Alternative Healing Gains Ground 

Alternative medicine continues to make dramatic inroads into the domains traditionally dominated by the medical establishment. While some doctors embrace the changes, seeing alternative therapies as additional tools that can be used to promote health, others are reacting with anger, mixed, no doubt, with fear, as they watch their monopoly over healing slip away. 

In Germany, medical researchers are livid over a new law granting alternative medical treatments the same scientific status as orthodox medicine. The law states that all medical treatments are to be evaluated "according to the current state of scientific knowledge in that particular form of therapy." In practice, this means that alternative therapies will be judged by specialists within that particular branch of alternative medicine, i.e., peer review. Before the new law, a committee of medical specialists, who may not necessarily have knowledge or experience in alternative fields, evaluated all treatments.

Adding to the concerns of the new law's critics, insurance companies would be forced to cover alternative therapies, thus wiping out one of the medical establishment's competitive advantages. (Treatments such as acupuncture and homeopathy, which are traditional in Germany, are already covered by insurance.) 

In the U.S., Georgia has become the ninth state to pass an "Access to Medical Treatment Act," which allows licensed practitioners to use effective and safe alternative treatments in their practices. The bill was sponsored by Senator Gochenour, who is a patient of Dr. Burzynski (noted alternative cancer therapy pioneer), and an ardent supporter of alternative medicine. 

In line with the old adage, "two steps forward, one step back," Canada's Health Protection Branch has reclassified many herbs as drugs because they have a "pharmacological effect." Sixty-seven herbs are now considered drugs, including ginkgo, feverfew, gotu kola, kava, pau d'arco, psyllium seed, tea tree oil, and hawthorn.  

[Editor: Being reclassified as drugs, I assume that Canada's law will now require a doctor's prescription for many herbs, something that should make doctors and pharmacies happier and wealthier. Unfortunately, it also takes away people's right to control their own health. One wonders if people will be arrested for growing these herbs, or picking them in the wild. Freeze! Put up your hands and drop that comfrey!] 

Based on information in: American Herb Association Newsletter, Summer 1997; New Scientist, 6-28-97; Townsend Letter for Doctors, July 1997