Category Archives: Alternative Medicine

Gabe and Tiffany Roberts with their daughter Arya at Back to Natures new office in Prairie Village.

After eight years traveling around the globe as a Marine, Gabe Roberts needed some rehabilitation. Suffering from PTSD and related conditions, he says he wasnt able to find real relief until he began working with healers familiar with Eastern medicine practices.

The experience got him interested in the healing arts, and he began studying for his doctor of chiropractic and other licensure. Four years ago, he started his own practice that blends chiropractic foundations with Eastern healing traditions.

The kind of medicine I practice today is what healed me, he said.

Roberts just moved his practice, Back to Nature Lifestyle Medicine, from its original home in Lenexa to Prairie Village earlier this year. His wife Tiffany, who is a nutrition specialist, works for the practice as well. The two specialize in digestive issues and auto-immune problems and chronic pain.

Most of the people who come see us have already been to see other chiropractors, theyve already been to see other functional medicine docs, Roberts said.

Among the services Roberts offers is Bioelectrical Synchronization Technique, which he describes as a higher brain adjustment intended to get the bodys own healing mechanisms in action.

My whole philosophy is, the body doesnt make mistakes, he said. The body has a remarkable way to correct itself.

The clinic is located at 4121 W. 83rd St just south of Corinth Square. You can find their website here.

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For Prairie Village practitioner, personal experience led to interest in alternative medicine techniques - Shawnee Mission Post

T

heyre among the nations premiermedical centers, at the leading edge of scientific research.

Yet hospitals affiliated with Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and other top medical research centers also aggressively promote alternative therapies with little or no scientific backing. They offer energy healing to help treat multiple sclerosis, acupuncture for infertility, and homeopathic bee venom for fibromyalgia. A public forum hosted by the University of Floridas hospital even promises to explain how herbal therapy can reverse Alzheimers. (It cant.)

This embrace of alternative medicine has been building for years. But a STAT examination of 15 academic research centers across the US underscores just how deeply these therapies have become embedded in prestigious hospitals and medical schools.

Some hospitals have built luxurious, spa-like wellness centers to draw patients for spiritual healing, homeopathy, and more. And theyre promoting such treatments for a wide array of conditions, including depression, heart disease, cancer, and chronic pain. Duke even markets a pediatric program that suggests on its website that alternative medicine, including detoxification programs and botanical medicines, can help children with conditions ranging from autism to asthma to ADHD.

Weve become witch doctors, said Dr. Steven Novella, a professor of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine and a longtime critic of alternative medicine.

STATs examination found a booming market for such therapies: The clinic at the University of California, San Francisco, is growing so fast, its bursting out of its space.

Just in the past year, the teaching hospital connected to the University of Florida began offering cancer patients consultations in homeopathy and traditional Chinese herbal medicine. Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia launched an institute whose offerings include intravenous vitamin and mineral therapies. And the University of Arizona, a pioneer in the field, received a $1 million gift to boost practitioner training in natural and spiritual healing techniques.

[If a hospital is] offering treatment thats based on fantasy, it undermines the credibility of the institution.

Steven Salzberg, Johns Hopkins

Even as they count on these programs to bring in patients and revenue, several hospitals were reluctant to talk to STAT about why theyre lending their distinguished names to unproven therapies.

Duke Health declined repeated requests for interviews about its rapidly growing integrative medicine center, which charges patients $1,800 a year just for a basic membership, with acupuncture and other treatments billed separately.

MedStar Georgetown quietly edited its website, citing changes to its clinical offerings, after a reporter asked why it listed the energy healing practice of reiki as a therapy for blood cancer. Cleveland Clinic struggled to find anyone on its staff to defend the hospitals energy medicine program, ultimately issuing a statement that its responding to the needs of our patients and patient demand.

And the director of an alternative medicine program at another prestigious hospital declined to speak on the record out of fear, he said, that his remarks would be construed as fake news and stir a backlash.

The rise of alternative therapies has sparked tension in some hospitals, with doctors openly accusing their peers of peddling snake oil and undermining the credibility of their institutions.

By promoting such therapies, Novella said, physicians are forfeiting any claim that we had to being a science-based profession.

As for patients? Theyre being snookered, he said.

The counterargument: Modern medicine clearly cant cure everyone. It fails a great many patients. So why not encourage them to try an ancient Indian remedy or a spiritual healing technique thats unlikely to cause harm and may provide some relief, if only from the placebo effect?

Yes, as scientists, we want to be rigid. But me, as a physician, I want to find whats best for a patient. Who am I to say thats hogwash? said Dr. Linda Lee.

A gastroenterologist, Lee runs the Johns Hopkins Integrative Medicine and Digestive Center, which offers acupuncture, massage therapy, and reiki a therapy that the centers website describes as laying on hands to transmit Universal Life Energy to the patient.

Lee and others who promote alternative therapies are careful to say that they can supplement but cant replace conventional treatments. And they make a point of coordinating care with other doctors so that, for instance, patients dont get prescribed herbal supplements that might interact badly with their chemotherapy.

Yes, as scientists, we want to be rigid. But me, as a physician, I want to find whats best for a patient. Who am I to say thats hogwash?

Dr. Linda Lee, Johns Hopkins gastroenterologist

Here at UF, we do not have alternative medicine. We do not have complementary medicine. We have integrative medicine, said Dr. Irene Estores, medical director of the integrative medicine program at the University of Florida Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Fla.

But while those cautions may come through in the clinic, the hospitals also promote alternative medicine online often, without any nuance.

Alternative therapies go to med school

Dukes Integrative Medicine store, for instance, sells Po Chai Pills that are touted on the hospitals website as a cure for everything from belching to hangovers to headaches. The site explains that taking a pill harmonizes the stomach, stems counterflow ascent of stomach qi, dispels damp, dispels pathogenic factors, subdues yang, relieves pain. None of that makes sense in modern biomedical terms.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals website touts homeopathic bee venom as useful to relieve symptoms for arthritis, nerve pain, and other conditions. The site does tell patients that the biological mechanism for the treatment is unexplained but asserts that studies have been published in medical journals showing homeopathic medicines may provide clinical benefit.

