Table Of ContentEdited by
Wayne B. Jonas
Department of Family Practice, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda,
Maryland; Director (1995–1998), Office of Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda,
Maryland
Jeffrey S. Levin
Senior Research Fellow
National Institute for Healthcare Research, Rockville, Maryland; President (1997–1998), International
Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM), Golden, Colorado
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Brian Berman M.D.
Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Director
The Center for Complementary Medicine, University of Maryland, Complementary Medicine Program,
Baltimore, Maryland
George T. Lewith M.A., D.M., M.R.C.P., M.R.C.G.P.
The Centre for the Study of Complementary Medicine; Senior Research Fellow, University Medicine,
University of Southampton School of Medicine, Southampton, Hampshire, UK
MED Klaus Linde Dr.
München Modell-Center for Complementary Medicine Research, Department of Internal Medicine II,
Technische Universität, Munich, Germany
Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr. N.D.
President
Bastyr University, Kenmore, Washington
Kichiro Tsutani M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Division of Information Medicine, Medical Research Institute, Tokyo
Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
Jean Watson R.M., Ph.D., F.A.A.N.
Distinguished Professor of Nursing; Founder
Center for Human Caring; Endowed chair, Caring Science, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center,
Denver, Colorado
SECONDARY EDITORS
Timothy Hiscock
Editor
Joyce Murphy
Managing Editor
Kathy Neely
Marketing Manager
Kathleen Gilbert
Project Editor
CONTRIBUTORS
VLADIMIR BADMAEV M.D., PHD.
Staten Island, New York
MICHAEL J. BAIME M.D.
Division Chief
Department of General Internal Medicine, The Graduate Hospital; Assistant Professor, University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DANIEL J. BENOR M.D.
Author of Healing Research
Vols. I-IV, Vision Publications, Southfield, Michigan
KEITH I. BLOCK M.D.
Medical Director
Institute of Integrative Cancer Care, Evanston, Illinois; Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Medicine,
University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois
HOWARD BRODY M.D., PHD.
Professor
Departments of Family Practice and Philosophy, Michigan State University; Director, Center for Ethics and
Humanities in the Life Sciences, East Lansing, Michigan
EDWARD H. CHAPMAN M.D., PHD.
Clinical Instructor
Harvard University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
RONALD A. CHEZ M.D.
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Professor of Community and Family Health
University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
KENNETH S. COHEN M.A., M.S.TH.
Adjunct Professor
Union Institute Graduate School, Cincinnati, Ohio
PETER A.G.M. DE SMET PHD.
Pharmaceutical Care Unit
Scientific Institute of Dutch Pharmacists, The Hague, The Netherlands
BARBARA DOSSEY, R.N. M.S., F.A.A.N.
Director
Holistic Nursing Consultants, Santa Fe, New Mexico
DAVID EISENBERG M.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School; Director Center for Alternative, Medicine Research and Education, Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
EDZARD ERNST M.D., PHD., F.R.C.P. (EDIN)
Professor and Director
Department of Complementary Medicine University of Exeter, Exeter, England
MICHAEL D. FETTERS M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor
Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan Health System; Director, Japanese Family Health
Program, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan
TIFFANY FIELD PHD.
Director, Touch Research Institute
Nova/Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
ALAN R. GABY M.D.
Professor of Nutrition
Bastyr University, Kenmore, Washington
HAROLD GOODMAN D.O.
Private Practice
Silver Spring, Maryland
JUDITH A. GREEN PHD.
Professor
Department of Psychology, Aims Community College; Co-director, Health Psychology Services, LLC,
Greeley, Colorado
JOSEPH M. HELMS M.D.
Private Practice
Berkeley, California, Chairman of Physician Acupuncture Training Programs, UCLA School of Medicine,
Los Angeles, California
WAYNE B. JONAS M.D.
Department of Family Practice, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda,
Maryland; Director (1995–1998), Office of Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda,
Maryland
STANLEY KRIPPNER PHD.
