Northport Wellness Center

By Robbie Woliver Originally Published in The Long Island Press - April 16, 2008

Eleanor, a Nassau County grandmother of seven, was suffering from many symptoms, ranging from severe depression to hair loss and insomnia. After going to countless doctors who prescribed drug after drug, her condition worsened. As a last-ditch effort, she went to a specialist in holistic nutrition, who administered a battery of allergy tests called skin endpoint titration. It turned out she was low on the neurohormone melatonin, and the "second" she was tested with it, her daughter says, Eleanor's yearlong intense suffering ended. Although he did nothing wrong, the doctor who treated her asked not to be named in this story, because his Upstate New York practice might attract the attention of a disapproving medical establishment. Eleanor says he saved her life. Where's the harm?

GREEN LIVING
You've come aboard: You're now part of the bandwagon. You've officially gone green. You make sure you're saving energy at home and recycle as if it were a religion. You even bought yourself a hybrid. You're making the world a safer, healthier place to live-but what about the body you inhabit?

Going green isn't just about separating paper from plastic: It's a holistic way of life. Take care of your home, the Earth's natural resources, and while you're at it, don't forget about your health.

"Health is a very green issue," says Kristine Blanche, a holistic health practitioner who owns Integrative Health Solutions in Manhasset. "It is green where it counts-you start with yourself. Help your personal environment."

More and more, conventional medicine isn't meeting the needs of an increasingly frustrated public. We're faced with a broken healthcare system-from how it approaches prevention to how it responds to illness. Costs are high, doctor appointments are shorter, diagnoses quicker, and fixes more generic.

Add to the current health system's ills a population that's becoming greener in its thinking. We want to lead healthier lifestyles, and up to one-half of the population has turned to alternative medicine in addition to their regular medical care, according to a 1993 New England Journal of Medicine report. And that was 15 years before the movement really got legs.

But the rest of the world is ahead of us in this area. In India, holistic therapies such as ayurveda, which includes therapeutic vomiting, are 5,000 years old. In Australia, where the Aborigines have practiced traditional medicine for centuries, $2 billion per year is spent on complementary medicine services. Recently, Australia allotted $1.7 million to establish three research centers to study complementary and alternative treatments. Another $5 million was earmarked there earlier to test the efficacy of herbal and alternative therapies.

In America, alternative medicine is thriving. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that the employment rate in alternative medicine will grow approximately 42 percent between 2004 and 2014. The number of licensed naturopathic physicians in the United States and Canada close to doubled between 2001 and 2006. And the U.S. chiropractic field is expected to grow 14 percent, and massage therapy 20 percent, from 2006 to 2016.

Taking a completely different approach to health than conventional medicine, alternative medicine has no boundaries. It mostly views the patient in a holistic way, combining what's happening in the body with what's going on with the mind and spirit. There's also a global, cross-cultural perspective-an open-minded approach to all possibilities.

At its best, alternative medicine embraces parts of conventional medicine, and serves as its complement, encouraging good science and proven testing-an argument many of its practitioners say is lacking in many aspects of conventional medicine. At its worst, it's often unregulated and attracts opportunists who prey on the vulnerabilities of the infirm. But that may be changing.

Alternative treatment is rapidly transforming itself from a fringe practice employed by kooks to a mainstream mindset, incorporated in programs at countless hospitals and medical practices across the country.

A Balancing Act
It's all about integration-our bodies need to be balanced. That makes sense, right? It should, but it's not the approach taken by the majority of physicians. Remember, most of our doctors were educated in conventional medicine, with a course of study that is organ-specific, not holistic. With our overburdened healthcare system, doctors don't often have time to take the whole body into consideration, let alone the patient's spiritual needs. They don't have the luxury to work on prevention. They mostly just work on addressing the symptoms. And therein lies one of the greatest problems alternative medical practitioners see with conventional medicine.