Asked about the therapy, Dr. Daniel Monti, who directs the integrative health center, acknowledged that the data is largely anecdotal, and said the hospital offers the treatment only rarely, when there are few other options. But those caveats dont come through on the website.

Novella gets alarmed when he sees top-tier hospitals backing therapies with scant evidence behind them. Patients only want [alternative medicine] because theyre being told they should want it. They see a prestigious hospital is offering it, so they think its legitimate, said Novella.

The perpetuation of these practices is a victory of marketing over truth, said Steven Salzberg, a biomedical engineer at Johns Hopkins who lectures in the medical school. If a hospital is offering treatment thats based on fantasy, it undermines the credibility of the institution.

Essentially witchcraft: A former naturopath takes on her colleagues

The debate burst into the public view earlier this year when the medical director of the Cleveland Clinics Wellness Institute which markets a variety of alternative therapies published an articleraising discredited theories linking vaccines to autism.

Cleveland Clinics chief executive, Dr. Toby Cosgrove, disavowed the article. And the clinic told STAT last week that it will take down its online wellness store and stop selling homeopathy kits.

But Cosgrove has stood up for the general principle of offering alternative treatments.

The old way of combating chronic disease hasnt worked, Cosgrove wrote in a column posted on the hospitals website. We have heard from our patients that they want more than conventional medicine can offer.

Theres no question that patients want alternative medicine. Its a $37 billion-a-year business.

The typical American adult spent about $800 out of pocket in 2012 on dietary supplements and visits to alternative providers, such as naturopaths and acupuncturists, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hospitals have taken note. A national consortium to promote integrative health now counts more than 70 academic centers and health systems as members, up from eight in 1999. Each year, four or five new programs join, said Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, the chair of the consortiums policy working group.

In most cases, insurers wont cover alternative therapies theres simply not enough evidence that they actually work so patients pay out of pocket: $85 for acupuncture, $100 for reiki, $38 for pills made from thyme and oregano oils that promise to harmonize digestive and respiratory function.

Homeopathic remedies harmed hundreds of babies, families say, as FDA investigated for years

To be sure, not all such integrative medicine clinics are big profit centers. Many are funded by philanthropists, and some hospitals say their programs operate at a loss but are nonetheless essential to woo patients in a highly competitive marketplace. If they failed to offernatural therapies, some hospital executives fear they would lose a chance to attract patientswho need more lucrative care, such as orthopedic surgeries or cancer treatments.

The integrative medicine center at Thomas Jefferson, for instance, is part of an enterprise strategy for growth and development, Monti said.

The people running the hospitals are doctors, but they also have MBAs. They talk of patients as customers. Customers have demands. Your job is to sell them what they want, said Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York Universitys medical school. Too often, he said, the attitude is, Were damn well going to do it if the guys down the street are doing it.

Weve become witch doctors [forfeiting] any claim that we had to be a science-based profession.

Dr. Steven Novella, Yale School of Medicine

While most hospitals declined to give specific revenue figures, STAT found indications of rapid growth.

Were literally bursting. We have to convert office space to clinic exam rooms, said Shelley Adler, who runs the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. It offers a wide range of services, including Chinese herbal medicine, massage therapy, and Ayurveda, an ancient healing system from India based on the belief that health results from a balance between the mind, body, and spirit.

The center is on pace to get more than 10,300 patient visits this fiscal year, up 37 percent from 2012. Its expanding its clinical staff by a third.

Duke Universitys integrative medicine clinic, a stunning space with arching wood ceilings and an indoor garden, has seen strong growth: Total visits jumped 50 percent in 2015, to more than 14,000, Dr. Adam Perlman, the executive director, told IntegrativePractitioner.com. (He declined to talk to STAT.)

The centers membership count also jumped, up 25 percent to 885, Perlman said. If all members paid the list price, that would bring in more than $1 million a year just for primary care.

A supplement maker tried to silence this Harvard doctor and put academic freedom on trial

At the University of Pittsburghs Center for Integrative Medicine, meanwhile, our volume pretty much has increased steadily, even when weve had recessions and financial downturns, said Dr. Ronald Glick, the medical director. The center now treats about 8,000 patients a year.

Many hospitals have also expanded into more general wellness offerings, with classes in healthy cooking, tai chi, meditation, and art therapy. UCSF offers a $375 class on cultivating emotional balance (and a free class on laughter yoga). Mayo Clinic sells a $2,900 signature experience, which includes consultations with a wellness coach.

And the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicineat Massachusetts General Hospital offers specializedstress management services to help patients deal with conditions including cancer, infertility, and menopause. John Henry, the owner of STAT, has contributed funding to the Benson-Henry Institute.

Wellness programs which are designed to ease stress and encourage healthy behaviors are seen by many clinicians and hospitals as key to slowing Americas epidemic of chronic disease. They dont tend to draw sharp criticism, except for their cost.

Its the alternative therapies promoted as a way to treat disease that raise eyebrows.

Despite their deep wells of medical expertise, many top hospitals are offering to help treat serious medical problems with reiki a practice based on the belief that lightly touching patients can unleash a cosmic energy flow that will heal them naturally.

STAT found that it is widely used by academic medical centers, including Johns Hopkins, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, part of Partners HealthCare in Boston.

So, wheres the evidence supporting it?

There is none, according to a division of the National Institutes of Health that funds research into alternative medicines. It says the practice has not been shown to be useful for any health-related purpose and adds that there is no scientific evidence that the natural healing energy its based on even exists.

Asked about the Cleveland Clinics promotion of reiki, Dr. Richard Lang, the recently named interim director of the clinics Wellness Institute, said he hadnt had a chance to think about it. I dont know that I could give you a plus or minus on that, he said. Lang served as a vice chair of the wellness institute for nearly a decade before taking the top post.

[Hospital executives] talk of patients as customers. Customers have demands. Your job is to sell them what they want.

