By Wendy Y. Lawton, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Sep. 4--Massage, herbs, acupuncture and other alternative treatments are here to stay. And boomers aren't the only ones embracing them.
Their children -- and their parents -- are trying everything from aromatherapy to yoga to stay healthy or get well, according to a new survey by Harvard Medical School researchers. The survey found that 68 percent of adults have used at least one kind of alternative or complementary therapy. Nearly half stuck with at least one treatment as long as 20 years.
But that doesn't mean consumers are ditching their doctors, according to a companion Harvard survey published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They're using traditional and alternative treatments in tandem.
The national alternative medicine trend, which had an early start in the Northwest, cuts across gender, race, ethnicity, region and education level. It also cuts across generations.
Baby boomers -- born between 1946 and 1964 -- helped alternative treatments grow and diversify in the 1960s and 1970s. (Think whole foods and biofeedback.) But they didn't invent the trend. Three in 10 of their parents had tried natural medicine by age 33, the first survey showed.
But it's boomer progeny that promises to keep the $30 billion a year industry humming for years. The survey found that seven in 10 people under age 40 have tried alternative or complementary care.
Consider Titania Bridges, a 29-year-old Portland surgical technician named for a Shakespeare fairy queen and raised a vegetarian. "I grew up in health food stores," she said. "I've been drinking carrot juice since age 2."
At 16, Bridges bought her first book on herbs and had her first massage. At 18, she discovered acupuncture. Today Bridges uses lavender oil on her two children's cuts and dispenses homeopathic belladonna for fevers. She rotates visits among a chiropractor, a naturopath and a medical doctor.
"I don't shun Western medicine," she said. "The technology is amazing, and it does miraculous things. But natural medicine is easier on the body."
The diversity of users and a half-century of steady growth in alternative therapies busts a couple of myths, according to Ronald Kessler, lead author of the first survey.
"The findings really dispel two ideas, namely that complementary and alternative medicine is just a passing fad, and that it is used by one particular segment of society," the Harvard health policy professor said.
The first survey, published two weeks ago in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was based on telephone interviews with 2,049 randomly chosen adults in 48 states.
Researchers at Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston used a broad definition of natural medicine -- 20 treatments ranging from chiropractic care to megavitamin use.
These same parameters were used in an influential 1998 Harvard report that showed explosive growth in alternative medicine use and spending throughout the 1990s.
The new surveys dig further. Although the first shows who is using alternative treatments, the second aims to answer why and how.
In a national poll of 831 adults who use both traditional and alternative therapies, four of five said the double-barreled approach was better than using either therapy alone. Confidence in both kinds of providers, meanwhile, ran high.
Consumers surveyed said natural medicine was generally more helpful for chronic conditions, such as arthritis. Conventional medicine, they said, was more helpful for acute or specialized problems, such as lung conditions.
"The findings show that people value both kinds of medicine," said Dr. David Eisenberg, a Harvard professor and director of the Center for Alternative Medicine Research and Education at Beth Israel Deaconess. "People are seeking truly complementary care."
That's the case with Chico Senn. Western medicine saved his life. Eastern medicine is letting him enjoy it.
In 1993, the 69-year-old Gladstone man was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer that had traveled to his brain. Doctors told him he had a 4 percent chance of living past six months.
But surgeons removed the brain cancer. Radiation treatments and chemotherapy shrank the tumor in his lung. And Senn survived. By 1999, however, he was in constant pain. His breath was short. He started receiving hospice care.
Then Kaiser Permanente sent acupuncturist Lisa Rohleder to his door. Senn was skeptical, but the needle treatments eased his breathing and his pain. Now Senn, a retired clothing-maker, can play nine holes of golf. His daily dose of morphine has dropped dramatically.
"If I didn't have that brain operation, I wouldn't be around," he said. "And if I didn't get the acupuncture, I'd be a different person. I use both programs because they work."
Senn's doctor knows about his acupuncture therapy. But the Harvard researchers found that about two-thirds of people surveyed don't keep their doctors in the loop.
Dr. Susan Tolle, an internist and ethicist at Oregon Health & Science University, said doctors may not need to know about a yoga class or massage visit. But possibly dangerous drug-herb combinations cry out for better communication.
"Do we need to ask about everything? No," Tolle said. "But complementary medicine is so common, we ought to be asking a lot more than we are. That's the most powerful message."
To see more of The Oregonian, or to subscribe the newspaper, go to http://www.oregonian.com
(c) 2001, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
Alternative Medicine Goes Mainstream in Quest for Health.
