Americans are Still Paying Out of Pocket for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

BY SHEILA JULSON

Garlicky chicken soup was once the standard cure for a cold and peppermint was used to soothe an upset stomach rather than going to the drugstore for an over-the-counter pill. Grandma’s remedies have been coming back in a big way: About 59 million Americans spend money out of pocket on complementary health approaches, totaling approximately $30.2 billion a year, according to information provided by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)—a U.S. government agency housed under the National Institutes of Health that explores integrative and alternative medicine.

HERE IN THE U.S., DRUG COMPANIES HAVE THE DEEP POCKETS TO FUND A MYRIAD OF LARGE-SCALE STUDIES THAT DWARF NON-PROFITABLE NATURAL APPROACHES.

Complementary (also called integrative) medicine is when a non-mainstream practice is used in conjunction with conventional medicine. Alternative medicine uses non-mainstream practices in place of conventional medicine. They’re often referred to together as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and have a similar objective: to find and treat the underlying causes of health problems rather than to just address symptoms.

CAM practitioners use holistic and preventive approaches to relieve and cure ailments ranging from the common cold to inflammatory conditions like arthritis. CAM treatments include herbs, whole foods nutrition and preventive lifestyle habits to support health, such as exercise, avoiding processed foods and smoking, stress management and light or no alcohol use. CAM also includes chiropractic, yoga,

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meditation, vitamins, minerals and natural anti-inflammatories and antioxidants, as well as ancient healing approaches such as acupuncture.

CAM TREATMENTS INCLUDE HERBS, WHOLE FOODS NUTRITION AND PREVENTIVE LIFESTYLE HABITS TO SUPPORT HEALTH, SUCH AS EXERCISE, AVOIDING PROCESSED FOODS AND SMOKING, STRESS MANAGEMENT AND LIGHT OR NO ALCOHOL USE.

Carol Brown is a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. She had worked in conventional medicine as a primary care physician

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before training in integrative methods. Sixteen years ago, she formed her own integrative practice in Oak Creek, Wis., CMB Health Specialties (formerly known as the Center for Integrative Health Care). Brown uses holistic approaches such as nutritional support, specialty lab testing to detect food allergies-sensitivities and hormonal imbalances, as well as intravenous nutrition therapy. She uses conventional medicine as appropriate and may refer patients to practitioners of alternative services, such as acupuncture or massage, or to conventional medicine physicians.

“Integrative medicine gets back to physiology; how does the body work, and what do we need to do to make it work?” Brown says. “It’s about nutrition, supplying what the body needs and looking for underlying causes. If someone has a headache, there are pills for headaches, but we look to find out why they have a headache. It could be gluten intolerance, not enough sleep or any number of underlying issues.”

Brown notes there is a population of people that are not helped by everyday medicine and are driven to seek care outside of conventional approaches. “They’re looking for some other way to help themselves. There’s also a population of older patients who know how medicine used to be, where there was more time to get to the bottom of one’s health. Younger people are suspicious, because everyday medicine has become so commercialized. A lot of people are afraid to take a drug, and they want to get better without meds if that is possible,” she says.

NATUROPATHIC APPROACHES AND LICENSING-OVERSIGHT

Sarah Axtell is a naturopathic doctor and founder of Lakeside Natural Medicine in Shorewood, Wis. A licensed naturopathic