Arthur Caplan, bioethicist at New York University

Pressed for a more substantive answer, the clinic sent a statement saying it offers energy medicine as a complementary therapy, not as a replacement solution. But its website only briefly alludes to a patients broader care team in describing a full range of emotional and physical issues that can be treated withenergy therapies, including autoimmune diseases, migraines, hormonal imbalances, and cancer treatment support and recovery.

Academic medical centers often boast that theyre more rigorous in evaluating alternative therapies and weeding out scams than a for-profit wellness center might be.

The important thing about practicing in an academic center is that we must hold ourselves to certain standards, said Estores, the medical director at the University of Floridas integrative medicine clinic.

At the University of Pittsburgh, Glick echoed that sentiment: Were an academic institution [so] were offering services that have greater evidence basis [and] scientific explanation.

Should researchers study bunk science? Among respected scientists, a debate ensues

But that evidence isnt always rigorous.

The University of Florida, for instance, is using Facebook to advertise a herbal medicine workshop for providers and the public that promises to answer questions including, How can we stabilize or reverse Alzheimers disease?

Asked about the evidence for that statement, Susan Marynowski, the herbalist presenting the workshop, cited several papers and a book chapter that she said showed herbs, in conjunction with lifestyle adjustments, could reverse Alzheimers-associated memory loss. However, at least two papers were small collections of case studies published in a journal with a reputation for less-than-rigorous review. (Marynowski said she knew the studies size and design limited the strength of their conclusions, but that she was not aware of the journals reputation.)

At Pittsburgh, the integrative medical center does take care to note on its website that alternative therapies generally have not been subjected to the same level of research as standard medical approaches.

But the site then goes on to promote dozens of treatments for everything from ADHD to whiplash, saying they have appeared to be beneficial in this and other complementary medicine clinics. (Glick noted that the body of research had grown since he wrote the caveat on the website in 2003.)

Perhaps the most prevalent alternative treatment STAT found on offer is acupuncture. Its promoted for more than a dozen conditions, including high blood pressure, sinus problems, infertility, migraines, and digestive irregularities.

A 3,000-year-old Chinese therapy, acupuncture is based on the belief that by stimulating certain points on the body, most often with needles, practitioners can unlock a natural healing energy that flows through the bodys meridians. Research suggests it helps with certain pain conditions and might help prevent migraine headaches but it also suggests that the placebo effect may play an important role.

Its value in treating other conditions is uncertain, according to the NIHs center on integrative medicine.

Vitamin IVs promise to erase jet lag and clear your mind. Wheres the evidence?

Several major insurers, including Aetna, Anthem, and regional Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates, cover acupuncture as a treatment for chronic pain and nausea. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wont pay for acupuncture, dismissing the scientific evidence as insufficient.

Still, its important for physicians to keep an open mind, said Lang, the interim director of the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute.

He said, for example, that he used to avoid referring patients for acupuncture, until he saw the benefit it provided to some of them. I have seen it work in some chronic pain situations, said Lang. It can be very helpful. If it doesnt work, I dont know that youve lost anything. If it does, you do get to a better place.

If it doesnt work, I dont know that youve lost anything. If it does, you do get to a better place.

Dr. Richard Lang, Cleveland Clinic

And while the evidence of its efficacy is not ironclad, neither is the evidence for various pharmaceutical therapies that are routinely provided by hospitals and covered by insurance. Some of those solutions, such as opioids to treat pain, have resulted in addiction and harm to patients.

Advocates of alternative medicine say its difficult to test some alternative therapies through rigorous clinical trials, primarily because treatment techniques vary from patient to patient. (The federal government does, however, spend roughly $120 million a year to fund research through the NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.)

They note, too, that traditional doctors sometimes stray from proven treatments, for instance when they prescribe medicines off-label for conditions the drugs have not been approved to treat.

We do use things that arent necessarily 100 percent evidence-based, but I would argue thats also true within all of medicine, said Dr. Jill Schneiderhan, co-director of the University of Michigans integrative family medicine program. I feel like its not black and white.

Casey Ross can be reached at casey.ross@statnews.com Follow Casey on Twitter @byCaseyRoss

Max Blau can be reached at max.blau@statnews.com Follow Max on Twitter @maxblau

Kate Sheridan can be reached at kate.sheridan@statnews.com Follow Kate on Twitter @sheridan_kate

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Medicine with a side of mysticism: Top hospitals promote unproven therapies - STAT

A roundup of science news from around the web and around the world.

House Republicans released their plan to replace Obamacare Monday. While the legislation would allow adults to stay on their parents insurance until age 26 and bar insurance companies from denying coverage or charging more based on preexisting conditions, it would also do away with penalties for not having insurance and repeal essential health benefit rules. (Politifact)

Scientists gain new insight into how indigenous peoples in the Amazon shaped their environment.

Visual by iStock.com

Are recently unearthed bacterial remains the oldest fossils ever found? If so, this discovery pushes back the birthdate of life on Earth. But as far as the scientific community is concerned, its hardly a closed case. (New York Times)

Top U.S. hospitals affiliated with Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and other medical research centers are promoting unproven alternative therapies, including energy healing, acupuncture, and homeopathic bee venom. (STAT)

SpaceX is shooting for the moon with a two-man lunar mission scheduled for 2018. Some experts have their doubts about that launch date. (Scientific American)

The Amazons supposedly untouched wilderness is actually full of ancient, overgrown gardens. Clusters of domesticated tree species reveal the impact that indigenous people had on Amazonian biodiversity before Europeans arrived on the scene. (Christian Science Monitor)

Pollution from Asia wafts over the Pacific Ocean andmakes for smoggy skies in the western United States an indicationthat clean air is a truly globalissue, scientists say. (NPR)

Since the Zika epidemic, pregnant women in the United States who have Zika are 20 times more likely to bear children with certain birth defects. (Washington Post)

Artificial intelligence, meet artificial intuition. Two AI programs beat professional human poker players by using a combination of new algorithms and deep machine learning to make snap decisions. (Science)

And finally, a team of scientists grew an artificial mouse embryo from stem cells in a petri dish. Although the embryo couldnt develop into an actual baby mouse, it could be a useful tool for understanding the biology of reproduction. (CNN)

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Abstracts: Obamacare Replacement, Alternative Medicine, and More - Undark Magazine

Dr. Matthew McClanahan, CHI Memorial Integrative Medicine Associates; member, Chattanooga Hamilton-County Medical Society

Dr. Matthew McClanahan, CHI Memorial Integrative Medicine Associates;...

