More Patients are Turning to Holistic Treatment

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More Patients are Turning to Holistic Treatment and Even Doctors are Beginning

to Embrace It, Harry Jackson Jr.

Knight Ridder News Service

 

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Darcy Wolf's struggle with arthritis left her dissatisfied with the treatment

she got from traditional doctors. The St. Albans, Mo., woman found that the

drugs given to her didn't help. And, in one case, they made matters worse. " One

drug raised my blood pressure, " said Wolf, 56. " So the doctor put me on

blood-pressure medicine.

 

" They throw chemical after chemical at you with all the horrible side effects,

and they don't listen when you suggest a different diet might work. "

 

Of course, not all doctors are like that, but it was enough for Wolf to decide

to take matters into her own hands, reading books and articles, seeking holistic

remedies. Using the therapies, she learned a few things, including that some

foods caused her pain. For example, " When I ate citrus, my knees would flare, "

she said.

 

She said that she eventually discontinued her medications, " all except Vioxx, " a

painkiller.

 

Wolf said she feels better, but not as well as she'd like. She hasn't lost her

faith in physicians, she said, only in those who fail to respect her values.

 

Seeking answers that she wasn't getting elsewhere, Wolf attended a gathering of

people interested in holistic practices.

 

In the audience, a woman told of visiting a holistic physician who discovered

that the woman's arthritis was caused by a sensitivity to Aspartame, an

artificial sweetener. A man, small and bent and slow-moving, had a cancerous

tumor and said his doctors had told him they had nothing else to offer; he hoped

he might hear something that could help. Many had pains that continued

regardless of what a doctor did.

 

At the session, Wolf looked for someone who could " recommend a doctor who would

listen. " She is one of millions of people who have sought holistic practitioners

who offer alternatives to traditional medical care.

 

The numbers and demands by patients have caught the attention of the medical

establishment. The big guns of medicine and many physicians are taking a closer

look at what once was dismissed as superstition and quackery.

 

The National Institutes of Health is leading the examination, and it trickles

down to individual practitioners taking hard looks at holistic medicine, ranging

from " folk " (ethnic-based) remedies to naturopathic and herbal approaches, yoga,

diet and much more.

 

For example, there's Dr. Mark Mengel, a professor of community and family

medicine at St. Louis University School of Medicine, who has integrated holistic

practices into his conventional private practice.

 

" Some of these practices are being embraced because they work, " Mengel said.

 

What is holistic medicine?

 

Explaining holistic medicine is like explaining what is medicine, Mengel says.

 

In short, holistic -- a name boiled down from whole-istic -- looks at the person

as a whole entity: mind, body, emotions and spirit.

 

" It's a view that illness and disease are not just caused by organ dysfunction, "

Mengel said. " There are multiple causes of disease not addressed by traditional

medicine, and therapies are needed to address those causes. "

 

In addition, " It's a philosophy that the mind affects the body. The mind and

body are connected, so we need to take into account mind issues, like emotions,

spirituality and culture, when you're taking care of a patient. "

 

The American Medical Association says holistic treatments, including folk

medical practices, can range from herbal medicine to prayer, Ayurveda (a

holistic system of healing that originated in India) and yoga, massage therapy,

aromatherapy and diet therapy, among others.

 

The new attention to holistic practices is not a slam on traditional doctors.

Frankly, all of the physicians interviewed described themselves as conservative

when it came to diagnoses of illnesses and prescriptions of medications,

supplements and lifestyle changes.

 

Also, those doctors reminded us that physicians are accountable for whatever

they do to or for someone -- unlike holistic health providers who aren't

physicians.

 

" I'm a pretty conservative practitioner, " Mengel said. " What I try to do is

integrate the therapies that work into my practice and use them. I wouldn't call

myself a holistic practitioner. But I do believe the mind affects the body. "

 

Why it's popular

 

The new interest in holistic medicine seems to have grown with the new epidemic

of lifestyle illnesses -- obesity, hypertension, stress-related maladies, even

arthritis and diabetes -- that may be caused by lifetimes of poor health habits

and can be cured or at least relieved by better habits.

 

An example: Patients complain that a doctor will prescribe hypertension medicine

but won't take an active role in helping the patient lose weight and eat better.

 

Patients increasingly grow dissatisfied with pills that mask a symptom

temporarily and with physicians who recommend willpower as their sole

nonpharmaceutical remedy.

 

The response by patients has been to take matters into their own hands and seek

other avenues -- often self-treatment and diagnosis gleaned from the plethora of

books, or help from nutrition counselors, appetite-suppressing herbs,

stress-relieving forms of lifestyle changes, yoga, spiritual counseling,

acupuncture, personal trainers for physical and dietary goals, even exotic

rituals of prayer and meditation -- to get at the root of problems.