The body's natural tendency to repair itself is called homeostasis. The body is always attempting to maintain equilibrium. Symptoms are the result of the body trying to heal itself-a blister, bruise, cough, fever. A symptom can even be psychological-the rush of adrenaline from the common fight-or-flight response is a form of homeostasis.

Now, the problem is in which direction to go to help the body's need to repair itself. Do you take medication and eliminate those chills when illness strikes, or do you ride it out? Perhaps you build yourself up with vitamins and supplements. The decision is whether you want to ease the symptoms (have you had the flu?) with medications and suppress the natural defenses your body has, or if you want to let the body defend itself naturally, and build up your immune system so you aren't so susceptible to illness. But then, let's say you have a propensity toward having sniffles turn to bronchitis, which, for you, often turns to pneumonia. Antibiotics sound like a good choice at that point. What does one do? It's not easy sticking to nature's design. The conventional doctor's tendency is to suppress the symptoms of self-repair. The alternative practitioner wants you to let your body fight the problem its own way. See where the dilemma comes in?

One LI practitioner will throw that very dilemma straight back at you-no holds barred. Lawrence Palevsky, M.D., a pediatrician at Northport Wellness Center, will test a parent's very soul when it comes to treating their child. He's from the "ride it out" school, which can be challenging when your child's fever is spiking at 105.

Palevsky, a board-certified pediatrician who started his career as a conventional neonatal and intensive care physician, believes in non-suppressive treatments, and insists that if you practice the natural ways he preaches, you and your children will have no need for meds-you just won't get ill.

"Kids get sick to get well," he says. "I treat children, not numbers on a thermometer. Most illnesses are opportunities to get the body balanced and well."

William Mesibov, M.D., a Press columnist, and a pediatrician at the more-conventional KidFixers practice in Syosset, agrees. "You have to give the fever a chance to kill the infection," he explains. But he points out that "Fighting fever with medication is usually for the relief of the discomfort associated with high fevers."

Alternative medicine requires a leap of faith.
We well know what conventional medicine is and is not, but what do all these terms for what is broadly known as alternative medicine really mean? Many of those who practice "alternative" disciplines such as acupuncture, Reiki, homeopathy, etc., do not like the alternative label. (See sidebar on page 12.) They do not like playing second fiddle, being regarded as practicing "the other kind of medicine."

"I don't think of it as alternative," says Palevsky. "I practice holistic medicine using conventional medicine as an alternative."

The fact is, many of the treatments considered alternative in this country are standard practice in other countries. "What I sell in my store," says Ken Carlson, a Suffolk County nutritionist, "is very well accepted in countries like Germany or Japan, where doctors often prescribe it."

Let The Fights Begin
Many of these disciplines are, if nothing else, controversial. Even people within the field are concerned about the public's perception.

Doni Wilson, N.D., president of the New York Association of Naturopathic Physicians (NYANP), is concerned about how those in her field are viewed, and is working to create legislation in New York and other states that will allow the licensing of naturopaths (14 states license naturopaths, and in some states such as Vermont, naturopathy is covered by insurance). Wilson believes that licensing will raise the quality of those practicing. (New York legislation looks promising, says Wilson, pleased that the bill just passed in the State Senate committee and already has 60 sponsors in the Assembly.)

"In New York there is no license; anyone can call themselves naturopaths," complains Wilson, who must "consult" with clients in her home state of New York, but practices in Connecticut, where naturopaths are licensed.

"Naturopathy is like an umbrella," she says. "We search for the cause and address the underlying cause. Conversely, in conventional medicine, it's, 'We don't know the cause, but we're going to treat the symptom.'

"Teaching people to learn about what goes on in their body empowers them."

But the controversy goes beyond naturopaths. It's the spirit part of body-mind-spirit that turns many people off. Strange, considering a 2004 Fox News poll that reported that two-thirds of Americans pray once a day.

"It's the crystals, energy healing, past-life regression that I don't go for," says nutritionist Carlson, who is more concerned about irradiated food and diets that aren't optimum. "There are too many illegitimate practitioners," he says. "A lot of the stuff turns me off once it leaves the health realm and goes off into spirituality. That new-age stuff does damage to the real medical benefits of complementary medicine."