Photo by David Humber

Q: I have chronic pain. Is there an alternative medicine treatment that could help me get relief from the constant pain?

A: Many people who suffer from chronic joint pain may benefit from a form of treatment called prolotherapy. Like most alternative treatments, this technique targets the root cause of pain rather than simply masking pain.

Prolotherapy targets an often overlooked part of the body ligaments and tendons and regeneration is the primary focus. It triggers self-healing by stimulating a small, precisely-directed inflammatory response using an injection of an irritating substance, such as dextrose (sugar water). The immune system recognizes the micro-damage caused by the injection and begins a healing process.

Prolotherapy is only indicated after a thorough joint evaluation, including the bones and connective tissues, in addition to accounting good nutrition, posture/ergonomics and proper movement biomechanics.

Dr. Matthew McClanahan, CHI Memorial Integrative Medicine Associates; member, Chattanooga Hamilton-County Medical Society

Submit your health-related questions for a medical doctor to lwilson@timesfreepress.com.

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Ask a Doctor: Is there an alternative medicine treatment for constant pain? - Chattanooga Times Free Press

No longer a niche of the West Coast, holistic and alternative medicine and therapy providers have become a sizable presence in the Sugar Land and Missouri City area.

Nearly a third of U.S. adults have tried some type of nontraditional medicine or therapy, according to the National Institutes of Health.

[Clients] want to avoid surgery, Lonestar Cryotherapy owner Robert Garza said. They want to avoid a lot of medications; they want to do something as holistically as possible.

His Sugar Land practice uses intense cold to ease muscle pains. Reasons vary for why people seek complementary, alternative and holistic treatments although pain management is a common motivation according to NIHs National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

I do think people like alternative medicine because it has fast results and more visible results, said Erika Yigzaw, chief strategy officer for the American College of Healthcare Sciences.

The NCCIH defines complementary medicine as a nonmainstream practice used in conjunction with conventional medicine. Complementary medicine usually falls into the subgroups of natural products or mind and body practices. By comparison, alternative medicine is a nonmainstream practice used in place of conventional medicine. NCCIH does not classify treatments as being specifically complementary or alternative.

Complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, can include chiropractors, dietary supplements, reflexology, yoga and aromatherapy, to name a few, according to the NCCIH.

A 2016 report by market research provider IBISWorld cited an aging population, a greater awareness of health and wellness spurred by the Affordable Care Act and increasing disposable incomes as reasons for the demand for these treatments.

The report also suggests that people without coverage also turn to CAM because it can be cost-effective and more accessible.

In Sugar Land and Missouri City, the population age 60 and older rose by 6 percent and by 7.8 percent, respectively, between 2009 and 2015. From 2010 to 2015, median household incomes rose by 3.3 percent in Sugar Land and by 7.5 percent in Missouri City, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Between 2010 and 2015, the median household income in Sugar Land rose from $101,611 to $104,939. During that time in Missouri City, the median household income rose from $81,854 to $87,955, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The NCCIH conducts a survey of complementary or alternative medicine usage every five years.

IBISWorld and the NCCIH have each noted a correlation between spending on nontraditional medical providers and higher than average incomes.

In 2012, an estimated $30.2 billionabout 1 percent of all U.S. health care spending that yearwas spent on out-of-pocket alternative medicine costs, according to the survey. Results from that year are still being analyzed, an NCCIH spokesperson said.

Community Impact Newspaper reported at least 10 such new businesses in 2016 compared to at least six the previous year.

Complementary and alternative regulations vary nationwide, and different Texas agencies license and certify some health care professionals but not all. Texas Medical Board spokesperson Jarrett Schneider said his office only licenses physicians and specific positions but does not inspect the facilities of alternative medical providers unless prompted by consumers.

Were complaint-driven, primarily, he said.

Chiropractors and acupuncturists have their own state boards rather than the state medical board or the Department of State Health Services. The TMB and the department said they were unaware of specific regulations for opening a complementary or alternative medical business in Texas, but Theresa Buede, owner of ReConnect Chiropractic and Holistic Center in Missouri City, said she followed standard city health codes to open her business in March 2016.

Im a big advocate of partneringnot eliminatingwith conventional medicine, she said.

In the last three years, new complementary and alternative medical businesses that opened in Sugar Land and Missouri City ranged from Indian herbal medicine and yoga therapy to halotherapy, which allows customers to sit in rooms ventilated with salt-infused air to help respiratory illnesses and skin conditions, such as dermatitis and eczema.

Garza and Sandy Hinderliter, owner of Salt of the Earth halotherapy, do not take insurance because carriers do not cover their services.

Hinderliter said she chose Sugar Land for her practice to because it was close to home and close to customers from Katy and Houston as well as locals.

Obviously, people have their own personal reasons but maybe feel like they didnt get the quality of life they wanted with taking the medications, she said of her clientele.

Ayush Wave Ayurveda Wellness and Yoga opened in Sugar Land in July. Owner Shwetha Reddy, who earned degrees in ayurveda and pharmacology in India and the U.K., said she chose Sugar Land because the southwest Houston region had a growing demand for the ancient Indian system of full-body healing methods.

Garza must be certified by the manufacturer of his businesss cryotherapy tank, which uses extreme cold on the whole body or in localized places. The treatment is popular with athletes.

Some clients are referred from doctors, like [the Sugar Land Skeeters] players, and some are coming on their own, he said. Its become more prevalent in Houston over the last year.

Similar to Hinderliter, Buede said she chose to open her practice close to home. She pursued a holistic healing career after battling cancer for 13 years until 2011. Her treatments include an infrared sauna, massage therapy and a saltwater flotation tank for sensory deprivationmeant to relax and detoxify the body.

My focus here, everything here is to identify and noninvasively treat toxic buildup [in the body], she said. Buede only accepts it for some services.

