Alternative Medicine

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Dr. Stephen Barrett bought a little green box that plugs into the wall and pumps out miracles. When a sick person grips an electrode, the gizmo figures out which organ is failing and which homeopathic potion will fix it.That is, at least, the general idea."

WASHINGTON -- Congress has given the orthodox medical establishment $50 million to sort out the claims, mysteries and realities of "alternative medicine." That's the term for a melange of potions and treatments that includes massage and acupuncture, as well as shark's cartilage for cancer and St. John's Wort, a low-octane anti-depressant for sale without prescription.Unfortunately, the congressional generosity is misbegotten since the money was entrusted to the National Institutes of Health, where the management rates alternative medicine as synonymous with quack medicine.

WASHINGTON -- Medical science is making discoveries unimagined only five years ago. And just as it makes its greatest strides, American patients by the millions are giving up on medical science.Consider some recent headlines. AIDS is not yet cured, but powerful new drugs hold the hope of transforming this terminal disease into a chronic illness. Cancer mortality rates are dropping (thanks to less smoking and earlier diagnosis), while science is closing in on the causes of cancer at the genetic and molecular levels.

In a room off the bustling corridors at St. Joseph Medical Center, a dozen doctors sit quietly eating shrimp-and-pasta salad as a videotape rolls: an introduction to acupuncture.The doctors are learning about the hospital's new Center for Health Enhancement, a mini-clinic in a nearby office park that offers acupuncture, yoga, massage therapy, biofeedback, aroma- and hypnotherapies and tai chi classes -- as well as a stress-soothing fish tank in the waiting room."We treat patients' problems from a holistic approach," Dr. Sukk Hahn, an M.D. and licensed acupuncturist, tells the hospital physicians.

The return of "ER"? Praise the lord and turn on the TV. Stat!"High Incident" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- What to do about illegal aliens is tonight's theme, as a traffic accident reveals an illegal immigrant smuggling ring. Marsh (David Keith) is accused of brutalizing one of them, while Mike and Jesse (Blair Underwood and Lisa Vidal) debate the philosophical side. ABC."Friends" (8 p.m.-8: 30 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11) -- Ross (David Schwimmer) wants everybody to attend his black-tie museum benefit, but Monica (Courteney Cox)

Mary Marzullo, a certified natural health practitioner, believes people should have a choice in their health care. That's why she is organizing an Alternative Medicine Day at Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers' Market Saturday."

Bethesda -- Can herbs cure warts? Does powdered shark cartilage help cancer? Can music help brain injuries, or acupuncture relieve arthritis?These are questions that most of the conventional medical world would have ridiculed until just recently. Some experts still do.But now they are being seriously investigated and in some cases, funded by the National Institutes of Health, through its fledging Office of Alternative Medicine.Founded in January 1992, the office has faced charges of disorganization, ineptitude and a confused scientific mission.

Looking for information about health and fitness topics? You might find what you're looking for in stories from Sun on Demand.Each story, which has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, is $2.95 plus tax. Call (410) 332-6800. Ask for the article by its code.Alternative medicine, 6301Alzheimer's, 6309Breast cancer amongAfrican-Americans, 6316Ear infections, 6307Incontinence, 6304Menopause, 6303Prostate health, 6313Sleep apnea, 6312

Perhaps it was inevitable that the first director of the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health would find the pressures of the job untenable. Hampered by a minuscule $2 million budget, caught between the enthusiasm of ardent believers in various alternative methods of treatment and the strict demands and glacial pace of traditional scientific investigations, Dr. Joseph Jacobs announced this week that he would return to his Connecticut home and to other medical pursuits.

The music of the Washington Strings, a favorite at White House dinners, set the stage for the gala 80th birthday party for one of the world's best-known vintners, Robert Mondavi.Believe it or not, the celebration took place at the Baltimore National Aquarium, where Mr. Mondavi and his daughter, Marcie, joined members of the newly founded Maryland Chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food for a delightful evening. Mondavi and his friend Julia Child are the founders of this international organization.

Britain to withdraw most troops from Iraq BAGHDAD: Britain announced yesterday that it will withdraw all but a few hundred of its 4,000 soldiers from Iraq by next June, ending a mission that was unpopular at home and failed to curb the rise of Iranian-backed Shiite militias in the south. The decision comes as the U.S. weighs a drawdown in its nearly 150,000-strong force. President-elect Barack Obama has called for withdrawing all combat troops from Iraq by spring 2010, shifting responsibility to the Iraqis for the defense of the country against Sunni and Shiite extremists.

