Alternative medicine offers options

San Gabriel Valley Weekly
Daniel Evans

Its proponents say the techniques address concerns beyond traditional medicine.

“Be careful when you sit on that couch “hypnotherapist Nancy Nelson said to a recent visitor. Everyone that’s sat there has gone into a deep trance.”

Nelson, a thin blond woman with large blue eyes, quickly assures her guest that she is joking. The practice of clinical hypnosis is far from ghoulish men with swinging watches, she says. No one is put under without their consent and, in fact, help.

“All hypnosis is self-hypnosis because we are all in control of our mind,” she said. “Only I can relax myself, and only you can only relax yourself.”

Hypnotherapy deals with the subconscious, clearing away all the troubles and worries of everyday life and getting to the root of the problem.

Getting to the root of the problem is also the goal of acupuncturist Mark Melchiorre. Acupuncture works by redistributing the life force, or qi, to its maximum efficiency.

“One way of looking at it is that qi is what animates us, what gives rise to life,” he said. “If you have life, you have qi. Looking at the disease end, illness comes when something is blocked, and that can be for a variety of reasons: emotional, environmental, physical reasons.”

Both are quick to point out the limits of their specialties. Nelson says that if anyone that comes to her for treatment is already under a doctor’s care, she requires they get a release.

“If someone gets cleared up in five minutes or a half hour on something they were in therapy for years about, I want the doctor to know that too,” she said.

Melchiorre says he refers his patients to their physician if he finds something he’s unable to treat. “If they’re got lower-back pain going down their leg, and I’m not getting any results, I recommend they see a doctor to rule out anything more serious,” he said.

But the two aren’t exclusive, he says. “I like to look at this as a complementary therapy,” he said. “It’s not a panacea, and we need to know when to look out to the rest of the medical community. Part of holistic medicine is knowing what’s out there. We’re just one of the tools.”

Dr. David Redding agrees. Redding is the interim chair of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine at the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona.

“If something is brand new, we need to have a skeptical but open mind,” he said. “Acupuncture has been put down for some time now, but more and more people are seeing the benefits.”

Redding, who describes himself as a fan of alternative practices, said osteopathic doctors are often more open to alternative therapies than medical doctors. Both types of doctors are fully licensed by the state and are found in all specialties.

In addition to the training both receive, he said, osteopathic doctors learn manipulative techniques, a cross between massage and chiropractic therapy that gives them a more whole-body approach to healing.

“For example, if someone comes in with a headache, an MD might give them pain medicine and some muscle relaxants,” he said.

“But if the same person were to come to an osteopathic doctor, they would give them the same medicine, but also find what muscles were tight and relax them, correct some joints and maybe suggest some stress-management techniques.”

The difference between the disciplines hasn’t stopped Lori Wynstock, a medical doctor at Huntington Hospital, from having an interest in alternative medicine.

“You’re not taught much about it in med school, but I think we should combine it with traditional medicine,” she said.

Wynstock hasn’t always been a fan of alternative therapies. It was only after more and more of her patients sought out different practices and started seeing the benefits that she started to come around.

“I think it helps, and it has its place,” she said. “I would not say I would recommend it in lieu of some of the traditional methods, but definitely in tandem with them.”

“...we need to know when to look out to the rest of the medical community. Part of holistic medicine is knowing what’s out there. We’re just one of the tools.’ — Mark Melchiorre, acupuncturist

Copyright 1999 San Gabriel Valley Weekly

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