A physically active and health-conscious population in Fort Bend County motivated Garza and Alvaro Medina to open their respective practices in Sugar Land.

Medina owns Medina Chiropractic Sports and Spine, he said. His student-athlete days inspired him to become a chiropractor, and Medina opened his practice last April and accepts insurance for all treatments.

He is licensed by the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners and inspected by the state for use of X-ray technology.

We can neither prescribe nor take patients off medication, he said. That is out of scope for us.

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Alternative medicine grows in Sugar Land, Missouri City - Community Impact Newspaper

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Candy Gunther Brown's The Healing Gods is an effort to explain how Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) entered the American cultural mainstream, and especially how it achieved a niche among evangelical and other theologically conservative Christians, although much of CAM is religious but not distinctively Christian and lacks scientific evidence of efficacy and safety.

This is surprising in part because many CAM providers make religious or spiritual assumptions about why CAM works, assumptions inspired by selective interpretations of multifaceted religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism (Daoism) that developed in Asia or metaphysical spirituality that grew up in Europe and North America. It is surprising also because a half-century ago these same practices and therapies were religiously questionable among Evangelicals. She wonder What causes practices that most Americans once classified as illegitimate for medical and religious reasons to be redefined as legitimate routes to physical and spiritual wellness?

Her central argument is that CAM promoters strategically marketed products to consumers poised by suboptimal health to embrace effective, spiritually wholesome therapies. Once-suspect health practices became mainstream as practitioners recategorized them as nonreligious (though generically spiritual) health-care, fitness, or scientific techniquescongruent with popular understandings of quantum physics and neurosciencerather than as religious rituals. CAM makes dubious use of recent developments in physics to argue that matter is simply a form of energy. Recast as science and secular rather than religious, the way was smoothed for them to become mainstream, even among cautious Evangelicals.

Brown is suspicious, not to say cynical, about this mainstreaming, but there's an alternative explanation. Much of modern medicine assumes a mechanistic materialism very much at odds with Christian understandings of matter and bodies. It's not hard to see why biblically-oriented Christians might gravitate to therapies and practices that promise to treat the whole person - therapies that recognize there's a whole person to treat.

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Evangelical Alternative Medicine - First Things (blog)

Elyse Gregory

Bright light lamp therapy provides a source of vitamin D, which is beneficial to our health.

Laurel Kraus, Staff Reporter February 27, 2017 Filed under Life, Showcase

Spring break is over, and at this point in the semester, its not uncommon for students to be feeling down, stressed or tired.

It kind of fits in a broad category of people just tend to do worse in the wintertime, and I think that thats a significant amount of people, said Maryann Swanson, director of Oakland UniversitysGraham Health Center. We just are not as happy. You dont even have to have an actual diagnosis.

On Dec. 1, 2016, University Recreation and Well-Beingbegan implementing bright light therapy to help combat these problems.

Bright light therapy is a relatively new form of alternative medicine and is essentially a lamp that releases light that mimics the suns rays and administers Vitamin D.

Weve been taught that the sun does negative things, but the sun does positive things, too, Swanson said.

According to a Columbia University study, the bodys internal clock which regulates body temperature, hormone secretion and sleep patterns, among other functions is highly affected by light stimulation, or lack thereof.

For best results, a bright light therapy lamp should be placed approximately 20 to 30 inches away from the users face for sessions of 20 to 30 minutes.

I do suggest, if youre hoping to get some type of medicinal benefit or real benefit from it, talking to your doctor and looking at the research and deciding with your doctor whats going to be best for you, said Erica Wallace, health and wellness coordinator for the Recreation Center.

The risks of bright-light therapy are minimal, but include possible vision damage for those who have impaired vision.

Those interested in using the bright light, located in the Wellness Suite on the bottom floor of the Recreation Center, can sign up for a 15-minute session on the schedule posted on the suites door.

The light is not offered every day, but available times will be posted one week in advance.

OU students, staff and faculty can also call the Wellness Suite at (248) 370-4424 to schedule sessions.

The suite has also supplied crayons and activities to occupy the users time.

Additionally, when clients go into the Graham Health Center for intake or medical review, they will be offered the opportunity to try bright light therapy during the interview.

Pricing for these lamps ranges from $30 to $200.

According to Wallace, the Wellness Suite plans to continue offering bright light therapy through the end of March, unless there is demand or a need to continue.

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New form of alternative medicine comes to OU - Oaklandpostonline

Its been a decade since Jake Plummer threw a pass in the NFL, but if you talk to him long enough youd think he has a few seasons left in the tank.

Jake is fired upwhether hes talking about his newborn daughter Laverne, his love for Saturday games of handball, or the crazy Colorado weatherhis enthusiasm for all things life is surging. But with a comic book like collection of old broken bones, sprains and surgeries, youve got to wonder how he keeps it up. The answer to Jakes apparent perpetual youth is cannabis, specifically cannabidiol or CBD. In fact, CBDs positive impact on Jakes health has helped him to understand that being healthy is a choice, but not a choice that everyone is free to make. To overcome this choice discrepancy, Jake has embarked on a crusade of cannabis activism designed to empower individuals to take back control of their wellbeing.

Growing up in a small Idaho town during the 70s and 80s, Jake was in a world of his own, free to indulge his boyish curiosities. With two older brothers to show him the ropes, Jake quickly took a liking to sports.

I wanted to be just like my brothers, when I was young. I always wanted to play football when I grew up, but I had dreams of playing running back for the Raiders.

Just as Jake was developing his talents as a student athlete, America was in the thick of its War on Drugs. Initiated by President Nixon in 1971, Americas War on Drugs inaccurately portrayed a societal epidemic of drug abuse and addiction as it pertains to cannabis. Propagated through public schools, churches and even athletic teams, the War attempted to classify all drugs as evil or dangerouseven cannabis. As a young athlete, Plummer steered clear of drugseven cannabis. It wasnt the political regimes fear mongering tactics that kept Plummer on the straight and narrowhe was simply too busy focusing on football to carve out time for a typical youths extracurricular activities. But Jakes indifference to drugsspecifically cannabiswas not wholly a result of his dedication to athletics. Jake was given an education about drugs, he was well aware of themit was his education that guided his choices, not the political scare tactics of the 70s and 80s.

