NY Times Report: Americans turning en-masse to holistic therapies.

[Guest guest]

traditional methods as well as homeopathy. The media should also play its role

and not try to malign the holistic systems, trying to "expose" them as most are

doing now, perhaps at the bidding of Big Pharma. The SSRI Report points out:

"The public is wiser for being distrustful after they've learned that: * doctors

are "on the take" (they get paid to "seed the market" which they pretend is

post-marketing research);* drug labels conceal the most serious side effects;*

the most potent therapeutic effect of widely prescribed psychotropic drugs is

the placebo effect;* clinical trial reports in the most prestigious medical

journals have been shown to have been ghostwritten--and therefore not

credible;* companies and the academic based physicians they contract, have

concealed the negative

findings, publishing fraudulent claims of "safety and efficacy";*doctors'

"education" about the medicines they prescribe comes from visiting

cheerleaders--who've been hired by drug companies to serve as sales reps".] A

few moments before boarding a plane from Los Angeles to New York in January,

Charlene Solomon performed her usual preflight ritual: she chewed a small

tablet that contained trace amounts of several herbs, including extracts from

daisy and chamomile plants.Ms. Solomon, 56, said she had no way to know whether

the tablet, an herb-based remedy for jet lag, worked as advertised. Researchers

have found no evidence that such preparations are effective, and Ms. Solomon

knows that most doctors would scoff that she was wasting her money.Yet she

swears by the tablets, as well as other alternative remedies, for reasons she

acknowledges are

partly psychological."I guess I do believe in the power of simply paying

attention to your health, which in a way is what I'm doing," said Ms. Solomon,

who runs a Web consulting business in Los Angeles. "But I also believe there

are simply a lot of unknowns when it comes to staying healthy, and if there's a

possibility something will help I'm willing to try it."Besides, she added,

"whatever I'm doing is working, so I'm going to keep doing it."The most telling

evidence of Americans' dissatisfaction with traditional health care is the more

than $27 billion they spend annually on alternative and complementary medicine,

according to government estimates. In ways large and small, millions of people

are taking active steps to venture outside the mainstream, whether bytaking the

herbal remedy echinacea for a cold or by placing their last hopes for cancer

cure in alternative treatment, as did Coretta Scott King, who died this week at

an alternative hospice clinic

in Mexico. [Page A3.]They do not appear to care that there is little, if any,

evidence that many of the therapies work. Nor do they seem to mind that

alternative therapy practitioners have a fraction of the training mainstream

doctors do or that vitamin and herb makers are as profit-driven as drug

makers.This straying from conventional medicine is often rooted in a sense of

disappointment, even betrayal, many patients and experts say. When patients see

conventional medicine's inadequacies up close - a misdiagnosis, an intolerable

drug, failed surgery, even a dismissive doctor - many find the experience

profoundly disillusioning, or atleast eye-opening.Haggles with insurance

providers, conflicting findings from medical studies and news reports of drug

makers' covering up product side effects all feed their disaffection, to the

point where many people begin to question not only the health care system but

also the science behind it. Soon, intuition and the

personal experience of friends andfamily may seem as trustworthy as advice from

a doctor in diagnosing an illness or judging a treatment.Experts say that

people with serious medical problems like diabetes or cancer are least likely

to take their chances with natural medicine, unless their illness is terminal.

Consumers generally know that quackery is widespread in alternative practices,

that there is virtually no government oversight of so-called natural remedies

andthat some treatments, like enemas, can be dangerous.Still, 48 percent of

American adults used at least one alternative or complementary therapy in 2004,

up from 42 percent a decade ago, a figure that includes students and retirees,

soccer moms and truckers, New Age seekers and religious conservatives. The

numbers continue to grow, experts say, for reasons that have as much to do with

increasing distrust of mainstream medicine and the psychological appeal of

nontraditional approaches as with the

therapeutic properties of herbs or other supplements."I think there is a

powerful element of nostalgia at work for many people, for home remedies - for

what healing is supposed to be - combined with an idealized vision of what is

natural and whole and good, " said Dr. Linda Barnes, a medical anthropologist

at Boston University School of Medicine.Dr. Barnes added, "People look around

and feel that the conventional system does not measure up, and that something

deeper about their well-being is not being addressed at all."Healthy and

DabblingMs. Solomon's first small steps outside the mainstream came in 1991,

after she watched her mother die of complications from a hysterectomy."I saw

doctors struggling to save her," she said. "They were trying really hard, and I

have great respect for what they do, but at that point I realized the doctors

could only do so much."She decided then that she needed to take more

responsibility

for her own health, by eating better, exercising more and seeking out health

aids that she thought of as natural, meaning not prescribed by a doctor or

developed by a pharmaceutical company."I usually stay away from drugs if I can,

because the side effects even of cough and cold medicines can be pretty strong,"

