Alternative Medicine - Many Choices for Informed Parents
By Jane Sheppard
Using Alternative Medicine
A revolution in health care is changing how we view medicine and how
we take care of ourselves and our families. A 1993 study in the
New England Journal of Medicine
reported that nearly one out of every three American adults used
alternative medicine in 1990. According to the World Health
Organization, approximately 3 billion people now use alternative
medicine as their primary health care. Some of these so-called
“alternative” therapies have been effectively and safely practiced for
thousands of years. What was once considered traditional medicine is now
termed alternative medicine in the United States, and is finally being
recognized as a valuable and effective approach to health and healing.
There are many different alternative modalities available, but the
philosophy behind most of them is the same. The body has an enormous
capacity to heal itself. The goal is to remove the blocks to the body’s
natural processes in a non-invasive way to promote self-healing. Most
alternative therapies seek a vibrant state of health, rather than just
eliminating the symptoms and curing disease.
Parents who are holistic oriented and use alternative medicine
themselves may not feel completely comfortable with taking their
children to an alternative practitioner. In spite of the frustration
with the side effects that conventional medicine has on children, many
parents do not know whether to take a chance with alternatives, usually
because of unclear or incomplete information about the safety and
effectiveness of these treatments.
Searching for Valid Information
Health information abounds, but frequently different sources have
different opinions, and it is not uncommon to read information that
seems contradictory. As a parent, it is easy to become frustrated with
all the claims you encounter. Massive consumer demand for natural health
alternatives has created a booming industry with many entrepreneurs
seeking to get a piece of the market. It is not hard to find herbs,
supplements or other therapies. Unfortunately, fraudulent practitioners
or even practitioners who are well-meaning, but lacking in training and
skills are competing with competent healers for your business.
You may have heard from another parent a story about this therapy or
that supplement that miraculously cured their child of the same thing
with which your child is dealing. The problem with most of these stories
is that every child is different and you usually don’t know the
specifics of the other child’s illness or what other therapies the child
received along with the “miracle cure”.
Amidst so many claims, how can you trust what you read and what you
hear? What alternatives can be safely used with kids? Which are the most
effective? When is conventional medicine the best option? We, as
parents, must become careful consumers for our families since we are the
primary providers of our children’s health care. We are responsible for
our children’s home environment and their mental, emotional, physical
and spiritual health. Armed with solid information about options for
healing, we can be very competent in managing their medical care because
we know our children better than anyone. When we look for treatment
options for our children, we want the best – safe, effective, low in
side effects, administered with the personal care and attention our
children deserve.
Research on alternative therapies is ongoing and continues to grow.
In upcoming issues of Healthy Child,
we will provide in-depth information on the different alternative
therapies that are most beneficial for children, as well as how to
choose practitioners, and how to integrate alternative medicine with
conventional medicine. The following paragraphs will give you
information about doing your own research to uncover your options for
healing.
Books on Alternative Medicine
The Whole
Parenting Guide does a great job of helping you sort through
what’s known and what’s not known so you can make informed decisions
regarding alternative care. The authors discuss the primary systems of
alternative medicine – traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine,
homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropractic, and naturopathy. They provide a
short history and description of each system as well as the conditions
for which you may want to take your children to see a practitioner, how
to find a practitioner, and other important factors you should know. The
authors talk about what true holistic medicine really
is and the importance of combining natural methods with
conventional medicine.
In The Holistic
Pediatrician, Dr. Kemper explores the top 25 childhood health
problems and presents a full spectrum of effective treatments, including
both conventional and alternative methods. She provides parents with
information on how to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of
alternative treatments.
Online Sources
If you are online, you can visit a number of informative sites. A
good place to start your Internet search is the Healthy Child’s
Alternative Medicine Resources
Reliable information on vitamin, mineral, and botanical supplements
can be found in a new database developed by The National Institutes of
Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements. The International Bibliographic
Information of Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) provides access to an immense
library of citations and abstracts from research journals and scientific
databases. Citations are updated weekly or monthly as new journal issues
are released. This well-designed and easy to use database can be found
at
http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/databases/ibids.html
Obtaining Scientific Literature
The National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary
& Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is attempting to study the effectiveness
of alternative medicine. Initiated through a Congressional mandate in
1992, NCCAM’s purpose is to “facilitate the evaluation of alternative
medical treatment modalities to determine their effectiveness”. It has
funded 11 Research Centers to study complementary and alternative
treatments for specific health conditions. NCCAM also provides a public
information clearinghouse and a research training program. Several
publications are available from the
NCCAM Clearinghouse, including a general information package,
research information, and cancer information.
Obtaining valid scientific literature may demand complex and
time-consuming searches of libraries and computer databases.
Understanding the literature once it has been retrieved can be equally
challenging. Unlike popular literature, scientific literature contains
terminology and concepts that may be unfamiliar to the nonscientist.
Another difficulty for people trying to understand scientific literature
lies in the wide variety of types of scientific research. It is a good
idea to have a health care professional, friend, or someone familiar
with science help with the comprehension of the literature once it is
obtained. If you are dealing with a complex or serious problem, you can
enlist the help of a
health research service. You will have to pay a fee, but obtaining
solid research specific to your problem that is easy to understand can
be well worth the money.
Scientifically valid research includes studies that use biological
substances (sometimes called in vitro research), studies on animals, and
studies using humans (called clinical research). There are also reviews
of studies where research papers are collected and analyzed.
One important type of clinical research is the randomized controlled
trial. This type of clinical research provides scientific evidence about
the efficacy or effectiveness of a therapy. The trial generally uses two
groups of people. One group receives the treatment while the other does
not. If possible, neither the researchers nor the subjects know who
receives the treatment (this is called a double-blind study).
Many studies are put through peer review before they are published in
a scientific journal. Peer review is the analysis of research by a group
of professionals in a specific scientific or medical field. More
information on research methodologies and understanding research may be
obtained from public and medical libraries, including the
U.S. National Library of Medicine.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the premier source of
medical science research information in the world. To make research
information as accessible as possible, NLM has indexed 20 million
printed references into a computer-based bibliographic retrieval system
called MEDLARS (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System).
MEDLARS includes more than 40 online electronic databases and
databanks. The database of greatest interest to alternative medical
researchers is MEDLINE (MEDLARS Online).
MEDLINE contains more than 11 million records dating back to 1966.
Although the full text of each article is not in the database,
approximately 60 percent of the citations contain author-generated
abstracts or summaries of the articles. The complete article may be
ordered through a special feature called Loansome Doc or you can contact
your local medical library.
MEDLINE is readily accessible through the World Wide Web. The NLM Web
site at http://www.nlm.nih.gov
gives access to two methods of MEDLINE searching: Internal Grateful Med
(IGM) and PubMed.
The NCCAM CAM Citation Index (CCI), is a database that is comprised
of approximately 180,000 bibliographic records describing much of the
complementary and alternative medical research that has been published
over the last 35 years. The CCI has a menu-driven interface, which
allows the user to choose among various diseases or conditions,
alternative medicine techniques or systems, and types of literature.
This interface allows users to find articles of interest without
necessarily knowing medical terminology. The CCI also has a standard
search interface, which allows users to conduct searches using the same
terminology as found in CAM literature, and as used by CAM experts.
For additional information, contact the
NCCAM or the
National Library
of Medicine
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