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Sen-Sentinel, Sunday, June 30, 1996
NEW MEDICINE
| Skeptical doctors slowly yielding to alternate cures |
Insurers not sure about alternative medicine
As patients and doctors grow more open to alternative medicine, health
insurers are being persuaded to pay.
Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America and other group health plans will
pay for massages and acupuncture if an extra premium is paid for coverage.
"We'll cover whatever they want, within reason, as long as it's medically justified
and medically necessary. " Guardian spokesman Bob Gillespie says. "The
cost [of alternative therapies] is lower and they seem to save money."
Prudential Health Insurance now pays for some therapies, too. HIP Health Plan of
Florida Inc. pays for massages if doctors declare a medical need. |
Still, the majority of health maintenance organizations pay for no unconventional
treatment.
Most doctors remain skeptical about the medical benefits of alternative care, from
Chinese herbs to relaxation therapies. Likewise, few employers have been willing
to pay extra to add alternative care to their policies.
That's because those treatments have not been proven in scientific studies in major
medical journals, says Christy W. Bell, regional
executive director of Humana Medical Plan, the largest HMO in South Florida.
" Employers tend to want to know before paying that it will work, that is it's
not just a social perk." |
" Bell says, " No one has asked for it. "Medicare does not pay either.
"With Medicare, it's all politics, it's
all money," says Yao Wu Lee, who owns four Washington Acupuncture
Centers in South Florida. "The drug companies and the medical profession keep
out competition."
But if alternative therapies prove to be beneficial, and if they remain
less costly than conventional medicine, HMO officials say the doors will
open wider.
"Things change a lot in this business," says HIP spokeswoman Kathy
Bradley. "Who knows what we'll be covering in six months?"
- Bob LaMendola |
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The school in September opened a unit to use and test non-traditional
cancer therapies, including acupuncture, relaxation and Chinese herbs.
And the medical college may start an acupuncture school.
Harvard University Medical School and others offer courses that
introduce future doctors to the alternative treatments.
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Hospital in New York City is testing
touch therapy by using nurses like Hofacker during heart surgery.
The U. S. National Institute of Health opened an office to study
alternative medicine
And a few health insures, such as Guardian Life Insurance of America,
now pay for acupuncture, massage and medicinal herbs. |
The converts are responding to a growing legion of patients who are
voting with their feet - and their dollars - in favor of natural
remedies that Asian cultures have used almost exclusively for centuries.
That said, however, the majority of the U.S. medical community remains
highly skeptical about the vast array of nontraditional treatment, which
they consider unproven. Many physicians say they know of patients who
have mortgaged their houses to pay for exotic and unproven treatments
such as shark cartilage, coffee enemas, magnet therapy and other
ineffective cancer "cures."
"There are just a lot of charlatans out there, "says Dr. Sharlene Weiss,
head of the new UM cancer |
Dr. Yao Wu (Sam) Lee, one of the growing
number of acupuncturists in Broward County,
treats Alfred Green, 80, for shingles.
|
Astor says, counselors will discuss the role of religious faith.
Almost 50 studies are looking at whether massage benefits seriously ill
children, burn victims, arthritis sufferers and more, File days."The studies
are need to document the effects for the medical community
to buy into them," Field says. "The doctors need to feel safe and that
they won't be sued."
At Imperial Point hospital, what captured doctors' attention was the
notion that the mind can speed up the body's healing.
Massage, touch
healing, meditation, aromatherapy, music, biofeedback and others promote the mind
and
spirit?" says center director Brenda Astor, "Well, that's a great deal |
unit, the Courtelis Center for Research and Treatment in Psychosocial Oncology. "People
need to be careful."
There does appear to be a middle ground, however.
"There are zealots on both sides. Neither one is right all the time. You have
to pick and choose what's best for each patient," says Dr.
William Sunshine, an arthritis and pain specialist in Delray Beach who uses massage,
relaxation and mind-body methods, as well as traditional means.
"The doctors are beginning to realize there is a certain patient population
that doesn't respond to conventional medicine," Sunshine says.
~
Betty and Bill Hawkins of Fort Lauderdale pay $300 a month for vitamins,
enzymes, herbal arthritis treatments and the like. They adopted them
after Betty was given six months to live by doctors treating her intestinal cancer.
That was in 1974. She's well today.
"These doctors won't try things, even if you're desperate," Betty says.
