Here we have a truly remarkable book. Unlike anything in the alternative literature, Choices in Healing gives a scrupulously nonjudgemental review of the world of alternative treatments for cancer. Michael Lerner is a talented, scientifically astute and well-educated individual…. His compilation of both orthodox and alternative approaches to cancer is superb…. This is essential reading.
– Karol Sikora, New Scientist
A bridge that many skeptics can at least approach. The text is both critical and hopeful toward both conventional and complementary methods of therapy. Physicans will certainly find this book, with its in-depth index and extensive appendixed resource guide, the best single available source if they are willing to explore this area.
– John M. Merrill, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association
Written by one of the country’s leading authorities on alternative and complementary cancer treatments, Choices in Healing is designed for the cancer patient or health professional who seeks a comprehensive overview of the available choices, both in treatments and in living with cancer.
Choices in Healing offers valuable information and guidance for the whole life cycle of cancer – from the initial shock of diagnosis to decisions about choosing a physician and conventional therapies, selecting complementary therapies, coping with treatment, and the art of living fully with the possibility of recurrence.
There are detailed explanations and evaluations of a wide range of complementary therapy programs, including spiritual and psychological approaches, nutritional therapies, physical therapies,pharmacological therapies, and traditional medicines from around the world. There are sections on prayer and other forms of spiritual healing; psychotherapy, support groups, visual imagery and hypnosis; massage, therapeutic touch, yoga, and Qi Gong; macrobiotic diet and other cancer diets; acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines; and numerous other unconventional therapies used by American cancer patients.
With an unusual combination of compassion and objectivity, Michael Lerner describes his conclusions following more than a decade of study of unconventional cancer treatments in North America, Europe, India, and Japan. He also draws extensively on his work with hundreds of cancer patients who have participated in the Commonweal Cancer Help Programs, the residential support program depicted by Bill Moyers in his 1993 PBS documentary Healing and the Mind.
