Second Opinions

By Don Barrie

Alternative, or complementary, medicine is a subject that makes headlines, but what exactly is it? Broadly defined, it’s a more holistic approach to medicine that employs a variety of remedies and therapies not taught in conventional medical schools.

Many alternative medical practices come from the traditional Chinese medical model of health. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the human body is viewed as a reflection of the natural world, and physical or mental disruptions like disease and illness create disharmony. Public interest in this philosophy and in alternative medical treatments -- like herbal remedies and acupuncture -- is growing. In 1999, British Columbia became the first province to regulate TCM practices. Other provinces may follow suit. The Berger Population Health Monitor reports that 30 per cent of British Columbians and Albertans aged 18 and up saw an alternative care practitioner in 1999. And 25 per cent of Ontarians saw one, as did 11 per cent of people in the Atlantic provinces.

But if TCM dates back to 5000 B.C., why is it so popular in 2001 A.D.?

"More people want a holistic approach to health, because there’s a mind/body/spirit connection there," says Dan Nichol, a naturopathic doctor (ND) at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto. "They want to seize greater control over their health, and to collaborate with their practitioner by experimenting with different remedies and therapies, and the conventional [medical] system doesn’t allow for that."

Dr. Nichol has been a licensed ND since graduating from the college’s four-year program in naturopathic medicine in 1996. His entry into the field grew out of his personal interests in fitness and nutrition. After graduating from McGill University’s physiology degree program in 1988, he discovered that he could combine his interests by helping other people achieve their personal health goals. "My food choices were always important," he says, "and putting responsibility on the person to achieve personal health maintenance goals is also important to me."

In TCM, herbal and natural remedies substitute for mainstream medical drugs. According to the Drug Manufacturers Association in Ottawa, approximately $500-million was spent on natural health products in 2000.

Echinacea is one of the best-known herbal remedies. Echinacea is a plant that has been used to fight colds, yeast infections and fungi. Though research has yet to determine the source of echinacea’s effectiveness, consumers like Steve McPherson of Toronto firmly believe that it has helped him fight colds and respiratory infections.

"Echinacea helps me reduce the length and severity of a cold," he says. "I take it whenever I experience the early stages of a cold, and I keep taking it until the cold is gone." But he adds that it can have its drawbacks. "I don’t discourage people from taking it, but the one thing pharmacists don’t tell you is that [echinacea] can depress the immune system if you take it for more than three weeks at a time."

McPherson is the co-founder of UserNet, a consumer-driven assessment and product evaluation group led by people with disabilities and seniors. He says that his quadriplegia puts him at risk of getting respiratory infections. "Since I was introduced to echinacea 10 years ago, I’ve only had one major cold." Steve is such a strong supporter of alternative remedies that he has incorporated them into another business that he operates.

Another popular health remedy is derived from the cranberry. Cran-Max is a dietary supplement that contains cranberry fibres, seeds and juices. Cran-Max capsules are designed to protect against E. coli and other harmful bacteria that can cause urinary tract infections.

"Cran-Max is one of our most popular products," says Aries Chan, co-founder of WHYP Inc., a Toronto-based specialty business that sells genito-urinary supplies. "We tell our customers that they should take these capsules instead of drinking large amounts of cranberry juice, because they don’t have a high sugar content. The capsules preserve the cranberry extracts and fibres from the cranberries that are essential for preventing bacteria from infecting the bladder."

Chan’s wife, Kathy Steward, is quadriplegic and a WHYP consumer. She has been taking Cran-Max twice a day since 1999 to reduce the risk of urinary tract infections, or UTIs. "Before I took [Cran-Max], I would get [UTIs] once every eight weeks," says Steward. "But since taking Cran-Max, the last infection I had was about eight months ago."

Jan Trott is another Cran-Max and WHYP customer with quadriplegia living in Toronto. For Trott, Cran-Max has enabled her to seize greater control over her life by reducing the risk of UTIs. "I’ve had a couple of flare-ups since I started taking it in ’98, but for the most part, I’ve been trouble-free. Cran-Max is the only thing about my routine that’s changed."

Another complementary treatment Trott advocates is acupuncture therapy. Her general practitioner introduced her to acupuncture in 1997 as a means of healing two chronic ulcers, which had developed from pressure sores. "I couldn’t believe how well it worked, and my acupuncturist wishes that more hospital patients could have it done to treat their ailments and chronic illnesses," Trott says. "I asked her why it doesn’t happen, and she said that [patients] just don’t ask for it."

Acupuncture is one of the best-known TCM complementary therapies. Acupuncture relies on hair-thin, stainless steel needles, which are inserted in specific areas of the body, labelled "pressure points." When inserted in these areas, the needles, according to TCM, can help restore the flow of energy in the body.

"Acupuncture therapy can improve the quality of life by helping to control pain and by increasing the range of movement as well as by helping with sleep disturbances and emotional fluctuations," says Colin Paddon, an acupuncturist at the Centre for International Holistic Studies in Stoney Creek, near Hamilton, Ontario.

