Even 'Snake Oil' Can Help Patients Heal

By Manoj Jain
Tuesday, March 17, 2009; HE01

Our conference was being held over lunch, but Pat, a middle-aged health-care consultant, did not touch a bite of her food. When I asked if something was wrong, she revealed her lifelong battle with Crohn's disease, an inflammation of the bowels that causes diarrhea and abdominal pain.

I asked what her doctor advised. With some hesitation, she told me she was chiefly being treated by someone she called her "teacher," who helped her use her use qi gong, a Chinese system of breathing and energy exercise, to manage her illness.

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She also sees a conventional doctor. But I was struck that this woman, whose job involves ensuring that hospital practices are supported by scientific evidence, had chosen to consult a provider of alternative medicine.

"My teacher looks at me as a whole person," she explained. "He looks at my emotional state, not just my diseased state. . . . He empowers me on how to care for myself. . . . My doctor looks at me just as a disease."

As an MD with two decades of experience, I felt a sense of rebuke. Personally, I am not averse to alternative medicine. Though I was raised and educated in America, I was born in India, where treatments such as ayurveda and yoga originated and where they are perceived as an equivalent method of healing many illnesses. And I use meditation and massage as aids to relaxation.

I also recognized some truth in Pat's words.

In a critically ill patient, we conventional doctors figuratively dissect the body. The cardiologist manages the heart, the pulmonologist manages the lungs, the nephrologist manages the kidneys, and each treats the diseases inflicting our respective organs. When the organ is no longer diseased, we sign off the chart.

When there is time, I try to step back and address my patients as a whole and try to listen to their concerns, but I admit I've been known to refer to a patient as "the pneumonia in Room 5133" or to describe an emotional patient as "a bit squirrelly."

But I have no patience with alternative providers when they reach beyond their expertise or when they allow themselves to be misunderstood by the patient. I am too aware of the potential for disaster. A physician's assistant recently told me about a woman in her 30s with a prosthetic heart valve who had done well for years on blood-thinning medicine -- until her preacher/faith healer told her she was "cured." She discontinued her lifesaving medication. Within weeks, the PA said, a blood clot formed near her heart valve, shutting it down. She died in the operating room.

Tempting Advice

I've shared my skepticism with my parents, who are retired and spend the winters in India and summers in Boston....

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