Don't tell that to Jennifer Howard, Ph.D., a holistic psychotherapist who has a conventional professional background but who also employs techniques from past-life regression to long-distance energy healing over the phone. "I don't limit my ways to help people," she explains. "I look at the whole person, and even what 'whole' means changes all the time. And it's all grounded in conventional psychotherapy."

Jennifer Staib, a Reiki master and holistic healing and wellness consultant, also teaches classes on therapeutic-grade essential oils at her Reiki Peace Center, located in her six-bedroom colonial home in Centerport. Don't dismiss her work either, she says. "Energy healing is real. It's based in quantum physics."

For her it's become a lifestyle. Her home's lower level has been converted to a tranquil space for her energy work. There's a Reiki table for clients to lie on, calming music and assorted energy-providing articles like crystals. There is a nook for her classes and TV area where alternative health-related movies are screened. In the back is a store that sells all sorts of new-age items.

Hers is a family affair. All five of Staib's children, aged 5 to 15, practice Reiki. "If my child broke an arm," she says, "we'd go to a conventional doctor. But to prevent illness and maintain our health we stick to things like Reiki and essential oils." Reiki is a powerful tool, she says. One client of hers was a woman who had severe mental problems. After nine months, the woman was able to get off all her psychiatric medications. Even the patient's psychiatrist started coming for treatments.

Stephen Barrett, M.D., based near Chapel Hill, N.C., is a retired psychiatrist who has spent much of his life searching out what he calls "quacks" and investigating statistical fraud. Let's say that Barrett is correct when he calls Reiki a "delusion." What's the harm in Staib or other practitioners providing comfort and hope to patients? "There is no harm," maintains Staib.

But sell that to those who think alternative medicine is a bunch of hogwash. The most vocal and controversial of the critics is Barrett. He's a lightning rod, called everything from a provocateur to a pharmaceutical-industry tool to a bully to just plain mean-spirited. He won't accept terms like "alternative," "holistic" or "complementary" medicine.

"Alternative medicine is a slogan, and not a branch of medicine," he spits out angrily. "It's a marketing term."

And Barrett has a laundry list:
"Acupuncture has not been demonstrated to have an impactful effectiveness whatsoever to any disease. None. Zero. Zilch," he insists. Quite an indictment, considering that acupuncture has been around since the Shang Dynasty in 1000 B.C. and is recognized by the World Health Organization.

"Research is voluminous," he says, "but most of the studies are of low quality. People doing it are not qualified in diagnoses or science."

So why are more and more conventional doctors and hospitals incorporating acupuncture? "There is no place for acupuncture to be used in a hospital setting," Barrett insists. "Their heads are filled with nonsense. [It's] snake-oil science. Noodleheads come out of acupuncture school."

Leong Lin, an acupuncture and Oriental medicine student at New York College of Health Professions in Syosset, might say Barrett himself was a noodlehead. Lin, whose father and uncle practiced acupuncture, says, "It's a better method of medicine because of its long history; it's a more complete process."

Barrett's disdain, however, doesn't end with acupuncture:

On herbal benefits: "There are no studies to confirm that."
Reiki: "Worthless. End of story." (The fact that Yale School of Medicine is offering Reiki elicits Barrett's "Yale goes quack.")
Chelation therapy: "It's the underworld of the medical profession. Every one of them should lose their license. They have defective characters and they should all be removed from practice."
Alternative doctors in general: "They should have their licenses taken away. They are liars and deluded. They are dishonest and I don't say this lightly."
Homeopathy: "Completely fake."
Vitamins: "There are few circumstances for which they would be beneficial."
Even the growing popularity of alternative medicine is in question with Barrett: "The concept that alternative medicine is driven by happy customers is absolutely false-that they are dissatisfied with medical care is false."