 

Still, acceptance of holistic practices traditionally has been slow among

physicians and medical schools. However, that's changing.

 

In 1996, the National Institutes of Health opened the National Center for

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (nccam.nih.gov). It examines holistic

medical approaches by testing them until they prove worthwhile or worthless.

 

The American Medical Association is also paying more attention to the trends and

has published several articles in its Journal of the American Medical

Association magazine.

 

The AMA says one reason for the growth of holistic " folk " medicine in the United

States is the influx of immigrants who bring their own medical values and

practices, which haven't been as strictly regulated as in the United States.

 

Investigating illness' causes

 

Dr. Lena R. Capapas runs a Missouri clinic for preventive and healing arts and

anti-aging medicine. Having started her practice in the mid-1960s, she's

maintained the holistic element much of her career.

 

" What's being practiced now as mainstream should be complementary, " she said.

" Practicing holistically should be the mainstream. I prefer the term

'integrative medicine.' "

 

Formerly a cardiologist, she is now a holistic practitioner who says she gets to

the root of the problem, past the symptoms.

 

The root is what went wrong between the time a healthy child was born in perfect

chemical balance and when the person became ill during adulthood.

 

Humans, she said, pollute their chemistry with questionable food and

environments. The result: lifestyle-related illnesses.

 

Her patients sit on leather recliner chairs. Then, after long conversations, the

small woman with a soothing voice may prescribe a traditional medication, but

she also may recommend a dietary supplement.

 

Dr. Richard Moore, a practitioner of internal medicine for years, embraced a

holistic style but doesn't call it that. He recently opened a nontraditional

practice called the Lifestyle Center in St. Louis, also addressing the trend of

lifestyle health.

 

" I choose the term complementary and alternative, " he said.

 

Moore said that when a patient comes in, he will spend up to an hour talking,

checking, testing and coming up with a head-to-toe treatment plan.

 

Moore has taken holistic medicine to the high-tech level. His suite of offices

includes rooms for massage and rock therapy (placing hot rocks on parts of the

body through massage or other movement), rooms for aromatherapy, and a fitness

center where personal trainers are actually physical therapists.

 

In another room is a laser-propelled machine that measures electrolytes and can

tell if a person is deficient in elements, which can lead to disease.

 

One element that will slow the embrace of holistic practices by physicians is

time. More time per patient adds up to less pay per hour from patients who are

subsidized by insurers.

 

Capapas and Moore said that because of their methods, they don't accept

insurance; what insurance would pay for a one-hour office visit is not worth the

paperwork. So their patients pay out-of-pocket.

 

Anger as a pain trigger

 

Mainstream practitioners who are adding holistic practices agree that it's a

matter of time -- albeit a long time -- before the use of any remedy can become

part and parcel of medicine. Some of it will find its way into the medical model

within the normal process, and not be dismissed as mumbo jumbo.

 

Take, for instance, a study by Robert A. Nicholson, a psychologist with St.

Louis University's Department of Community and Family Medicine.

 

Nicholson recently contributed to a study that linked the emotion of anger to

the physical manifestation of headache.

 

The principle of his paper, he said, is that while a painkiller may relieve the

headache for that moment, " wouldn't it be better to get at the underlying cause?

What triggers the headache may not be purely biological. "

 

And that's what holistic medicine is, more preventive medicine -- how to keep a

problem from happening.

 

Facts about holistic medicine

 

• Forty percent of Americans, and 66 percent of people worldwide, had used some

form of holistic medical approach as of 2001.

 

• People had paid $27 billion in out-of-pocket expenses for holistic

practitioners and remedies as of 2001.

 

• There was a 30-percent increase in people visiting practitioners of

alternative medicine between 1990 and 2001.

 

• Most patients use holistic medical care as an adjunct to conventional care.

 

• A minority of patients use holistic care as an alternative to conventional

care.

 

• 60 percent of holistic practice is not reported by physicians.

 

Source: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

 

Why people try holistic treatment

 

The reasons people turn to holistic practitioners tend to be consistent,

according to the National Institutes of Health's National Center for

Complementary and Alternative Medicine:

 

• Traditional treatments have failed to cure them, or have caused side effects

that seemed worse than the illness.

 

• Their physician doesn't have time to talk to them.

 

• Dissatisfaction with a " technical approach. "

 

• A feeling that they're being passed around among specialists.

 

People say holistic practices are attractive because of:

 

• Media reports of dramatic results.

 

• A belief that holistic medicine is natural.

 

• A feeling of empowerment and that patients take their destinies into their own

hands.

 

• Treatments focusing on spiritual and emotional well-being as well as physical

cures.

 

• Holistic therapists who find time to " touch and talk. "

 

-- Knight Ridder News Service

 

 

 

 

 

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