropriate), and advice on counseling patients. Provides a clear review of the scientific evidence relating complementary and integrative medicine to the care of women. Offers a roadmap to the options in the treatment of women with complementary and integrative medicine - expanding the clinician's practice, whatever their specialty, with realistic possibilities. Features comprehensive coverage of safety issues. Written by leading experts in the field. Sidebars within each chapter provide at-a-glance advice for patients and practitioners. Includes key coverage of non-gynecologic issues such as nutrition, headache, depression, cancer, and heart disease. Offers comprehensive coverage of commonly used treatments and related safety issues, such as possible adverse effects and drug interactions, plus a helpful appendix on Botanical Products. A focused table of contents makes it easy to find the right treatment for each patient based on their condition. Features advice on talking with patients about self-treatments they may have read about in books or on the Internet.

Women demand a broader, more integrative approach to their health care, and this title meets that demand. While books aimed at general audiences are commonplace, this in-depth, wide-reaching reference on integrative women's health is written for both health-care professionals and general audiences.

This edited collection is about the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and traditional medicine (TM) within the context of women’s reproductive health. It adopts a perspective drawn from different social sciences (sociology, medical anthropology, history, and health studies) to discuss topics such as fertility, menopause, pregnancy, child birth practices, post-natal care, breastfeeding, and breast cancer. The contributors explore the uses and values attributed to CAM and TM for women’s reproductive health across diverse cultures from the point of view of patients, CAM/TM practitioners, and other health care providers. This text provides insights into the wide spectrum of practices, approaches, and beliefs that define CAM and TM, and situates women’s health issues within the local socio-cultural, geographic, economic, historical, and political contexts in which they exist. It also explores some challenges to the integration of TM and CAM with biomedicine.

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.

Integration of complementary and alternative medicine therapies (CAM) with conventional medicine is occurring in hospitals and physicians offices, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are covering CAM therapies, insurance coverage for CAM is increasing, and integrative medicine centers and clinics are being established, many with close ties to medical schools and teaching hospitals. In determining what care to provide, the goal should be comprehensive care that uses the best scientific evidence available regarding benefits and harm, encourages a focus on healing, recognizes the importance of compassion and caring, emphasizes the centrality of relationship-based care, encourages patients to share in decision making about therapeutic options, and promotes choices in care that can include complementary therapies where appropriate. Numerous approaches to delivering integrative medicine have evolved. Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States identifies an urgent need for health systems research that focuses on identifying the elements of these models, the outcomes of care delivered in these models, and whether these models are cost-effective when compared to conventional practice settings. It outlines areas of research in convention and CAM therapies, ways of integrating these therapies, development of curriculum that provides further education to health professionals, and an amendment of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act to improve quality, accurate labeling, research into use of supplements, incentives for privately funded research into their efficacy, and consumer protection against all potential hazards.