My passion is to transform the traditional medical system in this country. I have started the process by providing the foundational information of the newsletter for the past four years.

The next step will be to further improve this website by making it interactive. I also hope to help you to identify qualified health care professionals who can guide you through the individualized details of the healing process.

It is clear that a support structure would also help the process. So a third step could be to provide you with an opportunity to talk to others like you who are interested in natural healing and who share the same medical concerns. I am considering starting the first nationwide network of alternative medicine self- help support groups.

I have identified Dr. Andrea Zojourner, a clinical psychologist, to help coordinate this project. We hope to disclose the details of these support groups in the near future. In the meantime, we will whet your appetite with some literature as to the value and purpose of support groups.

For the past decades, researchers have been evaluating the effects of self-help/mutual aid groups on participants. Most research studies on self-help groups have found important benefits of participation.

Many studies have demonstrated that if the current members of any self-help group are surveyed at any given time, the members will respond positively about the group and say that it helps them.

In a stronger method of analyzing the benefits of self help groups, two investigators gathered research studies that compared self -help participants to non-participants and/or gathered information about how members of self- help groups changed over time.

Their investigation focused on 35 studies of self-help groups made up only of peers -- participants who shared the same problem where there was NOT a professional facilitator leading the group.

Here is a sample of what they found:

Does Self Help Help? Empirical Investigation of Scoliosis Peer Support Groups

Adults with scoliosis who had undergone bracing or surgery and participated in Scoliosis Association self -help groups were compared to adults with similar treatment who did not participate in the self -help groups. Compared to non- participants, the support group participants reported a more positive outlook on life, reduced psychosomatic symptoms, increased sense of mastery and increased self-esteem.

Self-Help for Sickle Cell Anemia

This study focused on African Americans who had been members of self-help groups for sickle-cell anemia. The members who had participated the longest reported the fewest psychological symptoms and the fewest illness related problems at work and in their relationships.

A Controlled Trial of Brief Psychotherapy and Mutual-Help Group Treatment of Conjugal Bereavement

Women who sought treatment for grief after the death of their husbands were randomly assigned to either professional psychotherapy or self- help groups. Self- help groups worked just as well as the therapy.

All the women experienced similar improvements in social adjustment and work functioning. Both self- help and professional treatment reduced stress-specific and general psychiatric symptoms such as depression equally.

Research On Self-help/Mutual Aid Groups by E. Kyrouz PhD and K. Humphreys PhD, Stanford University available at mentalhelp.net/selfhelp.

Comments by Dr Andrea Zojourner, Clinical Psychologist:

Note that former Surgeon General DR C Everett Koop, who professionally has long been a strong advocate of self-help (and who has personally participated in self- help groups), has had this to say on the subject:

" My years as a medical practitioner, as well as my own first hand experience, have taught me how important self-help groups are in assisting their members in delaing with problems,stress, hardship and pain..The benefits of mutual aid are experienced by millions of people who turn to others with a similiar problem.... The future of health care in these troubled times requires cooperation between organized medicine and self-help groups to achieve the best care for the lowest cost" (Koop in the book, Self-Hel: Concepts and Applications" 1992)