Paddon has been teaching and practising acupuncture therapy at the centre since 1994, following graduation from the Canadian School of Natural Health Sciences. A British-trained aromatherapist and reflexologist, Paddon got his Canadian training in holistic medicine after being examined by the Canadian Examining Board of Health Care Practitioners in 1993.

"The popularity [of acupuncture therapy] is growing because it is non-invasive from a drug point of view, produces no side effects and the results are quick," Paddon says.

For those who find acupuncture needles intimidating, there is massage therapy. It is the oldest and simplest form of medical care, dating back to the ancient Egyptian period. And unlike many alternative medical procedures, massage therapy has received widespread acceptance as a mainstream medical practice. Massage is now used in intensive care units, on babies in incubators and on people coping with cancer, AIDS, heart attacks or strokes.

"Massage benefits people in a number of ways," says Gail Heaslip, a Toronto-based massage therapist. "On the physical level, it helps increase circulation in the muscles and joints. On a deeper level, the sense of being touched in a safe and intimate way can open lots of channels, especially when working with people who have chronic illnesses or disabilities." She adds that massage can also reduce contracture of the connective tissue (i.e. loss of joint motion) in people who are less mobile, and it can help maintain good tissue health and reduce the painful effects of spasms related to muscle seizures.

Heaslip received formal training in massage therapy from Toronto’s Sutherland-Chan Massage School. She has been working in the field since graduating from the massage school in 1992. Heaslip believes that, through massage, she can help people with chronic illnesses and disabilities become aware of the mind/body connection. "Someone who is agitated and stressed can be calmed down quickly through a gentle touch," she says.

Kevin Humphrey goes to a massage therapy clinic at Toronto’s Variety Village to relieve muscle and joint pain. A 27-year-old with cerebral palsy, he has an arthritic condition and a dislocated right hip. Between 1993 and 1995, the pain in his hip and the spasms in his joints had increased to the point that something needed to be done.

"I went to see an orthopaedic specialist," Humphrey says, "and we discussed the possibility of surgery. He thought of shaving off part of the hip, so it could be straightened and reconnected to the thigh bone. If I had had the ability to walk, that’s probably what would’ve happened."

But then he learned about Variety Village’s massage clinic. "I thought that it was worth trying out, at least once. And it worked. But the pain returned two days later." Disappointed, but undeterred, Humphrey decided to keep going. "About four or five weeks later, I began noticing a change," he says. "My muscles were relaxed, and my joints became less irritated."

While it didn’t produce any miracle cures, he says, going for massage therapy has made a difference. "I still get pain in my joints, but not as much as I did before going to the massage clinic. Aside from the occasional pain, my joints have never felt better."

University of British Columbia pediatrics professor Dr. Wah Jun Tze is a high-profile supporter of scientific-based research programs in alternative medicine. A Harvard-educated former practitioner of mainstream Western medicine, Dr. Tze now devotes himself full time to his interest in alternative medicine -- or, as he prefers to call it, complementary medicine. In 1997 he founded the Tzu Chi Institute of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Vancouver, one of the few research centres in North America focusing on TCM. He is also the author of "Health Quotient (HQ): An Intelligent Approach to Personal Health," a new comprehensive self-care guidebook that brings together mainstream Western medicine and TCM.

"I wrote [HQ] as a way of communicating my vision of integrating complementary and Eastern medical practices with Western medicine," he says. "I think more [conventional] North American doctors need to be tolerant and open-minded about the benefits of complementary medicine. The public demands it."

Dr. Tze’s interest in alternative medicine began during a 1985 visit to China. While there, he discovered how doctors applied TCM through drug-free treatments like acupuncture and wormwood to relieve their patients’ illnesses. (Wormwood is a herbal remedy used to treat malaria in Third World countries.)

"Public interest in [alternative] medicine is growing because society is changing, and people are living longer," he says. "So they want to find ways that they can prolong their lives by taking better care of themselves."

Despite the recent popularity of alternative medicine, it is still controversial. Many conventional medical practitioners and scientists continue to deride alternative medicine for its lack of scientific support, and maintain that its procedures yield only a placebo effect. But for many people, one of the attractions of alternative therapies is that they give attention to the person as well as the disease.

"It makes me wish that we could talk to [these doctors and critics], and show them the science that backs the therapies we use," says Dr. Nichol. He acknowledges that more scientific research is needed, but adds that ND practitioners will continue with therapies that are known to work. "People who put down our practices base it usually on only one article, and make opinions based on it," he says. "They know very little about the training and haven’t had any first-hand experience with it."

In spite of the criticism, holistic therapists like Heaslip are optimistic that interest in alternative medicine will keep growing, and find its place in mainstream health care. "Traditional Western medicine has its benefits, but at some point we got so focused on machines that we forgot about the consumer," Heaslip says. "Holistic therapies like massage have helped revive the humanistic approach. We [as health care physicians] are in the midst of a huge change. We’re trying to be more humane."

(Don Barrie is a freelance writer living in Toronto, Ontario.)