By Wendy Y. Lawton, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Sep. 4--Massage, herbs, acupuncture and other alternative treatments are here to stay. And boomers aren't the only ones embracing them.
Their children -- and their parents -- are trying everything from aromatherapy to yoga to stay healthy or get well, according to a new survey by Harvard Medical School researchers. The survey found that 68 percent of adults have used at least one kind of alternative or complementary therapy. Nearly half stuck with at least one treatment as long as 20 years.
But that doesn't mean consumers are ditching their doctors, according to a companion Harvard survey published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They're using traditional and alternative treatments in tandem.
The national alternative medicine trend, which had an early start in the Northwest, cuts across gender, race, ethnicity, region and education level. It also cuts across generations.
Baby boomers -- born between 1946 and 1964 -- helped alternative treatments grow and diversify in the 1960s and 1970s. (Think whole foods and biofeedback.) But they didn't invent the trend. Three in 10 of their parents had tried natural medicine by age 33, the first survey showed.
But it's boomer progeny that promises to keep the $30 billion a year industry humming for years. The survey found that seven in 10 people under age 40 have tried alternative or complementary care.
Consider Titania Bridges, a 29-year-old Portland surgical technician named for a Shakespeare fairy queen and raised a vegetarian. "I grew up in health food stores," she said. "I've been drinking carrot juice since age 2."
At 16, Bridges bought her first book on herbs and had her first massage. At 18, she discovered acupuncture. Today Bridges uses lavender oil on her two children's cuts and dispenses homeopathic belladonna for fevers. She rotates visits among a chiropractor, a naturopath and a medical doctor.
"I don't shun Western medicine," she said. "The technology is amazing, and it does miraculous things. But natural medicine is easier on the body."
The diversity of users and a half-century of steady growth in alternative therapies busts a couple of myths, according to Ronald Kessler, lead author of the first survey.
"The findings really dispel two ideas, namely that complementary and alternative medicine is just a passing fad, and that it is used by one particular segment of society," the Harvard health policy professor said.
The first survey, published two weeks ago in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was based on telephone interviews with 2,049 randomly chosen adults in 48 states.
Researchers at Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston used a broad definition of natural medicine -- 20 treatments ranging from chiropractic care to megavitamin use.
These same parameters were used in an influential 1998 Harvard report that showed explosive growth in alternative medicine use and spending throughout the 1990s.
The new surveys dig further. Although the first shows who is using alternative treatments, the second aims to answer why and how.
In a national poll of 831 adults who use both traditional and alternative therapies, four of five said the double-barreled approach was better than using either therapy alone. Confidence in both kinds of providers, meanwhile, ran high.
Consumers surveyed said natural medicine was generally more helpful for chronic conditions, such as arthritis. Conventional medicine, they said, was more helpful for acute or specialized problems, such as lung conditions.
"The findings show that people value both kinds of medicine," said Dr. David Eisenberg, a Harvard professor and director of the Center for Alternative Medicine Research and Education at Beth Israel Deaconess. "People are seeking truly complementary care."
That's the case with Chico Senn. Western medicine saved his life. Eastern medicine is letting him enjoy it.
In 1993, the 69-year-old Gladstone man was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer that had traveled to his brain. Doctors told him he had a 4 percent chance of living past six months.
But surgeons removed the brain cancer. Radiation treatments and chemotherapy shrank the tumor in his lung. And Senn survived. By 1999, however, he was in constant pain. His breath was short. He started receiving hospice care.
Then Kaiser Permanente sent acupuncturist Lisa Rohleder to his door. Senn was skeptical, but the needle treatments eased his breathing and his pain. Now Senn, a retired clothing-maker, can play nine holes of golf. His daily dose of morphine has dropped dramatically.
"If I didn't have that brain operation, I wouldn't be around," he said. "And if I didn't get the acupuncture, I'd be a different person. I use both programs because they work."
Senn's doctor knows about his acupuncture therapy. But the Harvard researchers found that about two-thirds of people surveyed don't keep their doctors in the loop.
Dr. Susan Tolle, an internist and ethicist at Oregon Health & Science University, said doctors may not need to know about a yoga class or massage visit. But possibly dangerous drug-herb combinations cry out for better communication.
"Do we need to ask about everything? No," Tolle said. "But complementary medicine is so common, we ought to be asking a lot more than we are. That's the most powerful message."
To see more of The Oregonian, or to subscribe the newspaper, go to http://www.oregonian.com
(c) 2001, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
Alternative Medicine Goes Mainstream in Quest for Health.