she said. The herbal preparations she uses, she said, "have no side effects, and

the difference in my view is that they help support my own body's natural

capability, to fight off disease" rather than treat symptoms.If these

sentiments are present in someone like Ms. Solomon, who regularly consults her

internist and describes herself as "pretty mainstream," they run far deeper in

millions of other people who use nontraditional therapies more often.In

interviews and surveys, these patients often described prescription drugs as

poisons that mostly mask symptoms without improving their underlying cause.Many

extend their suspicions further. In a

2004 study, researchers at the University of Arizona conducted interviews with a

group of men and women in Tucson who suffered from chronic arthritis, most of

whom regularly used alternative therapies. Those who used alternative methods

exclusively valued the treatments on the "rightness of fit"above other factors,

and they were inherently skeptical of the health care system.Distrust in the

medical industrial complex, as some patients call it, stems in part from

suspicions that insurers warp medical decision making, and in part from the

belief that drug companies are out to sell as many drugs as possible,

regardless of patients' needs, interviews show."I do partly blame the drug

companies and the money they make" for the breakdown in trust in the medical

system, said Joyce Newman, 74, of Lynnwood Wash., who sees a natural medicine

specialist as her primary doctor. "The time when you would listen to your

doctor and do whatever he said - that time is long gone, in

my opinion. You have to learn to use your own head."From here it is a small step

to begin doubting medical science. If Western medicine is imperfect and

sometimes corrupt, then mainstream doctors may not be the best judge of

treatments after all, many patients conclude. People's actual experience - the

personal testimony of friends and family, in particular - feels more

truthful.To best way to validate this, said Ms. Newman and many others who

regularly use nontraditional therapies, is simply to try a remedy "and listen

to your own body."Opting OutCynthia Riley effectively opted out of mainstream

medicine when it seemed that doctors were not listening to her.During a

nine-year period that ended in 2004, Ms. Riley, 47, visited almost 20 doctors,

for a variety of intermittent and strange healthcomplaints: blurred vision,

urinary difficulties, balance problems so severe that at times she wobbled like

a drunk.She felt unwell most

of the time, but doctors could not figure out what she had.Each specialist

ordered different tests, depending on the symptom, Ms. Riley said, but they

were usually rushed and seemed to solicit her views only as a

formality.Undeterred, Ms. Riley, an event planner who lives near New London,

Conn., typed out a four-page description of her ordeal, including her suspicion

that she suffered from lead poisoning. One neurologist waved the report away as

if insulted; another barely skimmed it, she said."I remember sitting in one

doctor's office and realizing, 'He thinks I'm crazy,' " Ms. Riley said. "I was

getting absolutely nowhere in conventional medicine, and I was determined to

get to the root of my problems."Through word of mouth, Ms. Riley heard about

Deirdre O'Connor, a naturopath with a thriving practice in nearby Mystic,

Conn., and made an appointment.In recent years, people searching for

something outside of conventional medicine have increasingly turned to

naturopaths, herbal specialists who must complete a degree that includes some

standard medical training in order to be licensed, experts say. Fourteen

states, including California and Connecticut, now license naturopaths to

practice medicine. Natural medicine groups are pushing for similar legislation

in other states, including New York.Licensed naturopaths can prescribe drugs

from an approved list in some states, but have no prescribing rights in

others.Right away, Ms. Riley said, she noticed a difference in the level of

service. Before even visiting the office, she received a fat envelope in the

mail containing a four-page questionnaire, she said. In addition to asking

detailed questions about medical history - standard information - it asked

about energy level, foods she craved, sensitivity to weather and self-image:

"Please list adjectives that describe you," read one

item."It felt right, from the beginning," Ms. Riley said. Her first visit lasted

an hour and a half, and Ms. O'Connor, the naturopath, agreed that metal exposure

was a possible cause of her symptoms. It emerged in their interview that Ms.