But here's what he does believe in:
Heavy-metal exposure isn't very common, nor dangerous; pharmaceuticals are better than dietary supplements; fluoride is good for children, as are all vaccines; mercury in dental amalgams isn't bad at all; there is no epidemic of overmedicating our kids. And these are just the ones he spoke with me about. His website has many, many more. "He's one part crackpot, two parts evil," says Tim Bolen, a California-based crisis management consultant who is being sued by Barrett for libel.

When it comes to the $118 billion business that is alternative health and the six-times that, which was the pharmaceutical industry's sales, it's hard to tell who is the crackpot and who isn't.

Ronald M. Davis, M.D., the American Medical Association (AMA) president, says, "Given the growing public interest in alternative therapies...patients should talk to their doctor about the potential harm that might result from choosing alternative therapies in place of, or in addition to, conventional medical treatment."

On the other side, where's any AMA statement asking doctors about the potential good of taking these vitamins or supplements in lieu of medicines, or for that matter, the potential harm of conventional medical treatment?

Burton Goldberg, in his book, Alternative Medicine, is one of many critics saying that pharmaceutical companies are a major source of AMA revenue. He says, in 2000, $15 billion was spent by pharmaceutical companies on marketing, which often includes perks for docs.

Pharamaceutical companies' profits are among the highest of any industry. For 2006, a National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation study revealed that the pharmacy industry had sales of more than $716 billion with more than 3.4 billion prescriptions being dispensed in this country. That's about 10 prescriptions per person. And that doesn't include the free samples doctors like to dole out like Halloween candy. You have a cough: Here's some Zithromax.

The American Psychiatric Association, another anti-alternative medicine organization, has also been criticized for being greatly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. It's been reported that up to 20 percent of its income comes from pharmaceutical advertisements in its journals.

"I don't want a free lunch or free tickets to a game, the things that these reps are offering," says Michael A. Solounias L.Ac., an acupuncturist from Huntington Station. "I want to help and heal people."

Science Fiction
It's inflexibility on both sides that muddies up the discussion. That's why the move toward the more open-minded complementary approach to medicine is so important. "There isn't anything I do that isn't based in science," says Palevsky. "It might be science that people don't want to pay attention to."

In fact, Palevsky says that it's the lack of good science in conventional medicine that turned him to holistic healing. "There's got to be better science in conventional medicine," he warns. "Safety studies are not up to scientific standards we learned in medical school. Biased conclusions don't meet up with scientific method."

Christopher Calapai, D.O., who runs a practice in East Meadow that focuses on natural medicine with a conventional bent, says, "It's ridiculous when anyone says that alternative medicine is unsafe and unproven. What about all the drugs that are approved by the FDA that are found to be unsafe and unproven after they kill thousands of people?"

Trasylol, for example, a drug approved in 1993 to minimize bleeding during heart surgery, ended up causing kidney failure and strokes. In November 2007-14 years and 22,000 deaths later-it was taken off the market. Celebrex, Vyoxx, you've probably heard about them all as well. So much for good science.

And vaccines?
"It is not clear to me that vaccines are sufficiently tested for safety," says Robert Krakow, the parent of a child negatively affected by vaccines. Krakow is a lawyer who represents families in neuro-developmental disorders (including autism)/vaccine court cases.

"No one's testing what effect they have on each other. Also their effectiveness is in doubt."

Krakow recently handled a case for a healthy healthcare worker who was given a series of hepatitis vaccines required for a new job. By the third vaccine she had developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder that he says has left her institutionalized. "Vaccines are very troubling," Krakow says. Every alternative medical practitioner interviewed for this story agreed with his statement.

And don't get Calapai started on how doctors typically treat high blood pressure. "Low magnesium and potassium cause high blood pressure," he explains. "Doctors will put patients on a blood pressure medication that is a diuretic, which depletes magnesium and potassium. Their blood pressure doesn't get better, so they're put on a second pill, often in conjunction with the first dangerous pill."

