Thank you so much for checking out this blog. I hope to give you reasons to come back every week. As a medicine hunter, I spend my time investigating natural remedies. This work puts me in rainforests, mountains, deserts, and other wild and remote regions all over our spectacular planet. In the course of my travels, I encounter  medicinal plants for every need, plus unusual people, exotic locales, strange foods and bizarre customs.

I believe that trade in medicinal plants can promote human health and environmental and cultural sustainability in native areas. In between trips researching nature’s healing treasures, I speak all over the world, and appear on TV regularly, where I promote the message of natural healing. I have a wife I love, several close and wonderful friends, a happy dog, a beautiful home I visit on occasion, and global travel.

In the course of medicine hunting I have come to love and appreciate the remaining wild and largely undeveloped places in the world. The times I have spent with great healers have opened my mind and heart to a broader understanding of true healing, the human spirit, and the precious medicinal treasures of nature. In this blog, which I offer with great sincerity, I would like to share what I have found.

A Kathmandu Cure – How I Became Really Hooked on Plants

Do not drink out of Indian rivers! Wherever in the foothills of the Himalayas you may be, however seemingly pristine the environment, however cool and refreshing the water might feel as it swirls around your knees, do not afford yourself a long, thirst-quenching drink. At a remote section of the Gautam Ganga river, I had done exactly that. The cold Himalayan water was apparently a running cocktail of potent pathogenic microbes.

The microbes in the river water invaded my body like a battalion of gladiators, hacking and plundering from sinew to bone. I felt as though my digestive tract had been beaten with a brick bat, and my brain felt as though it had been cleaved with a wood-splitting wedge. I visited the toilet over fifty times the next morning, the beginning of a ten day siege that caused me to drop 35 pounds (amazing weight loss plan), and endure violent diarrhea with fever and chills.

Ayurveda Saves My Life

A rickshaw driver pedaled me through funky Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal, into the winding alleys of Indrachowk, the oldest section of the city. We arrived at a modest one story faded brown cement building off of a small back street where Doctor Bajracharya maintained a practice. A slender, kind-looking man with alert eyes greeted me, Doctor Bajracharya. I told him that I was very sick, and in need of help, describing drinking from the river, the diarrhea, fever, chills, weight loss.

One of Nepal’s most distinguished natural doctors, Bajracharya practiced the 5,000 year old system of Ayurveda, the oldest medicinal system in the world. Ayurveda lies heavily on the use of medicinal plants to treat health disorders of all types. He asked me to lie down on a simple wooden examination table, laid a palm on the center of my abdomen, and paid close attention to my gurgling intestines. After a couple of minutes, Doctor Bajracharya withdrew his hand. “I will give you something that will stop this problem.”

Doctor Bajracharya disappeared into an anteroom for about ten minutes, and emerged with a small paper bag filled with a chocolate colored powder, and an envelope containing brown pellets that resembled rabbit turds. “Here is what you must do. Every meal, three times a day,” he poked the air with three slender fingers for emphasis “before you eat, mix a heaping teaspoon of this powder in a glass of water and drink it. Take three of these pills at the same time. Do this for nine days, and this problem will not come back. You will be completely rid of it.” I asked about the ingredients in the powder. “This contains burned conch shell, powdered very finely, and many different spices which grow around these mountains.” And the pellets?  “All herbs and spices, a very old formula. This is powerful for healing the digestive organs.”

Praying that the remedies might improve my condition even a little, I slowly made my way on unstable legs to the Blue Tibetan restaurant off Durbar Square, to take my first doses of the ayurvedic remedies and eat some lunch. Once seated, I opened the bag of powder and sniffed it. The mixture smelled aromatic and bitter, and that was no real surprise. Certain aromatic spices and bitter herbs are traditionally used to relieve gastrointestinal disorders. I mixed a heaping teaspoon of the powder into a glass of water and selected three pellets. Popping the pellets into my mouth, I chased them down with the bitter drink, knocking back the herbal sediment at the bottom of the glass. 

By early evening, after two doses of the ayurvedic remedies from Doctor Bajracharya, the diarrhea which had been my ruination for ten days stopped completely. My fever subsided, and my guts stopped quivering. That night I enjoyed eight hours of restful, uninterrupted sleep. When I awoke the next morning, I was weak and as skinny as a Red Cross relief poster child, but the diarrhea was gone, my temperature was normal, and I had some energy.

Even though I had used various herbs for years- ginger for colds and sore throat, ginseng for mental enhancement, hot chilies to decongest- I was completely surprised by the effectiveness of the natural remedies I had been given. This devastating sickness, and the remarkable natural cure I experienced, propelled me into the world of natural medicines, from rainforests to mountains, and from shamans to laboratories. Plant medicines are the most widely used medicines on earth, and it will be my privilege to share them with you.

Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter who researches natural remedies all over the world, from the Amazon to Siberia. He teaches ethnobotany courses at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is Explorer In Residence. Chris advises herbal, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies and is a regular guest on radio and TV programs worldwide.  His field research is largely sponsored by Naturex of Avignon, France. Read more at www.MedicineHunter.com 

The topic of anal cancer has gotten a lot of media attention lately because of Farrah Fawcett’s very public battle with the disease. And it’s raised a lot of important questions about advances in cancer treatment and the future for patients fighting the battle of their lives.

What is anal cancer and who is at risk for it?

Anal cancer is characterized by the growth of a tumor around the anus ― which is opening at the end of the intestinal tract — and it’s completely different from colon cancer. A large proportion of anal cancers have tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV), which is a sexually transmitted disease, but this isn’t the only cause.

Other patient populations at a greater risk for developing anal cancer include patients with multiple sexual partners, those who participate in anal intercourse, smokers, people with immunosuppressive diseases, such as HIV, and people with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases.

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What is the treatment for anal or intestinal cancer?

If it’s caught early, the most common treatment for anal cancer is surgery. But in patients whose cancer affects the anal sphincter, having surgery to remove the tumor and cancerous cells can lead to fecal incontinence causing the need for a permanent colostomy. So often for these patients, radiation and chemotherapy may be the preferred course of treatment. For later stage anal cancers, doctors treat patients with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy.

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What is the cure rate for anal cancer?

Well ― like any cancer, early detection greatly increases the chance of survival. If it’s caught in the early stage, there is an 86 percent five year survival rate. If the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, the survival rate decreases to 54 percent. Up to 10 percent of patients treated for anal cancer will develop cancer elsewhere in the body.

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What kind of advances are we making in cancer research?

We have made advances with regard to the surgical treatment of cancers by offering minimally invasive surgeries. In some cases, we’re able to provide surgical treatments with less negative side effects and shorter recovery time. Clinical studies have shown that other treatments like radiation and chemotherapy may be just as effective as surgery without many of the negative side effects.

With regard to medical treatments, there have certainly been advances in the kinds of treatments we’re using. New medical technologies are making it possible for doctors to individualize a patient’s treatment by studying the genetic makeup of their particular cancer — ultimately decreasing the chances of recurrence or spread of the cancer, and increasing a patient’s survival outcome.

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What are the major milestones/accomplishments we’ve seen in cancer research recently?

Well again, one of the major milestones is being able to identify the genetic makeup of cancers individual to each patient.

The other advancement is the research that’s been done in molecular-targeted therapies. These therapies target the development of cancers by inhibiting the growth of the disease at the cellular level — which we hope will be able to limit or potentially even stop the cancer from spreading.

Molecular-targeted therapy is a more specific treatment than chemotherapy, because chemo treatment kills off not only the bad cells — but also the healthy cells in the body. So with a therapy that is very specific in its attack of cancerous cells, the hope is that it should more be effective in stopping the development of the cancer.

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What are some tips for preventing cancer?

We’ve all heard it time and time again — good health comes from making healthy choices. So my first tip would be stop smoking! I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, cigarettes are full of cancer-causing agents and have been linked to the development of many cancers in the body.

Second, everything in moderation including alcohol! If you’re the kind of person who enjoys a nice cocktail, make sure you do it in moderation, which means 1 or 2 glasses — preferrably of red wine — or else,  just avoid alcohol all together.

Make healthy dietary choices. Try to maintain a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and fruits and vegetables. Both provide essential nutrients and antioxidants which help ward off disease. Limit the amount of read meat you consume, since high levels of it have been linked to certain cancers.

Recent studies have shown that vitamin D may play an important role protecting against the development of certain diseases. Because exposure to small amounts of sunlight causes the body to produce healthy amounts of vitamin D, people who live in cold environments or places with extended seasons of darkness may want to consider getting their vitamin D levels checked and taking supplements.

And finally — know your family history so you can better determine your risk for other cancers, because your screenings for certain cancers may start earlier than what is recommended to the general population, and preventive therapies may be an option for you.

Dr. Cynara Coomer is an assistant professor of surgery specializing in breast health and breast cancer surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She is a FOX News Health contributor providing medical expertise on a variety of topics in cancer research with a focus on women’s health, breast diseases and tips for healthy breasts at any age.

Pruthviraj Patil has tried a many things to cure himself of the hypertrichosis that ails him, but to no avail.

Hypertrichosis, a rare genetic condition that is also known as Werewolf Syndrome, causes 11-year-old Pruthviraj’s body to be covered with thick, matted hair, reports London’s Daily Telegraph.

Pruthviraj, who is from the district of Sangli, near Bombay, India, is one of 50 people in the world who suffers from the condition, according to the newspaper.