| Complementary and Alternative Medicine |
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Excerpt: Feeling a tad listless? Perhaps your DNA is insufficiently activated. You may want to consult the healers at Oughten House Foundation, specializing in "tools and techniques for self-empowerment... through DNA Activations." Oughten House recommends regular therapy as part of its DNA Activation Healing Project, at $125 per hour-long session. The foundation isn't as far from the mainstream as you might think. A survey of 32,000 Americans by the National Center for Health Statistics, released earlier this month, suggests that 38% of adults use some form of "complementary and alternative medicine," or CAM -- now aggressively promoted for everything from Attention Deficit Disorder to the Zoster virus. The survey polled consumers on 10 provider-based therapies -- for example, acupuncture -- and 26 home remedies, such as herbal supplements… Indeed, one of the great ironies of modern health care is that many of the august medical centers that once went to great lengths to vilify nontraditional methods as quackery now have brought those regimens in-house. "We're all channeling East Indian healers along with doing gall-bladder removal," says Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics. Mr. Caplan harbors no illusions about what's behind the trend: "It's not as noble as, 'I want to be respectful to Chinese healing arts.' It's more, 'People are spending a fortune on this stuff! We could do this plus our regular stuff and bill 'em for all of it!'" Fees for CAM services are increasingly passed on to insurance through a creative -- some might say fraudulent -- interpretation of the Current Procedural Terminology codes that govern reimbursement for authorized services. (Various tutorials, some online, guide practitioners through the reimbursement maze.) Such creativity may soon be unnecessary if the alternative medicine proponents have their way. For example, ABC Coding Solutions, a medical-software company, has been promulgating a set of 4,000 treatment codes that cover "nearly every healing modality practiced by alternative healthcare providers," to quote one report. If such codes are fully absorbed by the health-care industry, CAM will have been mainstreamed -- while bypassing all the customary peer review, controlled studies and other hallmarks of sound medicine. Source: http://s.wsj.net/article/SB123024234651134037.html ------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt: Nearly 12 percent of children and teens in the United States are using unconventional healing therapies -- from echinacea and fish oil, to herbs and yoga -- to treat a variety of ailments, according to a first-of-its kind government survey released Wednesday. Through interviews conducted in more than 30,000 households, researchers found that families were more likely to turn to these alternative approaches when they couldn't afford traditional care. Parents typically sought these unconventional remedies for chronic or hard-to-treat illnesses in children, such as back or neck pain, colds, anxiety or stress and attention deficit disorders… While the government has tracked the use of alternative medicine by adults, this is the first time it has delved into the subject for people under age 18. Given how healthy most adolescents are, Nahin said it was surprising that nearly one in nine used alternative medicines. The data showed that children whose parents used alternative products or practices were almost five times as likely to use them, too. Parents with higher incomes and education were more likely to choose alternative medicines for their children, as were those who have private health insurance. Perhaps most striking, said some pediatricians not involved with the survey, were indications that families were more likely to seek alternative treatments when they felt the cost of mainstream medicine was unaffordable. "I know that cost of care is a barrier and it's going to get worse because more people are opting for insurance plans with higher deductibles and higher out-of-pocket costs, and I hope it won't adversely impact children," said Dr. Carole Allen, director of pediatrics at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and president of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Source: "Alternative Therapy for Children on Rise." San Jose Mercury News. 11 Dec. 2008: Lifestyle. Academic Universe. LexisNexis. University of Texas at San Antonio, John Peace Library. San Antonio, TX. 23 Apr 2009 ------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt: In spite of the high use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among people age 50 or older, 69 percent of those who use CAM do not talk to their doctors about it, according to a new survey conducted by AARP and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health. The survey examined conversations between patients and their physicians regarding CAM use. CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. It includes such products and practices as herbal supplements, meditation, homeopathy, and acupuncture. “We know that people 50 and older tend to be high users of complementary and alternative medicine, but this study was the first to explore gaps in communications regarding the use of CAM between patients and their physicians,” said Cheryl Matheis, AARP Director of Health Strategies. “Communication is important to ensure the wise use of all conventional and CAM therapies.” Source: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/jan2007/nccam-18.htm |
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