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Alternative Medicines Under Scrutiny

© Gretchen Malik

An estimated four in ten Americans uses some form of alternative medicine, from acupuncture to hypnosis to herbs to Internet-touted wonder remedies. Some may work. Some may not. Some of the best-known hospitals have even begun offering certain alternative remedies. Others can be quackery, possibly even dangerous. How are we as patients to know the difference?

A new presidential commission, funded with $2 million in taxpayer dollars, is doing a two-year study to determine how to help doctors and consumers sort out what works, what doesn't, what's too risky, and what alternative remedies will be effective once they enter mainstream health care.

Some doctors are reluctant to learn about alternatives. They need to appreciate that there is another parallel universe out there because millions of Americans are using remedies without their physicians' knowledge and without unbiased information about safety and effectiveness. And the hospitals offering unconventional remedies as "complementary therapy," add-ons to traditional medicine, do so when studies show they help.

But there is little science behind other alternative remedies. The National Institutes of Health is spending tens of millions of dollars this year testing some of them. Proof may be years in coming, but the White House commission is charged with determining how to ensure doctors and patients learn the available evidence. The panel's first draft report to Congress is due in July.

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