Professor of Psychology
Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco, California
D. VASANT LAD B.A.M.S., M.A.SC.
The Ayurvedic Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexic
LIXING LAO PHD., L.AC
Assistant Professor and Clinical Director
Department of Complementary Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland;
Clinic Director, MD Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland
DANA J. LAWRENCE D.C.
Professor of Chiropractic Practice; Director of Publications and Editorial Review
National College of Chiropractic, Lombard, Illinois
CHING-TSE LEE PHD.
Professor
Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College of the City, University of New York, Brooklyn, New York;
Visiting Scholar, Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
TING LEI PHD.
Assistant Professor
Department of Social Science, Borough of Manhattan Community, College of the City University of New
York, New York, New York
JEFFREY S. LEVIN PHD., M.P.H.
Senior Research Fellow
National Institute for Healthcare Research, Rockville, Maryland; President (1997–1998), International
Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine (ISSSEEM), Golden, Colorado
GEORGE T. LEWITH M.A., D.M., M.R.C.P., M.R.C.G.P.
Partner
The Centre for the Study of Complementary Medicine and Senior Research Fellow, University Medicine,
University of Southampton School of Medicine, Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom
KLAUS LINDE M.D.
Muenchener
Modell-Research Center for Complementary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine II, Technische
Universitaet, Munich, Germany
TIERAONA LOW DOG M.D., A.H.G.
Medical Director
Treehouse Center of Integrative Medicine, Medical Advisor, Quality Control & Standards, Materia Medica
Group; Physician, Private Practice, Albuquerque, New Mexico
MICHAEL T. MURRAY N.D.
Member, Board of Trustees and Faculty
Bastyr University, Kenmore, Washington
JOSEPH E. PIZZORNO JR., N.D.
President
Bastyr University, Kenmore, Washington
JANIS M. RYGWELSKI M.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Family Practice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
G. RANDOLPH SCHRODT Jr., M.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville School of Medicine; Medical
Director, Behavioral Medicine Program, Norton Psychiatric Clinic, Louisville, Kentucky
ROBERT SHELLENBERGER PHD.
Licensed Psychologist; Chair of Psychology
Aims Community College, Co-Director, Health Psychology Service LLC, Greeley, Colorado
ALLAN TASMAN M.D.
Professor and Chairman
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville,
Kentucky
HARALD WALACH PHD., Dipl. Psych.
Department of Psychology
University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
JAMES C. WHORTON PHD.
Professor
Department of Medical History and Ethics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle,
Washington
IAN WICKRAMASEKERA PHD., A.B.P.P., A.B.P.H.
Consulting Professor of Psychiatry
Stanford Medical School, Stanford, California; Professor of Family Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical
School, Norfolk, Virginia
DEDICATION
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY WIFE, SUSAN CUNNINGHAM JONAS, WHOSE LOVE, WISDOM, AND
SERVICE TO OTHERS IS AN EXAMPLE FOR US ALL.
W B J
FOR LEA STEELE LEVIN, MY BELOVED WIFE AND PARTNER.
J S L
FOREWORD
The publication of Essentials of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the first comprehensive
textbook for physicians about these increasingly popular forms of medical treatment, is very timely. For the
first time, information about the foundations of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), the safety
of CAM products and practices, and overviews of nearly two dozen CAM systems are available in one
place.
The purpose of this textbook is to provide mainstream medical professionals useful and balanced
information about CAM. The development of this type of book is an ambitious and difficult goal for several
reasons. Many CAM systems are claimed to have special patient benefits not met by either conventional
medicine or other CAM approaches. There are few unifying themes across these systems (other than the
belief that there are unmet patient benefits outside of conventional medicine). Faced with these problems,
the editors have sought the best individuals in these diverse areas and worked with them to produce a
balanced and useful book developed specifically for physicians. In many areas of CAM, there is a history
of long-term and vigorous antagonism with conventional medicine, as well as different educational
standards, training, and practices. Also, the basic concepts of what constitutes sufficient evidence of
safety and efficacy vary among CAM systems. Ultimately, the usefulness of this book will depend on its
success in addressing these issues in an objective, pragmatic, and convincing way.