I had people close to me that were using cannabis for a long time. For me, I grew up in an environment where it was, you know, not what Ronald and Nancy Reagan were telling us. To just say no, and that marijuana is a gateway drug, it will make you dumbI was like what? Ive talked to people that are extremely smart, brilliant, like Mensa smart, and they used cannabis on the regular. Theyre not dumb. So I knew right away what was true and false. So for me there was never any stigma.

Jake never attached the stigma to cannabis that was force fed to Americans during his formidable years. He stayed focused on the journey that would land him in the NFL and give him the platform from which he speaks today. With ten years between him and his tenure with the NFL, Jake has taken time to reflect on his career. His focus has shifted from playing the game to finding ways to make it safer. He believes cannabis could be the answer.

As I evolved and got out the game, football was still, and will always be, a part of my life. It doesnt define me, but it is a large part of what walks into the room with me. I am fine with it, I love it, but I want to use it for good. I hope that it allows some people that maybe wouldnt have listened to some of the things I am saying about cannabis, to listen. Now, they might respect me in a way, because I have always been very truthful and honest. I wouldnt be advocating if I didnt believe in its ability to mitigate pain, and just your overall wellbeing.

After his second hip surgery in 2014, Jake started using cannabis regularly to manage his pain and to help him develop a healthy mental state. He continued to use cannabis to manage pain, but it wasnt until he discovered CBD that he noticed an overwhelming increase in his mental and physical wellbeing. His experience with CBD inspired him to take action on behalf of his fellow NFL players.

Professional athletes like Jake put their bodies through hell to entertain us on game day. Objectified by the man, jeered and cheered by the fan, professional athletes are chewed up and spit out of their respective leagues like old wads of chewing tobacco. To make matters worse, players are doled out little envelopes of addictive painkillers to mask the pain from their battle wounds. They are given few options when they are in painyou either take the pill or shot and keep going, or you sit down and watch another guy take your place. What if this wasnt the case? What if players had a natural option to manage their pain? These are the questions that burn inside Jake.

Jake has recently become an outspoken advocate for the responsible use of cannabis in professional sports. Cannabis was the answer to the issues Jake was facing in retirement, and he suspected it would answer many of the issues that players face during their careers, like depression, traumatic brain injury and chronic pain. He has taken his experiences in the NFL and his experience with using cannabis and forged them as one into a powerful movement.

He is advocating for the responsible use of cannabis in the NFL, but also bringing attention to the myriad challenges that professional athletes face. Jake believes that the players should have a voice that transcends the limitations of the NFL Players Association and empowers them to speak from experience.

These guys are speaking from experience. We are not just advocates, but we are living walking experiments. A lot of us have used cannabis and found relief. Relief from not just pain or depression, but for some guys it saved their liveshelped them not pull the trigger, helped them get their families back. Thats powerful stuff. It has to resonate with somebody in their heart, that this is a valid option that should be looked into. Not just state-by-state, but by our Federal Government, by big organizations like the NFL. The control is not in the hands of the people that need it. If you look at the NFL, why wouldnt you want your guys to have everything possible in their systems to play better and longer. But I dont even know if they want us to play longer. They want the new guys with bleached mohawks.

Professional sports organizations are systems built around the almighty dollar. This leaves little room for players to voice opinions that stray from the company line. Jakes advocacy for cannabis use in the NFL has morphed into a campaign for choice. Players are setup by their employers to blindly destroy their bodies and Jake is slowly but surely putting a stop to this shameful exploitation of talent. Jakes message has earned him a new team of supporters that are assisting him in moving the chains on cannabis in the NFL and society as a whole. He and his fellow advocates are making progress. The NFL and its officials have become increasingly aware of the movement to research and allow cannabis in the league. Slow as the NFLs reaction may be, there is progressbut now Jake and his supporters are preparing a new initiative for change.

I am not fighting these guys, I dont want to fight anybody that big. I just want to keep sending emails to remind them that we are not going to allow them to make the statement (about cannabis) at the Super Bowl and then let the offseason go by, and then bang the season starts, then all of a sudden theyre back in the cycle again. They say they want to research itwell weve got it all setup. Roger Goodell, are you going to write a check? A million dollars would go a long way.

After successfully influencing the NFL to take a closer look at cannabis, Jake feels empowered to push for even greater changeand he wont be alone. In recent months, Jake and an impressive list of current and former professional athletes from all leagues, founded the not for profit organization Athletes For CARE (A4C). The soon-to-be launched organization will focus on confronting important health issues facing the sports community and the public at large. Whether its addiction, depression, chronic pain or improving overall health and safety in sports, Jake and his peers at Athletes For CARE are uniting as one voice to advocate for research, education and compassion when addressing these issues.

With the inception of A4C, and its imminent launch, it appears that Jake and his fellow cannabis advocates are ready to embark on the next phase of their journey to bring choice and wellbeing to not just athletes, but the general public. Though it isnt uncommon for professional athletes to take up philanthropic efforts in retirement, Jake has taken a path seldom traveled by NFL players. His passion for helping others is evident in everything he does. He remains faithful that his cannabis advocacy will help to unite professional athletes under an umbrella of wellness and purpose. As he continues to pollinate the minds of NFL officials, and the general public with anecdotal evidence of cannabis role as an alternative medicine, there is no doubting that change is on the horizon.

I hope they turn to A4C. Come find us, well help you, well help you find your path and get involved with something. Come back and be part of a team that is doing good. Thats where this all came from. To bring these guys into the fold and get them off their soap boxes and back to doing good. You guys made it to the top of the game, and you can do anything in the worldweve just got to put our minds to it.

Also published on Medium.

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OPENING THE PLAYBOOK ON ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE - Dope Magazine

Anyone who uses homeopathy, acupuncture or other alternative over-the-counter therapies particularly if they use them on their children needs to read two recently published articles on the topic.

