Alternative Medicine's Rapid Spread? Nonsense

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I have no doubt that trying to account for - or count - the use of alternative therapies presents consumers with a confusion of claims and counterclaims. Is "prayer" a therapy? Hmmm. But research shows that accommodating a person's personal spiritual realm can be important in the process of healing.
The un-spun story of CAM can be found in simple experiences that are increasing, by any measure, in communities across the country. I would like a dollar for each time I've talked to someone who had good results by trying some alternative therapy. These are people who two years ago would never have considered such options.
41 of the nation's premier medical schools are members of a consortium with integrative medicine centers. The American Academy of Pediatrics earlier this year started a Section on "Complementary, Alternative and Integrative Medicine." NIH's NCCAM has been researching alternative options for 16 years, to the tune of $1.5 billion-plus.
This is not the result of hyper-spin and overselling, or the credulousness of scores of millions of Americans. It is due primarily to the word of mouth that has circulated through the population for the last 35 years. This is not unlike how common knowledge among aboriginal peoples is created through trial and error and passed on in those cultures. Unlike those times, we have the tools, technologies and curiosity now to understand the properties and attributes of natural substances that have only recently started to be evaluated in anything resembling a scientific examination. And of the whole human, down to the atom.
It is still very early.

Taylor Walsh of MD 11:55PM December 15, 2008

As far as the use of vitamin/mineral-type therapies, this year's survey asked about usage of specific products within the last 30 days, not 12 months like previous surveys. This was one reason they gave why the Echinacea numbers were so dramatically different - the survey was during the spring, not typical cold/flu season when folks are using those products.

Heather of AZ 4:41PM December 15, 2008

I assume the survey was based on United States. This is become most of the world still uses alternate medicine. This is because most of the world simply can not afford the rich medicine practised in the United States.
We could reduce our health care costs if we were more flaxiable. It presently takes 800 million dollars to develop a drug based on the lastest claims by drugs companies and get the drug approved by the FDA.
The process is very expensive. If we want to at least modify this system we could be saving billions of dollars.
You can take the case of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) which has been praticed 3,000 years without using FDA approval and call this alternative medicine. But it is showing via conventional research to prove out in many cases.
But still not accepted as this would require billions of dollars to get FDA approval. So what is accepted is big business created by our capitalist system. We may one day call our medicine practised in the United States as capitalist medicine and not conventional medicine as you can not separate culture from medicine.

Arthur Gittleman of AR 3:53PM December 15, 2008

I am the CEO of Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine in Santa Monica, CA, where we train master's and doctoral level students in acupuncture and Oriental medicine. The master's program students receive over 3,000 hours of training in western sciences, acupuncture, and herbal medicine, and qualify as primary care providers in CA upon licensure.
We operate a busy community teaching clinic that provides over 15,000 acupuncture treatments a year, treating conditions such as chronic pain, substance abuse, mood disorders, among others. We also have externship programs at UCLA Arthur Ashe Student Health Center and Venice Family Clinic, where students treat patients under faculty supervision.
The World Health Organization recognizes the effectiveness of Oriental medicine in treating respiratory, gastrointestinal, gynecological, nervous system, and emotional and psychological disorders, among others. Also, there are several thousand studies looking at controlled clinical trials that show the effectiveness of acupuncture for a variety of conditions.
Our doctoral students currently treat patients in the Acute Rehabilitation Unit of Good Samaritan Hospital, a major teaching and research hospital in downtown Los Angeles, and work alongside other health professionals. The future of health care lies in the integration of Eastern and Western medicine to provide comprehensive and compassionate care to those in need.
Yun Kim, CEO, Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine

Yun Kim of CA 2:00PM December 15, 2008

I have to wonder why we put so much faith in surveys or stats. Will you decide to try CAMs just because 80% of unknown people out there do? What do you know about these people? Similarly, will you NOT try them because 90% don't? Who are those people? The simple fact is that if something is wrong, and your traditional means of dealing with it don't work, don't most people consider trying something else if it's relatively safe? Acupuncture is safe. Acupressure is safe. (At least safER than most invasive western remedies.) Herbals like any other substance can be helpful or not depending on the amount and type taken. And then there's the money. It might be worth it to try an inexpensive acupuncture treatment before spending megabucks for drugs and doctor visits.
This is an opportunity to expand our thinking, exercise our brains with some critical thinking, and maybe discover something totally healthy and good for you.

Michele Pearson of CA 1:46PM December 15, 2008

I am a nurse, from what I see, the more prescription drugs a person takes, the worse shape they are in. I am not against drugs, or alternative medicine, or complimentary medicine, but I am against polypharmacy.

