For her, alternative medicine better than traditional ways
Thank you for the article about alternative medicine (''Patients reaching out for healing touch," Globe North, Oct. 27), and your request for reader response. I was first diagnosed with arthritis about 25 years ago. Since then I have used diet and exercise, herbal supplements, and treatment by acupuncturists and chiropractors to control pain and deter deterioration of cartilage. I also visit a primary care physician once a year and have been seen by orthopedists.
About five or six years ago, when my primary care physician first prescribed Vioxx and Celebrex, I told her I didn't want to take prescription medicine because I feared the side effects. When I moved to the North Shore two years ago, my new primary care physician also suggested these drugs, and I refused to take them. I'm obviously glad I made that decision.
Instead, I visit an acupuncturist once a month and a chiropractor twice a week. I would go to the acupuncturist more frequently, but insurance does not cover the treatments. In the weeks immediately following acupuncture, I feel much better and the pain in my joints diminishes. By the third week, that pain increases and by the fourth week I am eagerly looking forward to the next treatment.
I feel very fortunate to have discovered alternative medicine, incredibly lucky that my acupuncturist has an office two blocks from our house, and that my chiropractor's office is a block and a half away. Still, recognition by insurance companies that alternative medicine works and reduces the need for more expensive treatments, resulting in lower premiums or coverage for alternative care, would be very welcome. Only a few practitioners of alternative medicine seem to be in the pool of approved doctors, and the burden of paperwork seems to deter many, including the two I see, from participating in insurance programs.
I also recommend that non-alternative physicians learn about the benefits of alternative medicine and that being proactive about our health keeps us healthier longer, which minimizes the need for more expensive and invasive treatment. I was amazed, for example, to discover that my new primary care physician, who practices in a clinic three blocks from our house, had no idea there is a chiropractor and acupuncturist so close by.
Better communication between practitioners of the different forms of medicine would be very helpful to me as I might be able to get a prescription for alternative care, but it would also help reduce the costs of keeping people healthy, which would in turn reduce the costs of medical care.
We can no longer afford medical care based on intervention after the fact of illness. We must support alternative approaches that seek to change lifestyles and prolong health, thereby preventing illness and reducing the high costs of medicine we all bear.
BARBARA KENT LAWRENCE South Hamilton 
