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Mainstream medicine reconsidering alternative medicines and

Long Island Business News, Feb 9, 2007 by Claude Solnik

Tom Doran wishes he wasn't home the day the gunman came to his door.

Doran was a therapist in a hospital detoxification ward that made the mistake of posting staff names and addresses on an employee bulletin board. A man expelled from the program went door to door, looking for revenge, and Doran had the bad luck of being home. His wounds cost him the use of his left hand and arm.

Numerous operations followed the early-1990s shooting, but a surgeon told Doran he'd better get used to life without that arm.

"Everything was totally not working," Doran said. "[The surgeon] finally gave up and said, 'This is the way it is.'"

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But Doran, at the time an Elmhurst resident, wouldn't give up. He tried physical therapy, then discovered an alternative treatment known as Reiki. A cross between acupuncture and massage, Reiki is designed to soothe pain, reduce stress, improve sleep and appetite and accelerate healing. Insurers typically don't pay for what's considered an unproved alternative, but Doran - desperate now - decided to pick up the tab.

Soon, his "frozen fingers" thawed.

"I was getting more circulation," he said. "After a year (of Reiki), I had full, complete use without any surgery whatsoever."

Doran's experiences are "part of the movement of consciousness that started in the '80s," said Lenny Izzo, a doctor of chiropractic medicine and partner at Centerpoint, an alternative medicine center in Huntington. "More people are accepting the Eastern traditions of healing."

A new (and old) school of thought

Alternative medicines and treatments often dwell in a limbo between science and belief, but more Tom Dorans turn to them every say. Once the Rodney Dangerfield of Westernized medicine, alternatives - many older than the West itself - are finally getting some respect.

"Alternative health care" covers a broad spectrum of treatments, ranging from the quasi-mainstream (chiropractic treatment, massage, acupuncture) to the more extreme (herbal remedies, magnetic fields, biofeedback, guided imagery, Qi gong, yoga, hypnosis and more).

Whether something like Reiki works and whether it's more placebo or healing art are open to discussion. But Doran insists Nancy Dionisiou, the Reiki practitioner who took him on, helped him to a result that mainstream medicine couldn't.

According to the New York College of Health Professions in Syosset, massage therapy and holistic nursing - which focuses on a whole person, not just a particular problem - are among the fastest- growing health-care fields. Mina Larson, spokeswoman for the Alexandria, Va.-based National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, said her group has certified more than 20,000 people in various alternative medicine fields.

About 36 percent of American adults use some form of "complementary and alternative medicine," according to the National Institutes for Health, most often to treat chronic pain. Patients consider CAMs for physical problems such as back pain and headaches, mental issues including anxiety and depression, even recurring stomach problems and sleep disorders.

Americans spent between $36 billion and $47 billion on such treatments in 1997, the last time the NIH compiled CAM statistics. Larson estimates they spend twice that today. Between $12 billion and $20 billion was paid out-of-pocket in 1997, according to the NIH, with insurers often paying for chiropractic care, acupuncture and massage therapy, but not other treatments.

Not much appears to have changed, insurance-wise, over the last decade. Lisa Greiner, a spokeswoman for Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in Manhattan, said insurers require studies proving efficacy, and "most treatments which are characterized as 'alternative' have not been vigorously studied or verified as effective."

Mainstream medicine reconsidering Reiki

Patients such as Doran are more than willing to verify the effectiveness of alternative treatments, at least Reiki. "I can use a computer," he said. "I can play golf and hold a golf club with two hands, not one. I can go to a batting cage and hit baseballs."

Doran's not alone, and as more experiences like his are reported, more mainstream medical centers are beginning to offer Reiki treatments.

Reiki is an ancient Japanese technique for stress reduction, relaxation and the promotion of healing. The name comes from two Japanese words - Rei, which means "God's wisdom" or "higher power," and Ki, which means "life force energy." Translated literally, Reiki means "spiritually guided life force energy."

The technique is based on the concept that unseen "life force energies" flow through us; when these energies are low, a person is more likely to be sick or stressed. Practitioners use a "laying on hands" technique to manipulate a patient's energies.

Some 2,000 Reiki treatments are given annually at Portsmouth Regional Hospital in Portsmouth, NH, primarily as preparation for surgical procedures. Manhattan's Beth Israel Medical Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center both employ Reiki to help manage patients' pain and anxiety. Reiki treatments have also made the rounds at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore.

Mainstream medicine reconsidering alternative medicines and

Long Island Business News, Feb 9, 2007 by Claude Solnik

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