Alternative medicine touted at conference

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Growing number of patients seek nontraditional treatments for ailments from anxiety to back pain
By IN-SUNG YOOThe News Journal
03/19/2006
When it comes to alternative medicine, many patients and doctors don't know where to start.
Despite an increase in the number of people seeking alternative and complementary forms of medicine, the wide range of therapies and sometimes questionable effectiveness of such approaches can leave people's heads spinning with questions. That's why Marie McCaffrey, creator of the alternative medicine Web site www.altmedangel.com, organized Saturday's first Delaware Conference on Alternative Medicine, held at the Center on the Riverfront.
The conference brought together alternative health providers and speakers who discussed anxiety, depression, cancer, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, eye health and herbs.

"It's really about empowerment," McCaffrey said. "I hope people can walk away from this with whatever they need to learn to be able to start a discussion about what they learned with their doctors. And hopefully, they can teach their doctor something."
Conference participant Nicole Rohloff said she knows the benefit of keeping an open mind.
After a car accident two years ago left the 27-year-old Bear resident with lower back pain, physical therapy and massage weren't enough to manage her pain. Then a friend recommended she see a chiropractor. Skeptical at first, Rohloff said she has seen a big difference in just a few months of chiropractic therapy. She came to the conference to feed her fast-growing curiosity in the world of alternative medicine, she said.
"I just want to get as much information as I can on areas of alternative medicine that I'm not as familiar with," said Rohloff, who, along with husband James, 33, is transitioning to an organic diet.
Many are becoming wary of reliance on drugs for treatment of health concerns, said Michelle Madden of Alternative Connections Inc., who was presenting information on the Interactive Metronome, a computer program used as a drug-free alternative to treating conditions like ADHD, cerebral palsy and stroke. The program teaches people to keep time to a computer-generated beat to improve coordination, attention and language processing.
Deborah Lindinger, 56, of Newark, has found using magnetic insoles in her shoes has "taken the edge off" her arthritis, she said. She also sees a nutritionist and lowered her cholesterol from 205 to 159 with a diet of non-processed foods. While she feels awareness of alternative medicine is growing, more people need to stop relying on drugs, she said.
"It's coming, but most people want the easy way out," she said. "They want to take a pill and they don't want to be bothered with what you need to do to get healthier."
Interest in conferences like Saturday's attests to dissatisfaction with traditional medicine, said Burton Goldberg, author of "Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide," who spoke at the event. When it comes to preventing illness, alternative medicine is superior because "the concept is to go to the cause of disease," he said.
"In conventional medicine, you can't beat the emergency room and trauma," Goldberg said. "They sew you up, they take away your pain and they keep you alive. But in degenerative disease, they're drug pushers."
Doctors are more open to the idea of integrating less-traditional forms of medicine into treatment these days, but it is often up to the patient to initiate the conversation, Goldberg said.
"Conventional medicine only goes to alternative medicine when the population demands it, kicking and screaming," he said.