Riley had worked inthe steel industry, and tests of her hair and urine showed

elevated levels of both lead and mercury, Ms. O'Connor said.After taking a

combination of herbs, vitamins and regular doses of a drug called

dimercaptosuccinic acid, or DMSA, to treat lead poisoning, Ms. Riley said, she

began to feel better, and the symptoms subsided.Along the way, Ms. O'Connor

explained the treatments to Ms. Riley, sometimes using drawings, and called her

patient regularly to check in, especially during the first few months, Ms. Riley

said.Other doctors said they could not comment on Ms. Riley's case because they

had not examined her. Researchers who specialize in lead poisoning say that it

is rare in adults but that

it can cause neurological symptoms and bladder problems and is often missed by

primary care doctors.Dr. Herbert Needleman, a psychiatrist who directs the lead

research group at the University of Pittsburgh, said DMSA was the pharmaceutical

treatment of choice for high blood lead levels.Researchers say there is little

or no evidence that vitamins or herbs can relieve symptoms like Ms. Riley's.

Still, she said, "I look and feel better than I have in years."Life and

DeathDiane Paradise bet her life on the uncertain benefits of natural medicine,

after being burned physically and emotionally by conventional doctors.In 1995,

doctors told Ms. Paradise, now 35, that she had Hodgkin's disease. After a

six-month course of chemotherapy and radiation, she said, she was declared

cancer free, and she remained healthy for five years.But in 2001 the cancer

reappeared, more advanced, and her doctors

recommended a 10-month course of drugs and radiation, plus a marrow transplant,

she said.Ms. Paradise, a marketing consultant in Rochester, N.Y., balked. "I

was burned badly the first time around, third-degree burns, and now they were

talking about 10 months," she said in an interview, "and they were giving me no

guarantees; they said it was experimental. That's when I started looking around.

I really had nothing to lose,and I was focused on quality of life at that point,

not quantity."When she told one of her doctors that she was considering an

alternative treatment in Arizona, the man exploded, she said."His exact words

were, 'That's not treatment, that's a vacation -you're wasting your time!' "

she said. And so ended the relationship. With help from friends, Ms.

Paradiseraised about $40,000 to pay for the Arizona clinic's treatment, plus

living expenses while there."I had absolutely no scientific reason for choosing

this route, none," she

said. "I just think there are times in our life when we are asked to make

decisions based on our intuition, on our gut instinct, not based on evidence

put in front of us, and for me this was one of those moments."Cancer

researchers say that there is no evidence that vitamins, herbs or other

alternative therapies can cure cancer, and they caution that some regimens may

worsen the disease.But Ms. Paradise said that her relationship with the natural

medicine specialist in Arizona had been collaborative and that she had felt

"more empowered, more involved" in the treatment plan, which included large

doses of vitamins, as well as changes in diet and sleep routines. After four

months on the regimen, she said, she felt muchbetter.But the cancer was not

cured. It has resurfaced recently and spread, and this time Ms. Paradise has

started an experimental treatment with an oncologist in New York.She is

complementing this treatment, she said, with another

course of alternative therapy in Arizona. She moved in with friends near Phoenix

and started the alternative regime in January."It's 79 degrees and beautiful

here," she said by phone in mid-January. "Let's hope that's a good sign."For

all their suspicions and questions about conventional medicine, those who

venture outside the mainstream tend to have one thing in abundance, experts

say: hope. In a 1998 survey of more than 1,000 adults from around the country,

researchers found that having an interest in "personal growth or spirituality"

predicted alternative medicine use.Nontraditional healers know this, and they

often offer some spiritual element in their practice, if they think it is

appropriate. David Wood, a naturopath who with his wife, Cheryl, runs a large,

Christian-oriented practice in Lynnwood, Wash., said he treatedpatients of all

faiths."We pray with patients, with their permission," said Mr. Wood, who also

works with local medical

doctors when necessary. "If patients would not like us to pray for them, we

don't, but it's there if needed."He added, "Our goal here is to help people get

really well, not merely free of symptoms."That is exactly the sentiment that

many Americans say they feel is missing from conventional medicine. Whatever

the benefits and risks of its many concoctions and methods, alternative

medicine offers them at least the promise of affectionate care, unhurried

service, freedom from prescription drug side effects and the potential for

feeling not just better but also spiritually recharged."I don't hate doctors or

anything," Ms. Newman said. "I just know they can make mistakes, and so often

they refer you on to see another doctor, and another."Seeing a naturopath, she

said, "I feel I'm known, they see me as a whole person, they listen to what I

say."------------FAIR

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