Beyond its topical use, the outer part of the aloe leaf (the green part, or rind, of the leaf) produces a juice or dried substance called latex, which contains compounds that make for a natural laxative. Products made with various components of aloe used to be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as oral over-the-counter laxatives. In 2002, however, the FDA required these products be removed from the market or reformulated because of insufficient safety information from manufacturers.

R. Barker Bausell says he arrived at the University of Maryland's alternative medicine center with an open mind toward exploring the potential of acupuncture, herbal remedies and other unconventional treatments. But after five years as research director, he quit the Center for Integrative Medicine in 2004, convinced of one thing: None of the alternative treatments he has seen works any better than a placebo. "They can go on forever" conducting studies, Bausell said recently in his office at UM's School of Nursing, where he is a professor.

Kim Holland's biker-chick days were over not long after they began, with the 46-year-old smashed between her Harley and a guardrail in Elkridge, and a bystander saving her right leg by taking off his belt and making it into a tourniquet before paramedics rushed her to the hospital. A week after she arrived at the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center - a week filled with operations and skin grafts, narcotics by pill and by pump - she lay in bed. The lights down low, soft music playing to drown out the buzzing and beeping and ringing that make up a hospital's soundtrack, two women slowly waved their arms over Holland's broken body, as if trying to push away the pain.

The graduation ceremony was a little out of the ordinary. Chants of ai-ya, ai-ya echoed through the Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School as Diane Connelly, chancellor of Tai Sophia Institute, attempted to regain the audience's attention. Not that this was an unruly crowd: Unlike many graduations Howard County has seen, this one was free of beach balls, air horns or heckling. Instead, audience members were urged to introduce themselves to one another, and Connelly asked grandparents, parents, spouses and children of the graduates to stand up and be recognized for their contributions to the success of the 48 new alumni.

One of the many perks of writing about health is that you end up with a terrific collection of books. A decade ago, most of the tomes on my groaning shelves were the traditional sort - biology textbooks, medical dictionaries, pharmaceutical references and the like. Lately, thanks to a deluge of new titles, I've got an impressive library of books on alternative and complementary medicine, as well. Some are so dense and soporific that I wouldn't recommend them to any but the most determined reader.

Americans spend an estimated $20 billion a year on dietary supplements and "natural" remedies. Many of us are blissfully - even willfully - ignorant of the medicinal value, or lack thereof, in these products. It's not entirely our fault that we buy this stuff so blindly. In 1994, Congress limited the power of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate supplements and herbal medicines, which are allowed to get - and stay - on the market unless clear evidence of harm is found. We have been left largely to our own devices to figure out which alternative remedies work, and are safe, and which are pure snake oil. Happily, a few reasonably trustworthy Web sites have sprung up enabling consumers to evaluate how much credible research there is (or isn't)

Suffering from multiple sclerosis, Cynthia Crowner sees her neurologist and physiatrist regularly. But the 57-year-old Annapolis resident also pays regular visits to a spacious examining room on the wooded campus of the University of Maryland's Kernan Hospital near Dickeyville. There she discusses her degenerative nerve disease with Dr. Brian Berman, a family medicine professor who runs the university's Center for Integrative Medicine. Satisfied that Berman has heard her out, Crowner leaves with a bottle of homeopathic pills and advice to add seaweed to her diet.

Alternative therapies ranging from Chinese herbs to high-dose vitamins and dietary supplements should be more rigorously tested to ensure that they're safe and actually work, a national panel of experts said yesterday. With more than a third of Americans reporting that they try alternative treatments, a panel convened by the Institute of Medicine said the remedies should be held to the same standards as conventional therapies. The group, however, did not report that many people are being harmed by the products.

Dr. John T. Chissell, a retired Baltimore physician whose own blood pressure condition sparked an interest in the benefits of alternative medicine, died of undetermined causes Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. The Forest Park resident, who was 77, had traveled to Nashville to attend the 50th anniversary reunion of his Meharry Medical College class. He was found dead in his hotel room. The cause of death was being investigated by the Nashville coroner, family members said. Dr. Chissell was born in Charlottesville, Va., the son of a physician, and raised in Alexandria, Va. He earned a degree in biology in 1950 from Virginia State College in Petersburg.