Study Shows That Alternative Medicine Is ‘Complementary’

Findings from a new study that shows healthcare consumers tend to use alternative-medicine methods alongside conventional medicine (rather than instead of) makes perfect sense, according to a New York-based expert on alternative medicine.

Of the study’s 16,068 subjects, 1.8 percent used only unconventional services and about 60% used only conventional care, while 6.5% used both types of care. In this study, conventional care encompassed flu shots, blood pressure measurements, and mammography exams, while unconventional care ran the gamut from chiropractic care to nutritional advice and spiritual healing.

“The researchers’ main conclusion — that, in the United States, clients of providers of ‘unconventional therapies’ are simultaneously clients of conventional healthcare practitioners — is unsurprising,” says author Jack Raso, a board member of The National Council Against Health Fraud.

“In the U.S., most users of unconventional health-related services are educated, and most educated American consumers know, or at least surmise, that it is dicey to undergo only unconventional treatment for a condition that is neither trifling nor self-limited or that has not been scientifically diagnosed.”

In the August 18, 1999, issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Benjamin Druss and Dr. Robert Rosenheck of Yale University report that during 1996, individuals who said they used both types of services saw physicians more frequently than people who received only conventional medical care.

Raso agrees, stating: “Besides being educated, most American users of unconventional health-related services are health-minded. Many are obsessed with their health.”

In the study, chiropractic was the most popular unconventional therapy, followed by massage, herbal supplements, spiritual healing and nutritional advice. “In the U.S., chiropractic is an established profession; and while unscientific methods are rife in the profession, its distinguishing, unifying method-spinal manipulation therapy-is, in its standard form, effective against the most common forms of low back pain,” Raso explains. “As for massage — another method that is typically manual — some forms are compatible with mainstream medicine. In any case, pleasure may be the sole or primary object of undergoing a massage.”