Brighter Alternatives

Alternative Therapies Leading the Way for Health Care

Jun 18, 2007 Joshua Cleveland

Many people are asking whether alternative therapies actually do anything to improve your health.

Since the early 90's more and more people have began to look at and participate in alternative therapies. So much so, that Dr. David Eisenberg of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston found that the number of Americans using alternative therapies such as yoga, tai chi, and acupuncture has jumped 47% in just seven years.

"Many of these people even perfer to see alternative practioners over their primary-care doctors." said Eisenberg.

Taking not of this rapid growth in alternative therapies, many new non profit organizations that aim their services towards HIV/AIDS patients and Cancer patients have began to offer free alternative services.

The question, however remains, do alternative therapies actually do anything to boost the immune system and help people live healthier fuller lives?

According to the CDC, taking an active role in any disease is an important adjunct to treatment. Consideration of alternative therapies in conjunction with conventional medicine may offer additional opportunities for persons living with HIV/AIDS to be proactively involved in their treatment.

As the phenomenon continues to grow, more and more doctors and researchers and beginning clinical studies to prove whether or not these therapies help boost the immune system.

The National Cancer Institute released a survery that 55% of people involved with their study said alternative therapy would improve health when used in combination with conventional medical treatments. 50% would be interested in trying and 26% said their conventional medical professional suggested trying alternative methods.

Others studies reveal that using alternative therapies have been shown to increase energy and raise white blood cell counts in people living with HIV/AIDS and/or Cancer.

The survey also found that most people use these therapies do so along with conventional medicine rather than in place of conventional medicine.

However, Dr. Stephen Barrett warns that, "Chinese medicine encompasses a vast array of folk medical practices based on mysticism. People claim that acupuncture is used to treat addictions to cigarettes, heroin, and alcohol."

Barrett concluded that claims that acupuncture is effective as a therapy for these conditions are not supported by sound clinical research.

Whether or not people agree with Barrett, the number of alternatie therapy clinics across America are in a vast growing phase.

According to Vital and Health Statistics, "the US public spent between $36 billion and $47 billion on these therapies in 1997. Of this amount between $12.2 billion and $19.6 billion were paid out of pocket."

The CDC also suggests you obtain objective information about the therapy. Besides talking with the person promoting the approach, speak with people who have gone through the treatment--preferably both those who were treated recently and those treated in the past. Ask about the advantages and disadvantages, risks, side effects, costs, results they experienced, and over what time span results can be expected.

The copyright of the article Brighter Alternatives in General Medicine is owned by Joshua Cleveland. Permission to republish Brighter Alternatives in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.