Natural Cures: Worth Embracing

Get ready to turn over a new leaf when it comes to your health. Record numbers of doctors are using nondrug treatments for PMS, allergies, anxiety and more.

Think back just five years. Could you imagine having an ob/gyn who treated labor pain with hypnosis or an internist who prescribed meditation instead of medication? Maybe in some alternate, alternative universe. Today it can be tough to find a schooled-in-hard-science physician who doesn't also prescribe or practice some form of nontraditional therapy. Almost half of American doctors recommend complementary and alternative remedies to patients, and nearly a quarter use them personally, according to a recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine . What's behind the about-face? "Patients are demanding it and doctors have to respond," says Daniel Handel, M.D., staff clinician at the Pain and Palliative Care Service at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Plus, a growing foundation of studies shows many nonconventional treatments do indeed work. So if you've been wondering which cures you should try, take a cue from your physician and consider one of these doctor-approved pill-free favorites.

HYPNOTHERAPY

When you think of hypnosis, does the picture of a swinging pocket watch pop into your head? You've been watching too much SciFi Channel. The fact is, with hypnosis, you don't "go under" and, happily, no one will make you cluck like a chicken. "Hypnosis is purely a state of focused and directed relaxation," explains Suzanne Little, Ph.D., coordinator of the Mind/Body Program at the Center for Health and Healing at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.

MOST COMMON USES Labor pain reduction, smoking cessation, relief of sleep and eating disorders

SURPRISE! IT CAN ALSO TREAT chronic pelvic pain. Hypnotized women can use breathing techniques to tune in to their pain and then learn strategies to distract themselves from it, such as shifting their focus to another body part that isn't hurting. The relaxation response that hypnosis induces also has powerful physiological effects: According to Little, studies have shown the state causes changes in immune function and helps ward off pain.

Whether you use hypnosis for pain relief or to break a habit like smoking, the process is basically the same. During a typical session, you sit or lie down while the therapist talks you through calming exercises until your awareness is narrowly focused on one thought, sound or impression, says Dr. Handel. Then the practitioner suggests how to make changes in your thoughts or perceptions to help solve your particular problem. For instance, if you're trying to quit smoking, she might say, "Tobacco is a poison...you no longer want cigarettes." Throughout the session, she'll continue guiding you and repeating various statements about your problem. Being in a hypnotic state allows you to accept her statements more readily, which helps you act on them when you return to normal consciousness.

Dr. Handel was a resident in family practice when he witnessed a cancer patient have colon surgery with hypnosis as the only anesthetic. He began using it successfully in his practice to treat patients with chronic pain 20 years ago, despite skepticism from some of his peers. Then he tried it himself. "I had had two wisdom teeth removed and the pain and swelling were so bad, I waited nine years to have the other two taken out," he says. "When I finally did, a psychologist hypnotized me beforehand. I felt a rather strong pressure inside my mouth during the extraction, but at no time did I experience pain or anything intensely unpleasant. I didn't even need anesthetic." Dr. Handel is now working with the NIH to uncover how hypnosis could be used to alleviate problems such as nausea and anxiety in people who undergo operations.

READY TO TRY IT? Most states don't require professional board certification for hypnotherapy practitioners. To find someone reputable, seek a psychological or medical professional who is trained to treat your condition and is a member of one of these professional organizations: the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (www.asch.net), the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (http://sunsite.utk.edu/IJCEH/scehframe.htm) or the Society of Psychological Hypnosis (www.apa.org/divisions/div30).

Manipulating the body's "energy pathways" with hair-thin needles—as esoteric as that sounds—is easily the most well-respected complementary therapy in this country. Even NIH researchers, America's medical standard-bearers, say there's plenty of evidence that acupuncture works (much of it in the more than 2,300 studies conducted on the technique).

MOST COMMON USES Back pain, asthma and headaches

SURPRISE! IT CAN ALSO TREAT bladder problems. One study found that after several treatments, women who had three or more urinary tract infections in a year all experienced less pain and fewer recurrences. Plan on 6 to 10 visits before seeing results, however. Acupuncture may not be the quickest fix, but that's not stopping M.D.s from getting trained. In 1990, the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture in Los Angeles had 200 members. Today it has more than 2,000.

As small as the needles are, acupuncture isn't always painless. It's usually not awful, just a dull ache. But it's the action behind the ache that counts: The needle, placed at key points on the body, is thought to stimulate the release of chemicals and balance energy flow (or qi ), says Marshall H. Sager, D.O., president of the AAMA. Charles May, M.D., a family physician in Cleveland, finds the therapy soothing and has sought treatment for muscle injuries, even bronchitis and the flu: "I didn't know what to expect my first time, but I found it incredibly relaxing, and there was minimal discomfort."

READY TO TRY IT? Look for physicians who are members of the AAMA (www.medicalacupuncture.org) or practitioners certified by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (www.nccaom.org). The benefit of a medical acupuncturist? She's qualified to rule out problems that may need a faster fix.