Why New Age Medicine Is Catching On

You have a backache. (Who doesn't?) Your spouse says go to the doctor, but you don't really have a doctor. The local hospital has a walk-in clinic, but that means waiting, X rays, blood tests, waiting again -- this time in a backless paper dress -- only to be handed a bunch of insurance forms and a prescription for pills that make you logy. Your back still hurts, so you're referred to a fancy specialist. More X rays. More insurance forms. More waiting in a backless paper gown, followed by talk of disk surgery from a doctor who looks as if his back hurts. It sounds awful, and next comes the final insult, the letter from your insurance company: "See rejection code."

Then your friend at work says his wife had acupuncture for her tennis elbow, and it worked. Or he knows a chiropractor who does wonders with sore backs. Or your sister-in-law comes back from the health-food store with the name of a woman who does shiatsu. "Is that the raw fish or the seaweed?" you ask, laughing very carefully so as not to jiggle your back.

Or let's say your problems are larger and darker. You have inoperable cancer. You are depressed and frightened. You ask your oncologist whether you should stop smoking or change your diet. He shrugs and looks glum. "If you want to," he says, "but at this point it probably doesn't matter."

So, you wonder, if the doctor has written you off, where on earth can you turn?

If you are like millions of other Americans, you may find yourself at the doorstep of a homeopathic doctor or a "guided imagery" therapist or a chiropractor or any of the other innumerable practitioners of "alternative medicine." Some of these alternatives, like acupuncture or shiatsu massage, are rooted in ancient Asian healing traditions. Others, like crystal healing and bioenergetics, were born in the New Age (i.e., rooted in the ether over California). Many alternative therapies assume that mind and body are subtly interlocked and influence each other powerfully. In terms of credibility, they run the gamut from the generally accepted -- acupuncture for pain relief; to the plausible -- inhaling eucalyptus to open the sinuses (aromatherapy); to the frankly bizarre -- having the middle of your right foot manipulated to improve your liver function (reflexology).

Although a number of alternative techniques are widely accepted in Europe, American physicians generally take a skeptical view. But that hasn't stopped the treatments from gaining popularity. A TIME/CNN poll by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman found that about 30% of people questioned have tried some form of unconventional therapy, half of them within the past year.