One of the articles, published last week in the Boston Globes health website STAT, takes an in-depth look at the incredibly troubling story behind a popular homeopathic teething product that harmed hundreds of children in the United States before it was finally pulled from the market last fall.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently reviewing the cases of eight babies who died after taking the product.

The other article, published earlier this year on the Science-Based Medicine website, describes the rise of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in both China and Western countries. It describes how TCM began as the dream of Chairman Mao Zedong back in the 1940s, but is receiving a renewed global push this year by the current Chinese government, in part to cover up major failings in Chinas medical system, but also to protect the profits of the countrys multibillion-dollar traditional pharmaceutical industry.

Both articles underscore how people often abandon their skepticism and their reason to embrace bogus alternative-medicine practices that are not only a waste of time and money, but also potentially harmful.

The articles also rip apart the prevalent David-and-Goliath myth regarding alternative therapies: the idea that alternative-medicine manufactures are small, noble companies who only want to bring inexpensive, natural remedies to people in need, but who find themselves battling the big, bad profit-driven pharmaceutical industry.

The truth is much less attractive: Alternative medicine is now a huge profit-driven, multibillion-dollar industry, too. And parts of it are owned by the pharmaceutical industry.

For the STAT article, reporter Sheila Kaplan used the Freedom of Information Act to seek and review FDA records for homeopathic teething pills marketed by Hylands, a 114-year-old private, Los-Angeles-based company that sells more homeopathic products than any other company in the U.S.

A review of those records revealed that during the 10-year period 2006-2016 the FDA received reports of 370 children who had experienced adverse health events after using Hylands homeopathic teething tablets or gel. The reports are grim, says Kaplan:

Babies who were given Hylands teething products turned blue and died. Babies had repeated seizures. Babies became delirious. Babies were airlifted to the hospital, where emergency room staff tried to figure out what had caused their legs and arms to start twitching.

Medical experts believe toxic levels of the teething tablets main ingredient the herb belladonna may have poisoned the children.

Despite those reports, it took four years until the FDA pushed Hylands to reformulate its remedies, writes Kaplan. And even after that reformulation, there was a steady stream of reports of adverse events tied to Hylands homeopathic teething products, she adds.

The Hylands teething tablet saga raises issues that most consumers of homeopathic and other alternative therapies are unaware of, as Kaplan explains:

Homeopathy has become a multibillion-dollar industry. Its products are big sellers around the world, and popular with adherents from Cher to Prince Charles. The industry also has political clout: It has been able to exempt itself from many rules proposed by Congress and the FDA over the years.

Unlike pharmaceutical company-produced drugs, homeopathic products dont have to prove that they are effective at treating anything in particular before going on the market. It is left to the FDAs drug division to determine whether they are unsafe after they are on the market a difficult task since the adverse event reports are generally considered to represent only a fraction of the actual incidents and may lack sufficient information to allow for thorough investigations.

In some cases, parents assume that products described as natural remedies, as is the case with Hylands tablets and gels, could not possibly result in complications, and never mention their use to a doctor. Without sufficient evidence of a problem, the FDA lacks what it needs to use the enforcement tools it does have.

Hylands has stopped making its teething tablets, but only after the FDA recommended last September that consumers not use the product (or other homeopathic teething products) while the agency investigates more cases of possible serious reactions among babies.

Kaplan tells a harrowing story in her article one all users of homeopathic medicines would be wise to read.

The Science-Based Medicine article also contains background information that is likely to surprise most consumers of another arm of alternative medicine TCM. Acupuncture is by far the most popular TCM therapy, at least in Western countries, but TCM includes many other treatments, include herbal medicines.

As Dr. David Gorski, a columnist for Science-Based Medicine and a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, explains in the article, acupuncture has been appropriately described as a theatrical placebo, with no detectable difference in effect compared to sham or placebo acupuncture.

Furthermore, acupuncture is not even ancient, as Gorski explains:

The technology to make such thin needles didnt exist two thousand years ago, [and], as recently as a century ago, acupuncture was brutal and primitive, using nothing like the thin, shiny needles acupuncturists use today.

But the problem with TCM, he says, is not just acupuncture, its the whole ancient, prescientific system of medicine.

Take Chinese herbal medicines. Even if the herb itself is innocuous (and not all are), medicines imported from China have been found to contain undeclared ingredients, including pesticides, heavy metals (such as lead and arsenic), antibiotics, decongestants and the DNA of endangered snow leopards. (Animal parts, including those of endangered animals, are often used in traditional Chinese medicines, says Gorski.)

The presence of toxic materials in these medicines is not a minor matter. Recent studies have suggested that herbal medicines are the leading cause of drug-induced liver failure in China and other countries where TCM is rapidly becoming popular, such as South Korea and Singapore, Gorski points out.

Like other forms of alternative medicine, TCM is built on a myth. Gorski explains:

[T]he exportation of TCM to the world was quite deliberate, as part of a strategy [by the former Communist leader of China, Mao Zedong] to popularize it among the Chinese. There was a problem, however. There was no such thing as traditional Chinese medicine per se. Rather, there were traditional Chinese medicines. For many centuries, healing practices in China had been highly variable. Attempts at institutionalizing medical education were mostly unsuccessful and most practitioners drew at will on a mixture of demonology, astrology, yin-yang five phases theory, classic texts, folk wisdom, and personal experience.

Mao realized that TCM would be unappealing to foreigners, as even many Chinese, particularly those with an education, understood that TCM was mostly quackery. For instance, in 1923, [the Chinese writer] Lu Xun realized that Chinese doctors are no more than a type of swindler, either intentional or unintentional, and I sympathize with deceived sick people and their families. Such sentiments were common among the upper classes and the educated. Indeed, Mao himself didnt use TCM practitioners. He wanted scientific Western medicine. The same was true of educated Chinese. It still is. TCM is far less popular among educated middle class and affluent Chinese than conventional medicine.

Yet that hasnt stopped the current Chinese government from passing a new law, which goes into effect in July, that mandates the integration of Chinese and Western medicine throughout their country.