Calapai, who is an osteopath, and his peers would address that patient in a different way. They'd work first on supplementing the potassium and magnesium and get the patient on a healthy diet and exercise plan. If the blood pressure were dangerously high, though, even Calapai would prescribe medication for the patient to take for the week, while lab tests were being processed and lifestyle changes were implemented. "Talk about bad science," complains Calapai. "There's no doctor in the world who's able to oversee all these medications and their side effects, and the effects they have on each other."

As with Calapai, many alternative doctors utilize their earlier conventional medical backgrounds as a basis for what they currently do.

"I find practicing holistic medicine safer on a day-to-day basis," says Palevsky. "Bodies have the innate capacity to heal. It's better than using drugs or pharmaceuticals. I still use my medical doctor's eyes, ears and senses."

It's an amazing argument when you're standing on the outside looking in. Both sides have similar gripes about why the other side's not working. Alternative practitioners accuse conventional doctors of working with flawed studies and a narrow focus. Conventional doctors say the same about their counterparts.

Who is right? It seems as if they both are...at times.

"You can find a study to say anything you want," says Blanche, who has a conventional health background in emergency medicine.

Scientific studies are flawed on both sides of the argument. While conventional medicine might have more studies, look who funds much of that: According to the New England Journal of Medicine, up to two-thirds of studies are funded fully or partially by pharmaceutical companies. On the other hand, much of what's out there about alternative medicine is anecdotal, and there are far fewer studies available. How does one decide what is best for them?

It's simple, says Carlson, the expert on natural health: "The proof is in the pudding. How do you feel? How in the world can being on an optimal diet and taking the right vitamins and supplements be bad for you?"

Most alternative doctors would suggest that you try everything and anything that might help, and not exclude any possibilities: Take the best of both worlds.

Integrative's Blanche says it best: "If you're hit by a bus tomorrow, my kind of medicine is not going to help you. But my kind of medicine will help you in so many other ways that conventional medicine can't."

That's where complementary medicine comes in.

How It Could Be
Let me guess what your doctor's office is like. You sit there gnashing your teeth for an hour in the waiting room, while you watch the clock ticking away your precious time. Your doctor is already an hour late for your appointment, and then you have to sit for at least another 10 minutes in the cold, bleak examining room, waiting for the doctor to finally see you. (My personal record was a three-hour wait for a specialist.) The white-coated doctor arrives at your side, offers no apologies for being late, and straps a blood pressure cuff around your arm as you're ready to explode from anger and frustration after being kept waiting so long. Of course, your pressure is through the roof. Take some pills.

The doctor then writes out a prescription for what ails you, or if you're lucky, provides you with samples from the salesman he or she met with while keeping you waiting. There is very little time to get into alternatives to taking meds or to the course of treatment the doctor suggests. Your symptoms are addressed, but not your body as a whole.

Practices like Calapai's, Blanche's and Palevsky's are different.

At Northport Wellness, the healing starts in the waiting room; it smells great (aromatherapy even before the visit even starts). The wait is usually shorter, examining rooms are earth-toned and filled with art, crystals and a nurturing feel.

Palvesky and his partner, chiropractor Alan Sherr, D.C., wear street clothes and spend ample time with you, gathering a complete physical and spiritual history. You have a menu of services in the other parts of their whole: the chiropractic room, Oriental medicine and acupuncture treatment rooms, digital X-rays, physical therapy gym, thermography room (breast exam without radiation), and a shrink. A 10,000-square-foot virtual mall for the body, mind and spirit; alternative and conventional-all taken care of under one roof.

Palevsky says that when he was a pediatric ER doctor, he tired of the endless cycle of administering antibiotics for ear infections. "I started looking at the literature," he recalls. "Most of these kids would be fine if you just leave them alone. They were not consistent with infection. They were consistent with lazy doctoring. It was just the accepted way to practice that's become law, and literature supports it."