By Wendy Y. Lawton, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Sep. 4--Massage, herbs, acupuncture and other alternative treatments are here to stay. And boomers aren't the only ones embracing them.
Their children -- and their parents -- are trying everything from aromatherapy to yoga to stay healthy or get well, according to a new survey by Harvard Medical School researchers. The survey found that 68 percent of adults have used at least one kind of alternative or complementary therapy. Nearly half stuck with at least one treatment as long as 20 years.
But that doesn't mean consumers are ditching their doctors, according to a companion Harvard survey published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They're using traditional and alternative treatments in tandem.
The national alternative medicine trend, which had an early start in the Northwest, cuts across gender, race, ethnicity, region and education level. It also cuts across generations.
Baby boomers -- born between 1946 and 1964 -- helped alternative treatments grow and diversify in the 1960s and 1970s. (Think whole foods and biofeedback.) But they didn't invent the trend. Three in 10 of their parents had tried natural medicine by age 33, the first survey showed.
But it's boomer progeny that promises to keep the $30 billion a year industry humming for years. The survey found that seven in 10 people under age 40 have tried alternative or complementary care.
Consider Titania Bridges, a 29-year-old Portland surgical technician named for a Shakespeare fairy queen and raised a vegetarian. "I grew up in health food stores," she said. "I've been drinking carrot juice since age 2."
At 16, Bridges bought her first book on herbs and had her first massage. At 18, she discovered acupuncture. Today Bridges uses lavender oil on her two children's cuts and dispenses homeopathic belladonna for fevers. She rotates visits among a chiropractor, a naturopath and a medical doctor.
"I don't shun Western medicine," she said. "The technology is amazing, and it does miraculous things. But natural medicine is easier on the body."
The diversity of users and a half-century of steady growth in alternative therapies busts a couple of myths, according to Ronald Kessler, lead author of the first survey.
"The findings really dispel two ideas, namely that complementary and alternative medicine is just a passing fad, and that it is used by one particular segment of society," the Harvard health policy professor said.
The first survey, published two weeks ago in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was based on telephone interviews with 2,049 randomly chosen adults in 48 states.
Researchers at Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston used a broad definition of natural medicine -- 20 treatments ranging from chiropractic care to megavitamin use.
These same parameters were used in an influential 1998 Harvard report that showed explosive growth in alternative medicine use and spending throughout the 1990s.
The new surveys dig further. Although the first shows who is using alternative treatments, the second aims to answer why and how.
In a national poll of 831 adults who use both traditional and alternative therapies, four of five said the double-barreled approach was better than using either therapy alone. Confidence in both kinds of providers, meanwhile, ran high.
Consumers surveyed said natural medicine was generally more helpful for chronic conditions, such as arthritis. Conventional medicine, they said, was more helpful for acute or specialized problems, such as lung conditions.
"The findings show that people value both kinds of medicine," said Dr. David Eisenberg, a Harvard professor and director of the Center for Alternative Medicine Research and Education at Beth Israel Deaconess. "People are seeking truly complementary care."
That's the case with Chico Senn. Western medicine saved his life. Eastern medicine is letting him enjoy it.
In 1993, the 69-year-old Gladstone man was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer that had traveled to his brain. Doctors told him he had a 4 percent chance of living past six months.
But surgeons removed the brain cancer. Radiation treatments and chemotherapy shrank the tumor in his lung. And Senn survived. By 1999, however, he was in constant pain. His breath was short. He started receiving hospice care.
Then Kaiser Permanente sent acupuncturist Lisa Rohleder to his door. Senn was skeptical, but the needle treatments eased his breathing and his pain. Now Senn, a retired clothing-maker, can play nine holes of golf. His daily dose of morphine has dropped dramatically.
"If I didn't have that brain operation, I wouldn't be around," he said. "And if I didn't get the acupuncture, I'd be a different person. I use both programs because they work."
Senn's doctor knows about his acupuncture therapy. But the Harvard researchers found that about two-thirds of people surveyed don't keep their doctors in the loop.
Dr. Susan Tolle, an internist and ethicist at Oregon Health & Science University, said doctors may not need to know about a yoga class or massage visit. But possibly dangerous drug-herb combinations cry out for better communication.
"Do we need to ask about everything? No," Tolle said. "But complementary medicine is so common, we ought to be asking a lot more than we are. That's the most powerful message."
To see more of The Oregonian, or to subscribe the newspaper, go to http://www.oregonian.com
(c) 2001, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
Alternative Medicine Goes Mainstream in Quest for Health.
