Health Care Off the Beaten Path

"The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease."–Attributed to Inventor Thomas Alva Edison, 1870s

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Beyond pills

In a quest for professional authority early in the nineteenth century, the medical profession debunked folk remedies and practices as quackery. Over time, any health practice or product out of the mainstream came to be so defined. The problem is, as Stumpf says, "Doctors threw out the world atlas and only kept one map." With a knowledge base rooted in demonstrable evidence, Western medicine specifically rejected energy-related modalities. How can we test something that we cannot see or dissect? However, the theory that each living body contains and emits energy resonates with quantum physics, as noted in a Cleveland Clinic Web site article.

Ken Shafer ’75, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist, admits that many allopathic physicians also have trouble with chiropractic: "We don’t see a scientific basis for it." But medical resident Phil Verhoef ’97 counters, "Many people swear by the treatments they receive from their chiropractors. It’s hard to argue with that."

Professional medical associations see the lack of long-term clinical studies in non-conventional practices as a major hurdle: Which treatments work in most cases? What about the placebo effect? Believing in a particular therapy can lead to positive results in both alternative and conventional care. The National Institutes of Health aims to address this dearth of clinical research.

Shafer says the resurgence in alternative practices could affect the future of health care. "We’re seeing more problems with prescription medications; they all have side effects. The trend in the next twenty years may be away from prescribing drugs, toward other treatments." Verhoef agrees and says, "Patients are stimulating their physicians to learn about other therapies."

Shafer acknowledges, "Many alternative practitioners, osteopaths, for example, are taught a much more holistic view than we (allopathic physicians) get in medical school…We’re discovering how little attention we pay to the individual patient. We need to ask, ‘Where is this stress coming from?’ in addition to, ‘Where and how often do you have pain?’

"We can’t fix everything with a pill."

Verhoef sees a paradigm shift toward prevention and lifestyle modification. "People with new-onset high cholesterol or new-onset type II diabetes can often control their conditions with weight, exercise, and diet."

Insurance coverage for preventive or alternative care varies widely, however. Only a dozen states mandate that insurers cover the cost of chiropractic treatment, for example. When companies do reimburse, they often limit the number or length of visits.

Oregon, where Susan Roberts ’78 has practiced naturopathic medicine for fifteen years, is one of only eleven states to recognize this form of care. Like chiropractic, naturopathic physicians try to help the body heal itself. Roberts graduated from Oregon’s National College of Naturopathic Medicine and practices in Portland. Her treatment, individualized for each patient, includes exercise, dietary counseling, life changes, and herbal supplements. In Oregon, naturopathic physicians can prescribe anything with natural origins, Roberts says, including penicillin.

Roberts sees her specialty as complementary to allopathic medicine. "If you get hit by a car or need major surgery, don’t come to me," she says. A third-year medical student came to Roberts because she was reluctant to follow the only advice she’d been given by an allopathic doctor – take tranquilizers.

Fieldgate says that chiropractic is drawing interest especially from two groups: the "middle" generation who are not bound to a certain physician and the Internet generation who research their conditions online. Phil Verhoef sees the interest as more wide-ranging: young people tend to be more open to alternative methods while older people might be frustrated with conventional care.

Edith Powers ’58 staffs the Sante Fe County Maternal and Child Health Planning Council in New Mexico. She says, "Medicine is terrifically impressive in an emergency, but our health involves so much more." In an increasingly diverse country, "we have to honor the different ways that people from other healing traditions deal with sickness and health. We have much to learn from each other."

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