How to Talk with Your Doctor: The Guide for Patients and Their Physicians Who Want to Reconcile and Use the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine

Now more than ever patients are taking control of their own health care, leaving many conventional physicians unsure about their role as dispensers of medical knowledge. More waiting rooms are now filled with highly informed medical consumers seeking to partner with their doctors. They want to explore all promising treatments, both mainstream and alternative, but too often run up against a wall of resistance and a lack of understanding. The result? Miscommunication and missed opportunities to benefit from the best of both medical worlds.

Dr. Ronald Hoffman, one of the nation's top experts on natural and alternative therapies, wrote this guide to help you and your doctor bridge this divide. In it, he shares how to make this happen.

Part One explains how your doctor was trained, what practicing medicine is really like today, and why so many physicians still resist non-conventional approaches. It also looks at how growing interest in diet, supplements, and other natural therapies such as acupuncture and meditation is profoundly changing the practice of medicine. Part Two explores the most effective mainstream and alternative options for heading off disease and dealing with common chronic problems. Each condition presents to you the alternative therapies that are scientifically proven to prevent or treat the health concern and to enhance the impact of conventional treatments for it. Also included are evidence-based studies, guidelines and suggested dosages, potential drug-nutrient interactions, and more controversial yet worthy therapies to discuss with your doctor.

Sidebars throughout the book coach patients on how to communicate more effectively with their doctors about trying these alternative therapies, while sidebars for doctors offer tips on how to improve communication with their patients and become more open to using non-conventional approaches. Separate support sections for patients and physicians provide each with an extensive resource list of reliable research sites and reputable sources for medical information, health organizations, and educational opportunities that can help promote a stronger patient-doctor partnership and greater collaboration on crafting the fully integrated care you seek.