By Wendy Y. Lawton, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Sep. 4--Massage, herbs, acupuncture and other alternative treatments are here to stay. And boomers aren't the only ones embracing them.
Their children -- and their parents -- are trying everything from aromatherapy to yoga to stay healthy or get well, according to a new survey by Harvard Medical School researchers. The survey found that 68 percent of adults have used at least one kind of alternative or complementary therapy. Nearly half stuck with at least one treatment as long as 20 years.
But that doesn't mean consumers are ditching their doctors, according to a companion Harvard survey published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They're using traditional and alternative treatments in tandem.
The national alternative medicine trend, which had an early start in the Northwest, cuts across gender, race, ethnicity, region and education level. It also cuts across generations.
Baby boomers -- born between 1946 and 1964 -- helped alternative treatments grow and diversify in the 1960s and 1970s. (Think whole foods and biofeedback.) But they didn't invent the trend. Three in 10 of their parents had tried natural medicine by age 33, the first survey showed.
But it's boomer progeny that promises to keep the $30 billion a year industry humming for years. The survey found that seven in 10 people under age 40 have tried alternative or complementary care.
Consider Titania Bridges, a 29-year-old Portland surgical technician named for a Shakespeare fairy queen and raised a vegetarian. "I grew up in health food stores," she said. "I've been drinking carrot juice since age 2."
At 16, Bridges bought her first book on herbs and had her first massage. At 18, she discovered acupuncture. Today Bridges uses lavender oil on her two children's cuts and dispenses homeopathic belladonna for fevers. She rotates visits among a chiropractor, a naturopath and a medical doctor.
"I don't shun Western medicine," she said. "The technology is amazing, and it does miraculous things. But natural medicine is easier on the body."
The diversity of users and a half-century of steady growth in alternative therapies busts a couple of myths, according to Ronald Kessler, lead author of the first survey.
"The findings really dispel two ideas, namely that complementary and alternative medicine is just a passing fad, and that it is used by one particular segment of society," the Harvard health policy professor said.
The first survey, published two weeks ago in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was based on telephone interviews with 2,049 randomly chosen adults in 48 states.
Researchers at Harvard and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston used a broad definition of natural medicine -- 20 treatments ranging from chiropractic care to megavitamin use.
These same parameters were used in an influential 1998 Harvard report that showed explosive growth in alternative medicine use and spending throughout the 1990s.
The new surveys dig further. Although the first shows who is using alternative treatments, the second aims to answer why and how.
In a national poll of 831 adults who use both traditional and alternative therapies, four of five said the double-barreled approach was better than using either therapy alone. Confidence in both kinds of providers, meanwhile, ran high.
Consumers surveyed said natural medicine was generally more helpful for chronic conditions, such as arthritis. Conventional medicine, they said, was more helpful for acute or specialized problems, such as lung conditions.
"The findings show that people value both kinds of medicine," said Dr. David Eisenberg, a Harvard professor and director of the Center for Alternative Medicine Research and Education at Beth Israel Deaconess. "People are seeking truly complementary care."
That's the case with Chico Senn. Western medicine saved his life. Eastern medicine is letting him enjoy it.
In 1993, the 69-year-old Gladstone man was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer that had traveled to his brain. Doctors told him he had a 4 percent chance of living past six months.
But surgeons removed the brain cancer. Radiation treatments and chemotherapy shrank the tumor in his lung. And Senn survived. By 1999, however, he was in constant pain. His breath was short. He started receiving hospice care.
Then Kaiser Permanente sent acupuncturist Lisa Rohleder to his door. Senn was skeptical, but the needle treatments eased his breathing and his pain. Now Senn, a retired clothing-maker, can play nine holes of golf. His daily dose of morphine has dropped dramatically.
"If I didn't have that brain operation, I wouldn't be around," he said. "And if I didn't get the acupuncture, I'd be a different person. I use both programs because they work."
Senn's doctor knows about his acupuncture therapy. But the Harvard researchers found that about two-thirds of people surveyed don't keep their doctors in the loop.
Dr. Susan Tolle, an internist and ethicist at Oregon Health & Science University, said doctors may not need to know about a yoga class or massage visit. But possibly dangerous drug-herb combinations cry out for better communication.
"Do we need to ask about everything? No," Tolle said. "But complementary medicine is so common, we ought to be asking a lot more than we are. That's the most powerful message."
To see more of The Oregonian, or to subscribe the newspaper, go to http://www.oregonian.com
(c) 2001, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