"If you have a death sentence hanging over you, you don't want to wait
25 years for research."
Many patients feel as the Hawkinses do. They complain about impersonal
doctors, painful treatments that don't work, and the staggering cost of
traditional medicine. An often-quoted 1993 study found that one-third
of patients use unconventional care, including vitamin supplements, and that they
spent $13.7 billion on it, more than on all other medicine.
Bill Rogers, a Fort Lauderdale real estate broker, turned to Dr. Lee for acupuncture
after surgeons said he needed major pelvic work to solve persistent back |
pain from a 1990 motorcycle crash. The surgery risked paralysis. The
needles all but ended his pain.
"The surgeon laughed. But you can't deny the results," Rogers says.
~
But some doctors do doubt it. No studies using rigorous, scientific
methods have proven the success of any such therapy, says Dr. Barry
Tepperman, a radiation oncologist and president of the Broward County
Medical Association.
Alternative remedies may be nothing more than placebos that work only
because the patient believes they will, he and others say.
"The body has a great ability to heal itself," says Dr. Yank Coble, a
national board member of American Medical Association. "If something
else is being given at the same time, the tendency is to give that treatment the
credit."
Skeptics say the boom in natural remedies found in health-food stores
stems from a 1994 federal law deregulating the industry. Manufacturers
can now make any claim in ads, just not on the package. The result: big
publicity campaigns.
"People buy what they hear about," says Dr. William Jarvis president of
the National Council Against Health Fraud. "It's driven by some savvy,behind
-the scenes marketing."
Some examples: Mexican yams for birth control, beta-carotene to
eliminate free radical.
Doctors recognize that herbal remedies have been used for centuries, and plants are
the basis of perhaps 40 percent of Western medicines.
Jarvis, however, says proof is scant about which herbs |
work for which ailment, or about standard doses. Some herb, such as ephedra marketed
to teens as Herbal Ecstasy, can even cause sickness or death.
Patients may wander into danger if they abandon their doctors or rely too much on
alternative medicine, doctors say.
"Some [conventional] treatments are painful, but we know they work," says
Dr. Brent Schillenger of Boca Raton, president of the Palm Beach County Medical Society.
"If you have something that works 99 percent of the time, why substitute?"
~
And yet even as skepticism remains, science is starting to lend credence to some
complementary therapies.
Small studies have shown that acupuncture relieves pain - especially chronic pain
- as well as Western medicine does. The Chinese say
needles rebalance the body's energy, Qi (pronounced chee). Western doctors prefer
the theory that the needles stimulate production of the
body's painkillers. Preliminary results also suggest that acupuncture
prompts the immune system to produce more disease-fighting antibodies,
UM researchers say.
To create a relaxing environment, Imperial Point, owned by the
tax-assisted North Broward Hospital District, has repainted bile-green
walls a soothing mauve. Harsh fluorescent lights will be replaced by
soft lamps or sunlight. When the center opens in September, patients
will find classes on spirituality, dreams and meditation. Patients may
be sent to touch therapists and acupuncturist. If the patient wishes, realization.
Imagery and hypnotherapy will teach patients to envision
their bodies healing.
"The old way is to say, "It's the body, why worry about |
of what happens in the body."
For a hospital to take such a strong position breaks new ground in
Broward County.
Dr. Richard Ott, once the hospital chief of staff, has been pushing the
project for four years. "We want to look at what works and what doesn't
work," Ott says. "Physicians are data-driven. That's the way we're
trained. If you show them [with studies], there' no reason for them not
to do it."
Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines already uses mind-body and
relaxation methods for heart surgery patients. The tax-assisted
hospital may soon offer a program to the public as a stress buster, as
well.
Even Jarvis, the skeptic, can't argue with that. He uses acupuncture at
his California practice, and praised some mind-body and relaxation
methods. But he warns those can only go so far. "See if prayer and
positive thinking and energy can save a diabetic kid who doesn't not
take insulin," Jarvis says.
Still, practitioners say you can't argue with results. At Memorial
Regional in Hollywood, nurse Linda Payne uses a type of touch therapy -
called Reiki- for patients with depression or anxiety. She learned it a
year ago after Reiki sessions ended a friend's neck pains.
"I went in as a skeptic. I thought, "Yeah, right, they're going to cure
you by running their hand over your body," Payne says, "Frankly, it
doesn't matter if you think it's true or not for it to work." |
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