More than 40 percent of Americans have tried some form of alternative medicine -- from acupuncture to herbal supplements to meditation. As a clinical professor of medicine, director of Stanford's research program in complementary and alternative medicine and author of The Best Alternative Medicine: What Works? What Does Not? (Simon & Schuster, 2000), Kenneth Pelletier is part of a growing movement among scientists to investigate the medical validity of alternative treatments.
Stanford: Who is using alternative medicine and why is it so popular now?
Pelletier: There are a number of influences that create this interest. If you look at who uses alternative medicine, most frequently they tend to be middle-aged, better educated and higher in socioeconomic status. These people have always demanded more involvement and more of any system—be it government, finance or medicine. The users are driving this. Second, both the public and the profession are recognizing the limitations of conventional medicine in treating chronic disease. It's very good at acute disease, infection and trauma. Many of the alternative therapies claim to have a greater efficacy on chronic diseases. Finally, 40 percent of the use of alternative medicine is in the domain of prevention, not treatment. People are seeking to maintain their health, to maintain vigor into the advanced years.
How can a patient figure out which therapies are legitimate?
It is difficult to sort out fact from fiction. What I recommend to people is that they learn as much as they can about alternative-therapy practice. If they have conditions they are concerned about, they should get conventional medical diagnoses so they know what they are dealing with. They should tell their doctors they want to use alternative medicine so they can coordinate the alternative and conventional care, and then they should seek out practitioners in the area of alternative medicine who are known, licensed and credentialed. The danger is that someone reads a few articles, gets on the Internet and begins to self-treat. That I really do discourage.
Is there much resistance among conventional medical professionals?
I count myself among the healthy skeptics. But I think if you take a scientific approach, an evidence-based approach, neither advocating nor dismissing alternative medicine, if you approach this in a very focused way, then there is very little resistance.
What is your research group working on now?
Our program focuses on behavioral, pharmacological and hormonal interventions that might halt or reverse the aging process. We are looking at the use of tai chi to prevent the loss of balance among elderly people. We are conducting a study called Round the Clock, which is an intervention to promote better sleeping habits among older individuals. We are just beginning another study, called SAGE (Successful Aging Growth Experience), which will be a three-year program using alternative medicine, conventional medicine, meditation, exercise, dietary changes. We are using a very sophisticated battery of assessments to see if we can, in fact, have a positive impact on aging.
