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Jewish World Review Feb. 15, 2001 / 22 Shevat, 5761

Mary Powers

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Consumer Reports


More people open to alternative medical treatment

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- For nearly two decades, Charlotte Hattley of Memphis has relied on traditional western medicine to help her manage her diabetes and stay alive. But she recently turned to acupuncture, a staple of eastern medicine, when over-the-counter and prescription medications failed to relieve chronic headaches.

The acupuncture was the idea of her internist, Dr. James Boone.

"He said let's try something different. I hadn't heard of acupuncture as a treatment for headache. But I'm to the point it couldn't hurt. Anything is possible," said Hattley, 35.

Boone recently teamed with Judi Harrick, a registered nurse, acupuncturist and oriental medicine practitioner, to launch the Healing Arts Medical Group, a practice where the medical doctor is outnumbered by massage therapists, homeopathic consultants, qigong instructors and other practitioners of complementary medicine. "This has been my goal forever, to work in a cooperative situation," Harrick said.

The practice is just the latest indication that alternative medicine is suddenly less alternative.

While not necessarily embracing every option, a growing number of doctors now at least consider treatments once dismissed as linked more to hocus-pocus than Hippocrates. Others report they just want to know what their patients are talking about.

So now along with studying biochemistry and pharmacology, University of Tennessee medical students are likely to attend panel discussions featuring chiropractors and acupuncturists or be asked to consider alternative as well as standard therapies to help patients manage problems ranging from pain to high blood pressure.

Last year the National Institutes of Health expanded to include the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. It opened with $68.7 million in federal funding and the goal of determining which alternative therapies work.

The American Medical Association's Web site now includes links to an online medical library that includes information about alternative treatments few AMA members studied in medical school.

Medical journals known for cutting edge research now sometimes tackle topics until recently considered on the medical fringe.

In 1997, the University of Arizona began offering the nation's first fellowship for physicians interested in such topics as spirituality, herbs, meditation, hypnotherapy and other topics they've dubbed integrative medicine.

Forget the Age of Aquarius; physicians are opening up to the possibilities of magnets, chiropractors and herbs because their patients are.

Dr. Owen Phillips, a University of Tennessee associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, said hardly a day goes by that a patient doesn't ask her about treatments that fall under the complementary medicine umbrella. Phillips helped draft the new medical school curriculum.

"We need to at least understand what our patients are talking about," she said. "It's only going to get more popular."

Boone said he was increasingly drawn to nontraditional treatment approaches "out of a sense of frustration of not having anything to offer people for things I saw every day.

"I've always had a strong belief in the mind-spirit-body connection. Isolating them doesn't bring about beneficial or long-lasting results," he said.

Some patients already put more confidence in alternative than traditional therapies. After battling a sore throat and sinus woes with the herb echinacea, Tammy Jo O'Neal recently called Harrick for advice. Harrick suggested O'Neal, a massage therapist, make an appointment with Boone.

"He gained my confidence, which is hard for a doctor to do," O'Neal said. Along with prescribing an antibiotic, O'Neal said, Boone asked about the herbs and supplements she was taking to combat multiple sclerosis. "He seemed very interested," she said.

Hattley, a social worker, said she was initially reluctant to tell co-workers she was seeking headache relief by having acupuncture needles inserted at more than a dozen spots on her head, arms, hands and legs. "I didn't want people to think I was just being silly," she explained.

But after three acupuncture sessions her attitude has changed, even if the headaches linger. Harrick has warned it might be months before Hattley sees significant relief.

Dr. Dan Marshall, a Memphis general practitioner, has long shared office space with alternative practitioners like acupuncturists and massage therapists. He said physician interest in such options grew steadily in the 1990s. It was fueled by the growing emphasis on helping patients stay healthy and a realization some approaches work.

He said the new challenge is expanding insurance coverage for alternative treatments and helping patients form realistic expectations.

On the Net:

http://www.caringcenter.org Caring Center International

http://www.medem.com A medical information service supported by 22 medical and health professional organizations

Mary Powers is a writer with The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Comment by clicking here.

© 2001, SHNS