Fwd: The Alternative Fix, Thursday, Nov. 06 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings)

[Guest guest]

FRONTLINE

http://www.pbs.org/frontline/

 

- This Week: " The Alternative Fix " (60 min.),

Thursday, Nov. 06 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings)

- Inside Frontline: A note from producer Raney Aronson

- Live Discussion: Chat with Aronson this Fri. at 1:30 p.m. ET

- On the Web: Links to highlights from our companion website

 

 

+ This Week ...

 

In 1993 a young doctor at Harvard Medical School named David Eisenberg,

who had traveled to China in the early 80s to study traditional Chinese

medicine, wanted to study the effectiveness of Eastern or " alternative "

therapies. So he commissioned a national survey to find out how many

Americans were already using such alternative approaches.

 

The results stunned the medical establishment. One in three American

adults were using some sort of alternative medicine. What's more, only

28 percent of those surveyed had ever talked about these therapies with

their primary care doctors. Eisenberg had uncovered what he called the

" hidden mainstream " of American medicine.

 

That was ten years ago. Today, therapies long ridiculed by Western

doctors -- from acupuncture and homeopathy to herbal supplements and

chiropractic -- are being integrated into America's finest hospitals,

and Americans are spending 48 billion dollars a year on alternative

medicine. Clearly, it's good business. But is it good medicine? Do these

treatments really work? Are they safe?

 

This week, in " The Alternative Fix, " Thursday, Nov. 06 at 9pm on PBS

(check local listings),

FRONTLINE takes up these questions and tells the story of how we got to

this new frontier in medical practice, tracing the mainstreaming of

alternative medicine to the halls of Congress, the National Institutes

of Health, and major hospitals. Featuring interviews with staunch

supporters of alternative medicine, skeptical scientists, and other

observers on both sides of the debate, the program considers whether the

medical establishment has put aside its doubts about the efficacy of

these treatments in order to cash in on a multibillion-dollar market.

 

We hope you'll join us on Thursday night, and that you'll join the

discussion on the Web following the broadcast. But don't wait until

Thursday: the companion site for " The Alternative Fix " has already

launched -- at http://www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/altmed/ -- and we've

got links to some of the highlights of the site below.

 

Wen Stephenson

Website Managing Editor

FRONTLINE

 

 

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+ Inside FRONTLINE ...

 

[Raney Aronson, the producer, writer, and director of " The Alternative

Fix, " is a documentary filmmaker and FRONTLINE producer who has worked

on a number of award-winning series. We asked her to describe how she

got interested in the subject of alternative medicine and what her

biggest surprises were in making " The Alternative Fix. " ]

 

.. . . .

 

I've always been curious about the intersection of alternative and

conventional medicine, and I always assumed the two would be utterly at

odds. But a few years ago, while filming at Johns Hopkins University in

Baltimore, I noticed that many of the medical doctors were receptive to

alternative medicine, and were starting to inquire about its

effectiveness, in ways that surprised me. Alternative and conventional

medicine, so it seemed, were coming closer together than I ever imagined

possible.

 

When FRONTLINE recently asked me to delve deeper into the subject, what

I found was astounding: Americans spend more than 48 billion dollars a

year on alternative therapies and supplements, visit their alternative

medicine therapists more than their primary care doctors, and spend more

money out of pocket on these therapies than on conventional medicine.

Most importantly, I learned that over a fifth of our hospitals are

offering some sort of alternative therapy.

 

It was these therapies (acupuncture, homeopathy, etc.), far more than

the dietary supplement industry, that interested me at the outset. But

the issues surrounding the ever-popular supplements held the biggest

surprises. Like most Americans, I was not aware of the utter lack of

regulation surrounding them. Thanks to the 1994 Dietary Supplement

Health and Education Act (DSHEA), it is essentially impossible for the

FDA to regulate supplements; the supplement makers can put their

products on the market without providing proof of safety or efficacy.

The only way the FDA can get involved is after a disaster happens, and

sometimes not even then: despite the herb ephedra being linked to more

than 100 deaths, the FDA has still not been able to pull it off the

shelves. And while the number of complaints from pharmaceuticals dwarfs

those from supplements, the FDA says there are over 7,000 serious

complaints about supplements on file.

 

In many ways, dissecting DSHEA became my biggest challenge. But I also

discovered that the biggest unanswered question about alternative

medicine is one of the most essential: What is the science behind it?

This, too, turned out to be troublesome. I found that the National

Institutes of Health has a fully funded center devoted to studying

alternative medicine, yet only one large-scale study (on the popular

herbal supplement St. John's wort) has been published so far. This was a

bit disheartening, because I'd assumed I'd be able to tell viewers

whether at least some of these popular therapies have been

scientifically proven to work. Instead, I had to take a different

approach, explaining why it is that so little has been done, and then

looking to the future. As Harvard Medical School's David Eisenberg told

me, " the [scientific] games have just begun. "

 

But perhaps the most important question of all isn't about alternative

medicine but about conventional medicine: namely, what is it about our

established medical system that does not meet the needs of patients, so

that they increasingly look outside for their care?

 

--Raney Aronson

 

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+ Live Online Discussion on Washingtonpost.com ...

 

Producer Raney Aronson will be online this Friday, Nov. 7, at 1:30 p.m.

ET, to discuss " The Alternative Fix " and the mainstreaming of

alternative medicine.

 

For details, see:

http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-

srv/zforum/03/sp_tv_frontline110703.htm

 

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+ On FRONTLINE's Website ...

 

Here are links to some of the highlights from the online companion to

" The Alternative Fix " ...

 

- " Science or Snake Oil? "

How can we know which controversial therapies work and which are

quackery?

http://www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/altmed/snake/

 

- " One Out of Three Americans "

Doctors David Eisenberg, Marcia Angell, Tom Delbanco, Andrew Weil, and

James Whorton discuss the recent surge in popularity of alternative

medicine.

http://www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/altmed/clash/oneinthree.html

 

- " Tips for Consumers "

How do you evaluate what's safe for you? Plus, resources on acupuncture,

homeopathy and other alternative therapies.

http://www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/altmed/consumers/

 

These features and much more are online now, at:

http://www.pbs.org/frontline/shows/altmed/

 

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Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers.

Additional support is provided by U.S. News & World Report.

 

Additional funding for " The Alternative Fix " is provided by The

Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

 

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FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation.

 

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comment about a FRONTLINE program, about our website, or about this

bulletin, you can write to us directly by going to:

http://www.pbs.org/frontline/contact/

 

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FRONTLINE

http://www.pbs.org/frontline/

 

 

" Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be

dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is

the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and

debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the

domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the

Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and

emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are

added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant

aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and

the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war...and in the

degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could

preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. "

 

--James Madison, April 20, 1795 (Works. Vol. 4, Pp. 491-2)