The Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Integrative Medicine (IM) special interest group of the Society for Medical Anthropology (SMA) was organized to encourage the anthropological study of CAM and IM as emergent socio-medical phenomena having global ramifications in the 21st century. Members of this special interest group recognize that CAM/IM is a modern example of medical pluralism, influenced by processes of globalization and hybridization, scientization and commodification. CAM/IM is a global phenomenon and needs to be studied as a result. While you are mostly correct, there are four significant concerns with mushrooms. Patients are dissatisfied with the small amount of time they get with their doctors and with doctors who prescribe a pill for each ill. Choosing a trusted certified practitioner is of great importance. Inexperienced or untrained practitioners can do more harm than good. One of the greatest risks is delaying or protecting against proven traditional treatment towards holistic medicine. A couple of diseases that are best treated using conventional methods. Our MS Navigators help identify solutions and offer access to the resources you are looking for. Call 1-800-344-4867 or e mail us online. There are many companies that provide malpractice insurance. The oldest is Madanes Rappaport that focuses generally on providing malpractice insurance for people working in alternative medicines. Phone: (03) 638-0000. As I said before - the peer-reviewed research articles (that you can actually look up) are cited Inside the books. These books also discuss why these studies aren't generally regarded as valid by everyone - so, please read the books. These are, in some ways, very good times for the Bechdel test Recent movies have offered up nuanced , celebratory portrayals of women's friendship. Recent Television shows have provided pairings of friends- Abbi and Ilana , Meredith and Cristina , Lucca and Maia , Leslie and Ann , Hannah and Jessa , Pennsatucky and Big Boo -whose friendships took on the tensions that Hollywood has traditionally reserved for romantic couplings. Books, too, in both fiction and nonfiction, have considered-and in lots of ways re-considered-the female friendship. Rebecca Traister's All the Single Ladies, Kate Bolick's Spinster, and Jill Filipovic's The H-Spot have all made cases that American culture, and even American politics, should find ways to institutionalize the feminine friendship, giving good friends the same sorts of benefits that contain traditionally come with marriage. This expectation applies equally to treatments or therapies that the physician recommends to patients and the ones which patients request. Where patients seek care that is beyond the physician's clinical competence, physicians must evidently indicate that they are unable to supply the care. Where physicians are unable to provide care directly, they should refer the individual to some other physician or health-care provider where doing this is in the best interests of the individual, or will support the patient's informed decision making. Therapeutic fasting or fasting for health is a purifying and rejuvenating process by which toxic waste matters of your body are eliminated and regeneration of diseased tissues occurs. To teach open-minded health care providers and scientists wanting to explore the state of the evidence in areas of complementary and integrative medicine with objectivity and rigor.