Super LPN of FL 11:51AM December 15, 2008

next time you need something for the headache, sprain, etc. try homeopathy - it wont hurt you or your wallet. Be fair about it and let's see what happens - maybe nothing and maybe you'll be helped.

joe lillard of 11:38AM December 15, 2008

Having just recently tried to find insurance coverage that would cover visits to an ND without success I am convinced that there is an aggressive stand against alternative medicine. The insurance companies would be ahead if they would take on people like myself who eat right, and don't gain weight. We take an active role in our health. I'm 81 and take NO prescription medication and have just terminated my expensive supplemental insurance as I don't use it (except for an unfortunate fall last spring that put me out of action for six weeks). That is the only reason I need insurance at all. At my age falls are more likely than illness. I was not happy with my most recent MD who gave me 5 minutes and a presription (which was wrong anyway) so I will settle for an osteopath this time as I cannot get an ND which I would prefer.
Irene

of CA 11:38AM December 15, 2008

"It may be the public is turning to complementary and alternative medicine because its not getting relief from conventional medicine" (Richard Nahin, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine division of the National Institute of Health).
Exactly correct. The growth of CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) has grown to the point where even standard medical schools are starting to bring in at least some introductory courses so that students will not graduate illiterate in alternative medicine concepts and approaches and systems.
ONE so called standard system of medicine has been allowed to dominate... and control everything up until a few decades ago. The FDA is riddled with standard pharmaceutical industry former reps and managers and all aspects of research, education and government are penetrated by interlocking influence of specialized interests.
People are FED UP and are heading elsewhere in LARGE numbers and the statistics, both from the governement and news media confirm the growing utilization of CAM by the public. Hysterical media attacks against Homeopathy have fallen flat on their faces while research such as recently appeared in the Journal of Clinical Epidemeology have completely trashed the worthless meta analysis that appeared in a Lancet 2005 article that it was all no better than placebo. Meanwhile, organizations such as "Quackwatch" have suffered major court losses and owe
hundreds of thousands of dollars as apparently misguided lawsuits backfire in their faces.
People are moving to complementary and alternative medicine because it works for a great many conditions, works well and works more cost effectively and with fewer "side" effects, if any, than conventional medicine. And people who have been taken to the "cleaners" by hospitals, unnecessary surgeries, expensive drugs with killer side effects and all the rest are recognizing and changing their health practitoners in record numbers and are FIRING those standard medical practitioiners who refuse to acknowledge this.
With the coming reforms of our broken medical system by President elect Obama, hopefully the system can start to formally include, along with insurance coverage not already available, treatments from alternative systems of medicine.
Several states have already passed laws formalizing properly licensed alternative medicine practitioners as primary care physicians and many others are in the process of passing similar legislation despite determined opposition by the usual special interests.
For a journalist to write an article somehow missing all this is incredible. Perhaps a new career, as a spokesperson for large pharamceutical companies is in order?

James Pannozzi of FL 12:30PM December 14, 2008

Spin, my dear Mr. Comarow, is most certainly not limited to surveys of the use of traditional therapies (CAM). I trust you will write more about its presence in so-called "modern, scientific medicine"? The conflicts of interest that have come up continually over the 160-yr history of the AMA play a large role in the disillusion of many. See this article: Rasmussen, Nicolas. “The Drug Industry and Clinical Research in Interwar America: Three Types of Physician Collaborator.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 79, no. 1 (2005): 50-80. Virtually every sentence is quotable.
Dear medical student, please look into the amount of funding that pharma has provided to your institution of choice. As well as to your professors. The thing about brainwashing is that the victim cannot see it. Your arrogance and propensity to blame the patients you have not yet seen says volumes about the quality of your education. May you be enlightened before harming too many.
Rob of IL ... you are incorrect. There are exceedingly high standards for quality, of care, treatments and evidence, for non-mainstream health. That you are ignorant of them is clear evidence of successful efforts by the AMA and numerous others, including our media, to damn them all without provocation. Mike Stephenson is absolutely correct. Do your research. All you have to do is look up key events in AMA history on their website. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
No journalist would like to believe they are nothing more than a megaphone for propaganda. So you didn't want to raise our ire? Nonsense. It sells papers. So, report ALL the spin and propaganda out there surrounding health care. Might I suggest you begin with this notion that a "good outcome" for a cancer patient means a longer time than is typical passed before they died?

Lisa H of MN 11:40AM December 14, 2008