At his practice, Palevsky says, they "do not treat symptoms, but rather what contributes to the symptoms. What is out of balance? Why does the child have circles under their eyes, dry skin? I'm interested in the child in terms of diet, intestinal habits and what foods are contributing to the problem. How is the child's handwriting? Everything is connected-the immune, digestive, nervous, and endocrine systems. It is looking at the child from the whole picture.

"What is in the way of that child getting better? I'm peeling it layer by layer. Skin creams, dye in shampoos, stress, heavy metals, vaccines, toxic air, poor sleeping habits all contribute. I have to play detective and the challenge is to allow the parents to let them get sick."

This might sound easier than it is. Times can be very trying when following some of Palevsky's very strict rules.

But he gets results: One patient, a 4-year-old, had significant speech and learning disabilities. Palevsky kept the boy off antibiotics even though the child had a very high fever and flu-like symptoms. According to the child's mother, her son is now "regular." "The fever burnt out the child's toxicity in his nervous system, which began to function normally," explains Palevsky. "I have never seen it not work."

Palevsky will suggest conventional medicine when he sees a need; he's not completely against it. "When I see an emergency, I can wear a different hat." Sherr agrees, "This work is personal to me. It's about fixing people and not the modality. We are right in the middle."

Northport Wellness has become an oasis of sorts with parents whose kids are on the autism spectrum-400 of them, in fact, says Sherr. "These kids can't be 'cured,'" he says, "but we can change their lives for the better and improve their functioning. Our interest is to balance them and help support their immune system. These kids are being born in a very toxic world with parents who are immune deficient themselves.

"We look at people differently here. We start you off healthy here; in conventional medicine, you start off sick."

At Blanche's Integrative Health Solutions, instead of examining rooms being numbered 1, 2, 3 or 4, they are called "harmony," "radiance," "vitality" and "serenity." And Blanche herself radiates all four of those states.

Natural detoxification is a goal here, and Integrative's patients are offered many services: acupuncture, massage, intravenous nutrient therapy, chelation therapy, sauna, hydrotherapy, art therapy, reflexology, craniosacral massage, aromatherapy, Reiki and the ever-popular colon hydrotherapy/cleansing (I know, I know). "We're the opposite of the sterile office filled with white coats," she says. "We try not to keep patients waiting and we spend a lot of time with them. Keeping patients stress-free is very important."

The initial consultation is two and one-half hours. Comprehensive blood work is ordered. "We work as a team, including the patient, and look at data and come up with a plan," Blanche explains. "We also speak with the primary care physician."
A lot of what alternative practitioners work with is lifestyle changes. Exercise, for example, has been proven to save lives. Eating more healthy foods is essential, says Blanche. "What we see is a lot of cancer, chronic obesity, people are very toxic, they feel terrible. Simple things like [taking] cilantro and vitamin D can make a big difference in our health," she says. "One of our jobs," she adds, "is to prevent illness before it happens. A lot of what we do here is educating."

That seems to make sense.
Integrative, like so many other alternative practices, does not always get medical insurance reimbursement. But Blanche bills insurance companies anyway. "We want to be in their face, to let them know patients are coming for these alternative treatments and they should be reimbursed," she says.

"We have to show these insurance companies that people are getting better from this type of health service." One such patient was a woman diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, whose symptoms disappeared after her detoxification, says Blanche. And then there's the accountant who was debilitated by digestive problems, and after undergoing Blanche's nutrition program, she says, "He has no symptoms. And that's through the tax season!"

Calapai's office, C.C. Medical Services, is another good example of complementary medicine. The difference between this office and the typical doctor's office is simple, he says: "They [conventional doctors] try to keep people on medication. I try to get them off it."

Through his practice, he recommends several standard procedures (bloodwork, MRIs, etc.) and you'll find many forms of alternative medicine, from diet and exercise to vitamins and supplements. He also provides chelation therapy and prolotherapy, which are administered in two open rooms filled with two dozen chairs, each with its own IV pole. The objective of his practice, he says, is "Keep the patient healthy. First, learn what's wrong [through comprehensive nutritional testing]. We test everyone's vitamin and mineral levels. These deficiencies are all linked to disease. We then create a new diet and lifestyle program. And then add more to optimize."