The purpose of the law, says Gorski, is to elevate the status of TCM to the equivalent of Western medicine and thus provide a cheaper way of delivering medicine to Chinas overrun medical system.

One also cant help but notice that a lot of this new law goes towards protecting the business interests of the TCM industry in a manner that, if it were done for the pharmaceutical company, would provoke howls of outrage from [alternative medicine] proponents and rightly so, writes Gorski.

FMI: You can read Gorskis article on the Science-Based Medicine website. Kaplans can be found at the STAT website.

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Potential dangers and dubious history of alternative medicine are often unknown to its consumers - MinnPost

If you want to sell an idea an opponent is helpful, especially if what youre selling cannot stand on its own merit. For example, homeopathy creator Samuel Hahnemann had trouble proving his provings offered anything beyond a placebo response. Given his reservations against the medical industrymany complaints were crediblehe dubbed any treatment offered by the conventional system allopathic.

Unfortunately for Hahnemann his philosophythe less of an active ingredient remains the more powerful a remedy is (once you reach 13c on the homeopathic scale there is no longer any active ingredient left)is nonsense. While today homeopaths still use allopathic as a derogatory sleight against mainstream medicine, theyre only shadowboxing an invisible enemy.

Alternative medicine, which includes homeopathy as well as vitamin and supplement companies and a number of other therapeutic modalities, is a $34 billion a year industry. While these companies enjoy the fruits of loose, and in many cases non-existent, regulations, their argument against allopaths is not the cry of the oppressed, but the desperate pleas of businesses concerned with their bottom lines.

Medicine is medicine. As pediatrician Paul Offit writes,

Theres no such thing as conventional or alternative or complementary or integrative or holistic medicine. Theres only medicine that works and medicine that does not.

This does not stop the irrational stream of unproven (or disproven) therapies arising from the holistic and wellness sphere. While pharmaceuticals and the companies producing them have their own problems, the rigorous standards of multiple trials, years of development and research, and millions of dollars spent are absent in the vitamin aisle of Whole Foods.

Yet many pharmaceuticals are based on similar or even the same botanical substances. At a public hearing on homeopathic product regulation on April 20, 2015, Adriane Fugh-Berman, an associate professor in Georgetowns Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, points out that homeopathic remedies can contain snake venom, heavy metals, controlled substances, [and] glandular extracts that would be considered dangerous if subject to federal regulation.

She points out that Guna Interleukin 12 is labeled for usage as a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory agent for autoimmune disorders. The remedy contains ingredients usually placed under intense scrutiny when used by pharmaceutical companies, but since the producer, Guna Interleukin Remedies, sidesteps regulation by utilizing the homeopathic loophole, consumers are ingesting potentially dangerous dosages.

When I asked the FDA why this oversight exists, press officer Lyndsay Meyer referred me to her agencys regulations, which refer to the unique nature of these drug products. Thanks to an amendment in 1983, homeopathic drugs are exempt from the requirement for laboratory determination of identity and strength of each active ingredient prior to release for distribution.

Hahnemann believed the less of a substance in the remedy, the stronger it is. Thus a partially diluted proving is not that strong while one containing no active ingredients is very powerful. Problem is, active ingredients matter. A recent report notes that one homeopathic teething pill resulted in more than 370 adverse reactions in children over a ten-year period.

This supposedly weak remedy is labeled 6X, meaning some of the active ingredients remains. One ingredient, Belladonna, is diluted at 12X (still active in mixture), which has a series of side effects, including GI infections and blockage, increased high blood pressure, and increased fever.

As Offit reports, 50 percent of Americans use alternative medicines while 10 percent give it to their children. While the FTC stepped in last year to plug a regulatory hole in homeopathic labeling, the legalese used by vitamin and supplement makers is confusing to consumers who read the large type on bottles and think their flu symptoms will be alleviated or, worse, that chelation cures cancer.

As health and wellness are wrapped into the fitness industry the science is only getting more confused. Just yesterday I walked by a center in Santa Monica that offers aerial silk and yoga classes, massage therapy, and IV vitamin drips. For $175 an hour you can have high doses of vitamin C, zinc, and lysine pumped into your bloodstream after Pilates, even though elevated levels of all three of those substances can cause numerous gastro-intestinal problems. Distrust in one doctor should not imply blind faith in another.

While supplements, vitamins, and superfoods are touted as cancer-fighting, antioxidant-boosting wonder drugs, the science is less enthusiastic. Offit writes,

Studies have now shown that people who take large quantities of vitamins and dietary supplements with antioxidant activity are more likely to have cancer and heart disease and die sooner.

Hahnemann helped inspire a holism movement championing Hippocratic philosophy during an important transition in medical history. The emergence of biochemistry, neuroscience, germ theory, disease specification, and molecular genetics made the invisible world visible. Widespread usage of antibiotics and vaccines offered humans an evolutionary thrust forward in biological knowledge. Suddenly a hostile planet became that much less daunting.

Yet a growing suspicion of corporate and political interests in the sixties inspired a new wave of holism thats gaining strength a half-century later. Were right to be wary of corporate agendas and political mismanagement when it comes to healthcare. Still, this does not excuse an entire industry pimping products with little to no scientific backing thats taking advantage of regulatory loopholes.

The reality is the most basic advicemove often and diversely; eat a balanced, whole foods dietis boring in an age of immediate gratification. People would rather sprint with a wonder-pill than put their head down for a marathon, and too many charlatans are stepping in to pretend theyve developed that pill.

As Offit concludes, theres a problem when we celebrate Suzanne Somersa saleswoman and industry unto herselfwhile only occasionally acknowledging the groundbreaking work of Siddhartha Mukherjee, a biological scientist, physician, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. There are many incredible men and woman devoted to finding medicine that works. The alternative is suffering, something many companies and hucksters willfully champion at a time when we can all use less of it.

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Derek's next book,Whole Motion: Training Your Brain and Body For Optimal Health, will be published on 7/4/17 by Carrel/Skyhorse Publishing. He is based in Los Angeles. Stay in touch onFacebookandTwitter.

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There Is No Such Thing as Alternative Medicine - Big Think