Their numbers are growing, and so is their confidence. More and more respected mainstream physicians are blending traditional and alternative medicine—even when it means risking their reputations and security. What inspired this new breed of doctors to take the road less traveled?
Before I tell you how a new breed of doctors is changing the face of medicine, I'd like to make a confession: I believe. I believe in the brilliance of Western medicine, in the technological wonders of organ transplants, brain scans, and laparoscopic surgery—and I also believe that shamanic healers from indigenous cultures have discovered treatments for illnesses that traditional medicine can't touch, that the mind alone can trigger and then reverse illness, that dietary changes, along with vitamin and herbal supplements, can powerfully impact the course of disease. I believe in merging the best of both worlds—the orthodox and the alternative.
I'm not alone in my belief. This is a season of unprecedented possibility in medicine. And yet in spite of the tremendous changes, there is still resistance from mainstream medicine, as well as the government and the pharmaceutical industry. One can almost feel the tectonic plates of conventional and holistic medicine crashing up against each other and realigning the landscape of health care. Nutritionist Gary Null, Ph.D., an outspoken evangelist for alternative medicine, likens the intensity of the struggle to that "currently being faced by the Palestinians and Israelis, both trying to live in the same place, both seeking autonomy and protection."
But perhaps the greatest drama and triumph lies in the lives of the practitioners around the country who are melding these two kinds of health care into what may finally be known as integrative medicine.
"I see my life in the second half of the twentieth century as a series of extremes," says Nancy Eos, M.D. Dr. Eos had been an emergency room physician for 16 years when she discovered blood in her urine. A friend recommended a homeopathic physician who turned out to be Eos's former medical school teacher. Dr. Eos recalls, "Back then I remember her saying that she was thinking of quitting medicine, that she felt like she had nitrogen mustard, a chemotherapy medicine, in one hand and bean sprouts in the other, and one had to go. And here I was in a homeopathic interview with her 10 years later." When the homeopathic treatment cleared up Dr. Eos's condition, she began to study this form of healing. And she soon had her first chance to use it, when a girl came into the emergency room with epiglottitis, a potentially life-threatening swelling of the throat. "I gave the girl a remedy called aconite, and within seconds, she was breathing peacefully and asleep on her mother's lap," says Dr. Eos. "I overheard the mother ask the nurse if it was voodoo." Dr. Eos now practices a blend of conventional and alternative medicine with two other physicians in Grass Lake, Michigan.
The Road Less Traveled
Like Dr. Eos, many physicians took the orthodox route when training to become doctors, yet harbored secret passions for other avenues of healing. They were inspired by alternative medicine pioneers like Herbert Benson, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Harvard University who 20 years ago brought meditation to America in his best-selling book, The Relaxation Response; Deepak Chopra, M.D., the endocrinologist who popularized ayurvedic and mind-body medicine: and Larry Dossey, M.D., who almost single-handedly legitimized the study of prayer's impact on healing. But inevitably these doctors' stories are personal; tales of illness and transformation in their own lives, followed by struggles with colleagues and government agencies that range from mere cold shoulders to office raids by government agents and court trials.
"There is a moment when you know you've changed forever," says Richard Firshein, D.O., an osteopathic physician in New York City and author of Reversing Asthma. A lifelong asthmatic, Firshein was a medical attendant at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine and taking eight different drugs for his condition when he was hospitalized and nearly died. He decided to adopt a holistic and nutritional approach to his illness and wean himself off all of the drugs he was taking. "I went through an amazing transformation," he says. "And it was then that I realized I couldn't practice conventional medicine, even if it put me at risk professionally. Alternative medicine is a movement inspired by patients, and by doctors who became patients." Indeed, a famous 1993 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that in 1990, 34 percent of Americans used "nonconventional" therapies, paying an estimated $10.3 billion out-of-pocket for such treatments.
Doctors and patients may have inspired the movement, but now institutions and the government are beginning to respond. At last count, 34 of the country's 125 medical schools were offering courses in alternative medicine. Congress just voted to appropriate $12 million in 1997 for the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the National Institutes of Health, a 37 percent increase over 1996. The OAM has already funded 42 small studies at places like Harvard Medical School, Columbia University, and Stanford University. In the summer of 1996, Congress held hearings on the Access to Medical Treatment Act, a bill that will allow individuals to request their treatment of choice from a licensed health care practitioner, if all of the potential hazards of the treatment are disclosed and patients sign a consent form.
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