Calapai offers this advice: "Take charge of your body, don't wait for disease to take charge of your health. Alternative medicine is an excellent adjunct to tried-and-true, reproducible, reliable physical exams. It is safe and especially effective."

One indicator that the times are changing is the North Shore-LIJ Health System, where Deborah McElligott, R.N., N.P., works as the clinical coordinator for complementary and alternative medicine services, at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) in Manhasset. McElligott, a licensed holistic nurse practitioner, has helped start the collaborative caring model program for the sprawling hospital system, providing massage, reflexology, imagery, Reiki and energy healing, yoga, therapeutic touch, aromatherapy, and art, music and pet therapy. It even offers spa services to families of patients, for a fee.

In the palliative care unit for the chronic or terminally ill, soothing music plays, walls are painted in earth tones, and there is an enclosed waterfall.

Within the past month, an acupuncturist has been credentialed to work at NSUH. McElligott, who started off in conventional medicine in the cardiac care unit, moved to holistic healing four years ago. The doctors, she says, have been "incredibly supportive," and were the main reason she was able to start the complementary care services at the hospital.

"Usually I see people with a lot of pain, anxiety, or end-of-life [issues]. The modalities we use most are foot reflexology, imagery, massage and Reiki." She recommends only therapies that patients are open to. For example, she will not suggest Reiki unless a patient requests it. And more and more patients are requesting these types of therapies, she says.

She has also initiated similar services for staff, because she sees the hospital's employees in a holistic way, the same as she views her patients. Each part has to be addressed, and be healthy. For staff, there's everything from yoga and tai chi to massage and energy healing. Everyone who works in the hospital, she says, is now required to undergo an eight-hour class on holistic healthcare. In August, the center is hosting the World Laughter Tour, to teach the staff about the benefits of therapeutic laughter.

McElligott uses what the patient is most familiar with, since they usually forget their normal coping skills while stressed out in the hospital. For example, she says, one patient told her, "I go to church and pray all the time." McElligott asked her, "Have you used prayer in the hospital?" She finds that she often tries one therapy and the patient is so pleased with it, they ask her, "What else do you do?"

This type of care is being introduced in hospitals all over the Island, and around the nation. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan uses Reiki. The Institute for Health and Healing at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis received $2 million in private funding and has 15 holistic practitioners on staff. At Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, patients get to decorate their own rooms.
This is how medicine is supposed to be.

It's All In Your Mind
State of mind plays a big part in how we feel. Many studies have shown that. Even Barrett, the super-critic of alternative medicine, says that the mindset of patients is important, but for very different reasons. He says that alternative medical personnel are "brainwashing" the public. "Regardless of any benefit, the patients have been mentally damaged to the extent that they believe that nutty treatments are effective."

It's easy to see his point when you hear terms like therapeutic vomiting, sweat therapy, herbal inhalation, therapeutic enemas, bloodletting, behavioral ophthalmology and nasal massage. Then again, talk to the millions of people who swear by these therapies, some of which are thousands of years old.

No place is as nerve-wracking as a dentist's office, and even there, changes are afoot. Holistic dentists use soothing music, filtered water and mercury-free fillings, and they conduct blood tests to see what compounds best agree with your body.

From psychiatry to dentistry, with every discipline in between, people are looking for new ways to get, and stay, healthy.

Whose science should we believe? The "facts" from scientific studies change every day. Drinking eight glasses of water-once considered essential-recently was reported as a possible health risk. CAT scans, once regarded as safe, are now being called potentially dangerous. Drugs and health supplements that they tell us are good for us can end up killing us.

It's hard not to be at least curious, however, when Palevsky-a doctor with a background in both worlds-says about his patients, "I've seen miracles happen."

New-Rage Medicine