Anxiety: An Integrative Approach

Carolyn Combs PharmDc; Carrie Dickinson, PharmDc and Clarence Gwanbobmuga, PharmDc present several patient cases detailing the safety and effectiveness of integrative therapies for anxiety. They discuss the scientific evidence, dosing, safety and interactions related to various therapies. Complimentary access is now available.

Natural Standard is offering a series of complimentary webinars on integrative medicine. Natural Standard offers these impartial webinars as an informational public service. All webinars are recorded and archived at www.naturalstandard.com/webinars.

Comments

[pc]

I appreciate the comment by another poster clarifying the toxicity of Kava. I was always taught that it was toxic to the liver and should not be used regularly, but I did not realize that only certain parts of the plant are toxic to the liver. I will have to look into this a bit more, as I have always avoided it for treatment of my own anxiety due to the toxicity, but perhaps I can use it occasionally without worrying so much about it!

[bp]

Music therapy gets an evidence grade of A!! Hurray! I'm a musician, and from my own experience I completely believe this. I've volunteered to play on hospital wards for years, and it is incredibly rewarding. Patients (and family) will often just sit there for a while and watch, some have sent pictures of us playing to their family. But the most telling is when someone will ask us to play in a room (with permission, of course) of someone who is too ill or weak to move. We go play, and all of a sudden this person is just slightly smiling and bobbing their head in time to the music, and you know in that instant that you just made their day a little brighter. I can only imagine what a "real" music therapist could do!

[Zach]

One of the treatments that they talk about for anxiety in this webinar is Kava. Kava has been shown to work quite well for anxiety, and can be made into a tea (that tastes terrible, but can be improved with some coconut milk!). The problem with Kava is that certain parts of the plant are harmful to the liver, so you have to make sure not only that you are getting Kava in your supplement, but that you are also getting the correct part of the plant.

[Zach]

It is very cool that the Natural Standard is able to publish webinars on topics like anxiety. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that they also had a PDF available that I was able to quickly skim through and get the information at my own pace.

[bz]

Thanks for providing us with such a comprehensive review of the integrative therapies available for anxiety. So often people immediately turn to medication therapy for anxiety treatment, when alternative treatments may be more effective for them. I personally have had great success with adding yoga into my hectic lifestyle, and I think it has helped a lot to lower my daily anxiety level. Thanks for making this information available in such a clear and concise format!

[SB]

Anxiety is becoming a bigger issue all the time, as people tend to be living busier lifestyles than ever before. So many of the prescription agents available for anxiety are habit forming, so it is great for people to learn about other methods of dealing with anxiety.

[AR]

This webinar provided an excellent review of anxiety symptoms, classifications, and integrative therapies. I think that most of the herbal preparations may cause more harm than benefit in patients with anxiety due to their side effects and interactions. I learned that yoga and other integrative therapies have good scientific evidence for the treatment of anxiety. Thank you for providing this informative presentation on integrative therapies for anxiety!