Emotional Medicine Rx

For over 30 years Penelope Andrade has taught others how to use the wisdom of their own feelings and body messages to enrich and deepen their emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual well-being. Here, for the first time, she makes her unique and highly effective prescription available to readers. The author's deep knowledge and compassion shines through on every page, sharing life lessons, offering transformational anecdotes, and describing in easy-to-understand terms the cutting edge scientific research that's at the core of her amazing work. The author's insights ring with truths that are confirmed by our own hearts. The book is as inspiring as it is informative. Includes guidelines for healing anxiety and depression without medication.

Valium. Paxil. Prozac. Prescribed by the millions each year, these medications have been hailed as wonder drugs and vilified as numbing and addictive crutches. Where did this “blockbuster drug” phenomenon come from? What factors led to the mass acceptance of tranquilizers and antidepressants? And how has their widespread use affected American culture? David Herzberg addresses these questions by tracing the rise of psychiatric medicines, from Miltown in the 1950s to Valium in the 1970s to Prozac in the 1990s. The result is more than a story of doctors and patients. From bare-knuckled marketing campaigns to political activism by feminists and antidrug warriors, the fate of psychopharmacology has been intimately wrapped up in the broader currents of modern American history. Beginning with the emergence of a medical marketplace for psychoactive drugs in the postwar consumer culture, Herzberg traces how “happy pills” became embroiled in Cold War gender battles and the explosive politics of the “war against drugs”—and how feminists brought the two issues together in a dramatic campaign against Valium addiction in the 1970s. A final look at antidepressants shows that even the Prozac phenomenon owed as much to commerce and culture as to scientific wizardry. With a barrage of “ask your doctor about” advertisements competing for attention with shocking news of drug company malfeasance, Happy Pills is an invaluable look at how the commercialization of medicine has transformed American culture since the end of World War II.

Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.

This in-depth look at the rise of Big Pharma and pill marketing is “a page-turner” (Booklist, starred review). A finalist for a PEN America Literary Award for Research Nonfiction, this book takes a deep look at how the pharmaceutical industry—with some help from the medical and insurance fields and from American consumers themselves—has pushed its products, often at the expense of our health. Generation Rx reveals the roots of many of the widespread societal problems we face today, explaining how marketing efforts changed powerful chemical compounds for chronic diseases, once controlled by physicians, into substances we feel entitled to, whether we need them or not. Using exclusive interviews with the strategists, scientists, and current and former heads of GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Merck, Roche, and more, the author of Fat Land presents a “fascinating and disturbing” story of business interests unleashed on an unsuspecting public, and a cultural shift that has caused lasting—and sometimes lethal—damage (New Scientist). “What Fast Food Nation did for the way Americans eat, Greg Critser does for the way we medicate ourselves.” —Michael Pollan, bestselling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma

From physician and neuroscientist Russell Kennedy comes an award-winning book that offers a revolutionary, life-changing approach to healing anxiety After years of trying different therapies for his crippling anxiety without success, Dr. Russell Kennedy had an epiphany: anxiety does not start in the brain. Anxiety starts in the body, where trauma is stored and physical and emotional perception begin. Alarm bells originating in the body are what trigger those anxious thoughts that we call anxiety, and Russ realized that true healing starts only when we learn not to conflate the two. He understood that existing therapies focused only on the mind would never get to the root of the problem—at best, they could help manage symptoms, but they’d never truly heal anxiety. Wanting to make a difference for the millions who suffer from anxiety disorder, Russ created Anxiety Rx, a book that blends his personal story with medical science, neuroscience, and developmental psychology. Readers learn how to sever the connection between the somatic alarm and the flood of anxious thoughts—in the process they begin to heal old trauma and gain a sense of control previously unknown. Russ offers techniques not only for our thinking minds, but for our feeling bodies, changing not just our mindset, but our “body-set.” Unraveling the intricate relationship between anxiety, the body, and the mind, Anxiety Rx offers a profound path toward healing and growth.

Take control of your life and wellness with this volume of practical advice, true stories, and journaling prompts for those living with chronic conditions. Chronic illnesses come with unique types of stress, from negotiating day to day activities to dealing with friends and family who don’t understand. In Chronic Resilience, certified life coach and chronic condition sufferer Danea Horn offers techniques and tools to help you rebound from the pressures of having a body that's doing things you wish you could control. Chronic Resilience provides a complete self-help blueprint for managing the difficulties chronic illness presents. Each chapter contains stories and advice from women dealing with chronic conditions ranging from cancer to organ transplant, Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), MS, Cushing's disease, diabetes, and others. This guide offers advice on how to:Stop pushing yourself so hardUse research to empower—not frighten—yourselfLet yourself be pissedTrain your troops in how to care for youCultivate focus and flexibilityFind things to be grateful forFocus on what you can do, not what you can't

Examines the possible consequences of the growth of prescription drug use and the impact of direct-to-consumer promotion (DTC) and off-label marketing.

Primary Care Medicine Recommendations is a portable decision-support tool for quick answers to more than 230 clinical problems seen in the outpatient setting. This easy-to-use pocket book presents specific recommendations for screening, workup, and management that help clinicians formulate effective treatment and management plans.Primary Care Medicine Recommendations is also available electronically for use on handheld computers. See Media Products section for details.