Why is it important to publish this textbook? The main reason is the compelling evidence that medicine has
been changing both scientifically and culturally for several decades. Let us start with the changes in
conventional medicine since World War II.
The medicine of my childhood in a small rural town in Virginia was very different from the conventional
medicine of today. For example, my 80-year-old sister who had a heart attack was treated by removal of
the clot and insertion of a stent; both she and her husband viewed the procedure on television, and she
was up and walking the next day. In contrast, when my 59-year-old father suffered a heart attack over 50
years ago, medicine really had little to offer.
Although there are many reasons for these dramatic changes in medicine, the dominant force has been the
emergence of exact sciences underlying medicine (whereas once they were viewed as “soft sciences”).
The rewarding results have been an ever-increasing understanding of basic life processes. This
understanding, in turn, has allowed novel and successful approaches to disease control.
However, the advancement of science-based medicine has a downside: science-based specialty medicine
has become less personal and more costly. And, cost-containment efforts pay for procedures done, rather
than time spent with patients. For these and other reasons, patients seek to augment the benefits of
modern conventional medicine with CAM.
The initial striking evidence of the widespread use of CAM in the United States was reported by David
Eisenberg and colleagues in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1993. According to Eisenberg's
report, one in three Americans saw an alternative health care practitioner in 1990 (constituting more visits
than to conventional primary care physicians), and they paid more than 10 billion dollars in out-of-pocket
expenses for this care. In addition, patients did not tell their physicians of their use of CAM because they
assumed the physicians would not be interested or would not approve. In a follow-up study now completed,
the evidence of even greater use of CAM has been confirmed and is most striking: more than 40% of
Americans currently use CAM (approaching European and Australian rates), and as much out-of-pocket
money is spent for CAM care as is out-of-pocket money spent for all of conventional medicine. These facts
confirm the need for readily available information to help physicians understand, evaluate, and address
CAM treatments that their patients are receiving. This textbook will help them do that.
A significant change occurred when the United States Congress mandated the opening of the Office of
Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Medical schools are now seeking
research support from this source. Research findings supported by the OAM can be expected to meet the
familiar standards of NIH. In addition to research, more than 70 medical schools have (or are planning)
courses in CAM for their medical student curriculum. And, although future physicians and other
conventional health care workers will be versed in the advantages and disadvantages of CAM, most of
those now in practice need accurate information.
Both conventional medicine and CAM share similar concerns in several important areas. Both systems
need always to be committed to eliminating fraudulent practice or practitioners who severely misguide
desperately ill patients. Therefore, a complete section on safety is provided in this book. However,
information about efficacy is likely the most needed. Over the last few decades, conventional medicine has
relied increasing on highly disciplined experimental methods to arrive at the most reasonable conclusions
about effective treatments. Even with complex, large-scale, double-blind, controlled clinical trials, the goal
always is both to increase our understanding of life processes and to demonstrate a difference in health
outcomes. NIH-supported studies of CAM share this approach. Yet, there is also interest in developing
other methods for testing effectiveness. For example, in Germany and elsewhere, efforts are being made
to collect and use carefully evidence of symptomatic and clinical improvement in patients with long-term
problems. Demonstrating well-documented alleviation of troublesome chronic symptoms, improved
function, and better quality of life in satisfied patients using CAM would interest both the CAM and
conventional medical communities.
In summary, CAM is being used by large numbers of people who derive benefits they have not received
from conventional medicine. NIH-sponsored research is exploring the underlying scientific mechanisms of
these approaches as well as their clinical efficacy. Medical students are being educated in the advantages
and disadvantages of CAM systems and modalities. This textbook has been crafted to serve the growing
communities of professionals who need thorough and accurate information about CAM. A majority of the
authors are MDs or PhDs who have taught in medical schools. Only time will tell how useful any new
textbook will be, but this goal is timely and the effort is to be commended.
Emotions and opinions range widely on the subject of CAM, yet at such times it is well to remember the
words of Thomas Jefferson: “We are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any
error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”
Robert Marston M.D.
Director, National Institutes of Health (1968–1973)
