Alternative and non-alternative medical practices can complement each other. At least that's the view of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which recently set up an "Office of Alternative Medicine" to examine the merits of unorthodox research -- everything from homeopathy to hypnosis, from acupuncture to ozone therapy.
For the consumer, alternative medicine is already an effective route to recovery. A study published last January in the New England Journal of Medicine found that as many as one in three Americans are trying alternative remedies -- a total of $14 billion each year.
"Alternative practitioners may be less invasive, cheaper, and they may take a more realistic approach (to treatment)," says Dr. Joseph J. Jacobs, the director of the NIH's new office. "Our job is to clarify how effective these treatments are."
One of the most promising new alternative therapies, according to the NIH, is shark cartilage. Because studies on sharks have demonstrated the ocean predator's natural resistance to cancer, scientists may be able to use their cartilage to stunt tumor growth in human cancer victims.
Other untried but apparently true therapies: Bee pollen as a possible treatment for asthma and allergies; and ozone gas, which if introduced into the bloodstream can help fight disease.
Jacobs, whose mother was a full-blooded Mohawk and whose father was part Cherokee, is no stranger to the world of alternative healing.
He'll no doubt draw on that knowledge when making decisions about how to distribute the office's $2 million budget. One-quarter of the budget will be doled out to "collaboration-minded" alternative medicine researchers this month (September 30) in the form of small seed grants.
Pressure to perform is hitting Jacobs from all corners. As a result, Jacobs is taking great care to insure that the office isn't pushed into any action without some rational basis.
"I'm turned off by the idea of cures immediately," says Jacobs. "When I hear that word, my defenses go up. Our challenge is to get people in the alternative medicine community away from the panacea notion and to be more realistic about what they're trying to say."
Health policy watchers say the efforts put forth by Jacobs' under the auspices of the NIH's new office represent an ongoing paradigm shift in health care. "In a couple of years, the word alternative will have a different meaning," notes Janet Smith, president of the National Wellness Coalition, "because alternative [medicine] is becoming mainstream."
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