The Alternative Health Medicines and Methodologies - Essay Example

Analysis of Alternative Health Medicines and Methodologies In the world today there is a growing movement for alternative health modalities as healthcare costs rise. On the Internet and other media our society is bombarded by products suggesting that weight loss, beauty, and certain ailments can be "miraculously changed" by using a product. Many doctors tell patients about certain herbs that can help them in addition to traditional medicines and caution against others. The doctors who support herbal therapy have usually researched clinical trials that have shown patients to be responsive to certain herbal remedies. In 2006, the FDA began to look at herbal and homeopathic remedies to try and limit their use. They have also debunked many of these remedies by discrediting their claims. Although there are cautions, it is estimated that 38% of people in the United States use alternative methods on a regular basis according to The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. One challenge to using these remedies is that they are not prescribed by a doctor and many people take too much of the product thinking they can take more because they are not "real" medicine. When they do this they can do more harm to their situation than good. This research seeks to analyze some of the remedies that have been put in to scientific study. It is important to note that although this research will call these "alternative medicines" the FDA has forbidden the use of the word "medicine" to describe these remedies. Herbs are usually called "dietary supplements" because most have not been scientifically proven to work. Homeopathies have to use specific labeling as does homeopathies. There are literally thousands of "remedies" depending on where and how an individual needs to use them. ANXIETY DISORDERS RESEARCH There have been several studies done on anxiety disorders and depression looking for something that can relieve symptoms in a natural way. Michael G. Kavan and Gary N. Elsasser studied patients who were diagnosed as having generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). They were looking for the best methods to treat this disorder. It has been established that cognitive behavior therapy and pharmacology are the two ways that this disorder has been treated but they wanted to look beyond what had already been effective. GAD is usually a condition that creates more doctors visits and it is associated with "social/role functioning, general health, bodily pain, physical functioning and daily activities" (785). Their study was conducted more for physicians than laymen but it brought about several findings. Self-report questionnaires were used and they stated which ones were the most reliable in diagnosing GAD. Their report stated that before any type of treatment is used patients must be informed about anxiety disorders and their treatment. They also stated that in the United States CAM interventions were used that included: herbal supplements, nutritional supplements, aromatherapy, meditation and acupuncture (789). The herbal supplement that has been used is Kava extract. According to the researchers a Cochrane systematic review and a meta-analysis showed that kava extract was superior treatment compared with placebo treatment for anxiety. The challenge is that it cannot be used for clinical use because it has an association with hepatotoxicity. In the study they showed that valerian, St. Johns Wort and passionflower are being used by patients to also help in anxiety, these have not been scientifically proven to show effectiveness and safety (789). Some people are using ginger, green tea, melatonin, and other remedies but there is no scientific evidence that they work. A small study with aromatherapy showed that this combined with massage did improve anxiety and mood over an eight month period and a larger study that looked at this remedy in patients with cancer showed that there were improvements in mood and anxiety after two weeks but this disappeared as they kept going to 10 weeks. This second study was randomized but it did not have a control group. This cannot be used as a study to show what aromatherapy can do because both were combined with massage. They are not sure that meditation works for anxiety although mindfulness based cognitive therapy showed a decrease in anxiety (789). One challenge with this information is that many patients are using these modalities to help their depression and have self-reported that they are helping. Unfortunately they are not recognized as being able to help many people because there is a lack of scientific study. CHRONIC PAIN AND DISTANCE HEALING There are many studies that have been done about distance healing for chronic pain but they have not brought specific conclusions as to whether they work. One such study by Tsubono et al suggests that this type of healing can be used for chronic pain. These researchers conducted a double-blind randomized study controlled study using 16 participants who suffered from chronic pain. The study involved the work of a Japanese healer who first met with the participants to do a meditation and then he went back to Japan and started healing from a distance. They used a pre and post test of The Pain Intensity Scale and found that there was difference shown "significant improvement in the treatment group" (30). They used the same protocol for each group but left out the distance healing in the control group. Although daily meditation could have resulted in part of the healing, the distance healing produced more results in the treatment group. This lead the researchers to conclude that work done by the healer was what made the difference in groups. Many of their participants had used herbal supplements, massage, acupuncture and medical treatment but nothing had helped their pain as much as the healing (33). The weakness in this study was that they only used 16 participants and that they could not make a specific reason why this occurred. Although they showed that distance healing could work in chronic pain with this group, the researchers admitted that a larger sample would need to be tested. A question that this researcher had when reading this study is whether this could truly be seen as a modality that worked. The question comes because all of the people in the study believed in spiritual healing which would have set a basis for them to "believe" that their pain would be better. The researchers in the study also said that there was no placebo effect but this researcher wonders whether this could be a correct assumption. CAM THERAPY FOR STRESS REDUCTION Korn et al created a study the types of stress relief methods that may work best with populations that were dealing with family members suffering from dementia. They chose Native Americans and Native Alaskans because they wanted to see what methods worked best with these populations. Although studies had been done on specific populations and their reaction to dementia and stress, there were none that described methods for ethnic minorities. The study compared two alternative methods: Polarity therapy (PT) and enhanced respite control condition (ERC). Participants included 42 Native Americans living on or off the reservation in the Pacific Northwest. The participant caregivers ranged in age between 27 and 69 with the median age of 50; 90% were women. It is important to note that in the population they studied the people were most use to using different methods of healing that included herbs, drumming, hands on healing, massage, sweat lodges and other types of cultural models (369). The participants were randomized into two groups with each having one of the methods (either PT or ERC). The study found that PT was more effective in treating stress in participants than ERC making PT "an effective intervention for highly stressed AI caregivers" (374). In the short study that this researcher did to find studies that were specifically dealing with a variety of methods it was found that most methods of healing and/or alternative "medicines" are being tested but nothing specific has been found to actually work with a large body of participants. The studies generally were very small and they came to a conclusion that may or may not be important to the medical community. The medical community does continue to look at the various types of alternative methods that can be helpful to patients and they hold summits and conferences to talk about these issues. Some researchers are looking towards healthcare reform as one method of perhaps gaining more funding for research into these areas. As an example, Dr. Mark Hyman reported on a summit that was held by the Institute of Medicine in February of 2009 on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public. During this summit many leaders came together to discuss health care on a very broad level. They focused on a true integration of healthcare that involved traditional and non-traditional methods. The point of the summit was to also find ways to help develop healthcare initiatives so that all people will be taken care of by some health insurance. There is no doubt that people who are using alternative methods that it works for them when they are able to use them regularly. There are non-clinical articles about the way that people can resolve healthcare issues. This is all a call for change in healthcare and it will be interesting to see whether they can work towards a total integration of both methods and how this will come about to change what we currently accept about healthcare. Works Cited FDA . “Guidance for Industry on Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Food Products “and their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. 2006. Draft. US Department of Health and Human Services. 09 June 2009. Tsubono, Kenjiro, Thomlinson, Paul and Shealy, C Norman. "The Effects of Distant Healing Performed by a Spiritual Healer On Chronic Pain". Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. May/Jun 2009; 15, 3 pg. 30-34. ProQuest Database (Proquest ID: 1728239261 ). Read More