Stacy Brindise, 30, was eager to have children. But after trying for several years to conceive, she and her husband, Mike, were still childless. Like millions of couples, the Brindises were faced with what doctors refer to as “unexplained infertility.” Couples diagnosed with unexplained infertility are typically active, health-conscious people of childbearing age who find themselves—for no apparent reason—without a crib or a bottle in the house. Like many, the Brindises followed a familiar route, first consulting doctors who recommended hormone treatment, which Stacy reluctantly decided to try.
The arduous six-cycle program involved daily medications, self-administered hormone shots, and monthly intrauterine insemination with a catheter. But the Brindises still couldn’t get pregnant. Physicians next suggested that Stacy try in vitro fertilization. It would involve doses of medication, a considerable price tag (starting at $12,000), and increased chances of her having twins—factors that gave the couple considerable pause. Nothing had worked and it was time, Stacy decided, to change her approach.
“When people have a medical problem, everybody seems to jump right to drugs as the solution,” she says. “I wanted to see if improving my overall health and well-being would increase our chances of getting pregnant naturally.”
Stacy is not alone in her gut feeling that first addressing her overall health and well-being—before investing in more invasive solutions—might be a key element in her health care. High-tech, high-cost approaches clearly have their place, and modern medicine can boast many silver-bullet solutions. But millions of Americans feel that’s not enough. They spend more than $30 billion a year out of their own pockets for alternative treatments, according to data compiled by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Funding for NCCAM— the U.S. government’s “lead agency for scientific research on complementary and alternative medicine”—hit $128 million in 2012, a 156% increase since its inception in 1999. “Complementary and alternative” is the federal government’s current label for approaches that lie outside the mainstream. However, a nationwide survey shows that approximately 38% of U.S.adults aged 18 years and over use some form of complementary and alternative medicine—anything from acupuncture to meditation. That’s starting to look pretty mainstream, which is one reason many doctors prefer the term “integrative” health care.
Read on at Psychology Today.
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4 comments
Hey there, Emma. Thanks for the email invitation to read this post. As it happens, I recently engaged in a conversation with a humanist about CAM. They were pretty sceptic about it, citing a book by Ben Goldacre called ‘Bad Science’. I have started to paw through a copy of it and he certainly hints at CAM to be a waste of time and money, and therefore the money factor could be why the NCCAM are beginning to find it interesting. I say that if it works for you then what does it matter, but there are always people who will exploit a person’s vulnerability. I have not ever tried for children. When I was younger I was too young for children and as I became older I decided that I was better off without that responsibility, so I don’t have an opinion as to whether this couple or others approach it correctly. What I do know is stress affects people in ways that are still undefined, so perhaps all the health in the world can not prevent stress occurring? Anyway, those are my thoughts.
I identify with this article because I have multiple complex medical problems that I could find no diagnoses nor treatment for. I tried everything suggested by the doctors I saw (any practitioner who I thought could help. Most MDs approach problems by asking what can they do for this person. So surgeon will recommend surgery
(even when it isn’t called for) when confronted with a conundrum. For debilitating chronic back pain that radiated to the legs and hips and pelvis, “I underwent numerous painful and costly procedures including having my hips replaced. That and round the clock opioid pain meds didn’t help, but mindfulness meditation did
(which I found and started on my own). I tried acupuncture, physical therapy, yoga, therapeutic massage, and energy based healing
(like Reiki and healing touch
). Energy based healing, massage, and
PT helped the most but didn’t really address the underlying problem. They felt good while the treatment was done, but didn’t last. I also had cortisone injections into my spine, hips, Sacro Iliac. Then I started developing autoimmune problems. Meditation addressed these problems and my esophagus problems (Barrett’s Syndrome after developing GERDs). It has also helped with my heart problems. Medical consumers mustn’t expect practitioners to give them a magic bullet or pill for everything. The need to heal themselves with the support and advise of their doctors. I was doing research (books, original research papers, lectures, presentations) on all my symptoms and ruled out some causes and cures the further I researched. Unfortunately, I didn’t take this proactive approach right away. I was expecting the experts to heal me. I found I had to heal myself. Now I feel the confidence in my own judgement because I spent more hours studying the medicine that affects me than those with an M.D. after their name. I am an expert on me and can have a much more beneficial relationship with my doctors. I have found that many doctors welcome patients being involved in their care and educating themselves. They aren’t intimidated by it and welcome a 2 way discussion rather than talking to a wall (which some doctors confided their day felt like). There are pros and cons to any treatment. The less invasive, the less negatives are involved. First do not harm, right?
Integrated or holistic medicine typically considers treatments that are less invasive. Even if they don’t help, at least the didn’t cause any more harm.I am not against
invasive procedures. I would not be here now if the terrific team at NYU didn’t operate on my heart twice. First my mitrsl valve which had been damaged by rheumatic fever needed to be replaced with a mechanical valve. 8 years later my heart started regrowing the mitral valve which impinged on the working of the mechanical valve, which required surgery again to fix. I didn’t believe that prayer or meditation was going to fix this problem so I opted for a 2nd open heart surgery. Then again I was a scientist.
Thanks Emma for explaining integrative medicine. I think that may people are fed up with others making a profit from their problems and more are relying on self-care. This way is not a quick solution, but much more empowering.
Most of the alternative sciences and medicine systems have evolved over a period of time. They may lack the records of their evolution and structured research, but have evolved over a period of time in various societies as a part of traditional medicine along with traditional culture.. Every region having it own cures and time tested systems in place.Like Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Unani and several others lesser known ones. Instead of scoffing at them Modern science and medicine should take a holistic approach toward them, like they have taken to meditation and yoga which until a few decades were considered to be mumbo jumbo.