Essentials of. Complementary and. Alternative. Medicine eBook-een

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 

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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 

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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 

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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 physici ans. 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 conc epts 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 su ccessful 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 

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