Alternative Medicine

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INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Alternative medicine is for the most part a Western term. Worldwide, the use of such methods as acupuncture, aromatherapy, herbal remedies, homeopathy, and hypnotherapy has been part of the medical mainstream for centuries. For this reason, the undeniable growth of the alternative medicine industry during the 1990s and 2000s represents a dramatic shift not only in the traditional Western medical industry but in Western thought itself. Historically, alternative therapies such as those mentioned above were used by only a small portion of the population in the United States and were considered by many Western doctors to be opposed to traditional Western medical practice. By 2003, however, nearly 50 percent of U.S. adults were using some form of alternative medicine. In fact, visits to alternative healers began to exceed visits to conventional doctors.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a growing number of doctors began to refer their patients to practitioners of alternative medicines. In addition, leading medical centers such as Duke and Harvard established centers for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This increased acceptance in the medical community has combined with a new wealth of information and alternatives, made available by increased access to the Internet. The result is a growing trend away from traditional Western medicine as a sole solution.

Another important development in the growth of alternative medicine was the introduction of the Access to Medical Treatment Act. The federal bill, proposed in the late 1990s, would allow consumers to choose any medical treatment that was not proven to be dangerous, had fully disclosed side effects, and fell within the scope of a provider's expertise. It would also allow for a new definition of health care providers as "any properly licensed medical doctor, osteopath, chiropractor or naturopath." As of 2006 this bill had been read twice and referred on to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

According to a study from the Institute of Medicine, by the mid-2000s consumers spent an estimated $27 billion out-of-pocket for CAM therapies, rivaling the amount spent out-of-pocket for services provided by traditional U.S. physicians. In addition, according to an October 24, 2006, Business Wire release, the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine found that 36 percent of U.S. adults used alternative medicine.

By 2007 the majority of private insurance companies covered at least some CAM therapies, namely acupuncture and chiropractic care, pushing utilization to an all-time high. Heading into the late 2000s, many hospitals offered alternative medicine treatments to their patients, usually at a financial loss, and employers were turning to alternative treatments as one way to help contain skyrocketing medical costs. As a result, the alternative medicine industry was poised for record growth in the twenty-first century.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

While the term "alternative medicine" encompasses a wide range of loosely related therapies and practices, the common denominator of all alternative medicines is their holistic focus: the treatment of an illness by considering the role played by both the body and the mind. The leading fields of alternative medicine include mind/body medicine, chiropractic therapy, massage therapy, homeopathy, and acupuncture.

Mind/Body Medicine

Mind/body medicine is among the most popular form of alternative medicine, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. While traditional Western medicine focuses solely on reactions in the body, mind/body medicine explores the role the mind plays in healing, as well as the role the body plays in healing the mind. Although mind/body medicine is not a treatment in the traditional sense of the word, it is a method of influencing and controlling the reactions and responses of the body. The ultimate goal of all forms of mind/body medicine is to achieve relaxation or the reduction of stress, which is considered the catalyst for many kinds of illness. Consequently, mind/body medicine is largely a complementary form of treatment, not a primary form. Standard medical testing procedures can demonstrate the power of the mind to overcome poor health. For example, patients participating in medical studies who have been given placebos such as sugar pills often report feeling relief from their symptoms.

Mind/body techniques include meditation; progressive relaxation, which is similar to meditation; autogenic training, which is the use of auto-suggestive phrases such as "I'm calm;" hypnosis; and biofeedback or amplification of body signals so that patients can hear or see signs of stress and learn how to control stress. All of these techniques seek to counteract the body's reaction to stressful situations. When experiencing stress, the body releases various chemicals that affect the body by causing the heart rate to speed up, blood pressure to rise, and the muscles to become tense. Frequent and long-term stress impairs the immune system and can cause insomnia, high blood pressure, and depression, among other things. Although biofeedback therapy requires special training and a state license, other forms of mind/body medicine do not. However, practitioners of these other therapies often hold licenses in other fields.

Chiropractic Therapy

Chiropractic therapy, the second most popular form of alternative medicine, assumes that an inherent healing mechanism strives to return the body to a state of balance and therefore health. Chiropractic theory holds that the nervous system is responsible for maintaining the body's balance, and that subluxations (bones out of alignment within joints) and fixations (motion anomalies or irregularities) obstruct the flow of nervous impulses and consequently the body's natural healing system. By manipulating the bones and their respective joints and muscles, especially the spine, chiropractic therapy seeks to undo motion anomalies. Chiropractic therapy is employed to relieve or alleviate a wide range of illnesses, including arthritis, asthma, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, headaches, premenstrual syndrome, and tendonitis.

While still considered an alternative form of medicine, chiropractic therapy is widely accepted. Chiropractic services are covered by Medicare and Medicaid in many states as well as by most of the large private insurers. In addition, the practice is licensed in all 50 states and taught at special chiropractic colleges. Chiropractic licenses are governed by the Council of Chiropractic Education and the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards. By the early 2000s, 32 percent of the U.S. population had used chiropractic therapy at least once, and 10 percent underwent chiropractic therapy on a continuing, regular basis. Moreover, chiropractors make up the second largest group of primary care providers, behind physicians. According to the American Chiropractic Association, during the late 2000s there were approximately 60,000 active chiropractic licenses in the United States.

Daniel David Palmer, originally a magnetic healer, founded the practice of chiropractic therapy in 1895. Palmer manipulated a man's ill-aligned vertebra and cured his deafness. He considered this proof that misaligned spines could cause poor health and that manipulation of the spine could restore health by correcting the flow of nervous impulses. In 1897 Palmer established the first chiropractic school, which his son managed.

However, one of the school's instructors, John Howard, disputed Palmer's contention that subluxations caused disease...

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