Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
April 8, 2008
There's very little light in the room -- a lamp tucked in a corner, votive candles hanging on a wall, a small lighted fountain. Synthesized sounds of nature and crashing waves pour from a CD player. You are on a table with pillows tucked behind your head and under your knees, shoes set aside.
Let thoughts take you to a place where you're relaxed, Louise Motzenbecker says. She comes around the head of the table and places her hands gently over your eyes. She's barely even touching you, but warmth radiates from her palms. After five minutes, she moves her hands from your eyes to your head, then the neck. At each place there's warmth, like the low setting on a heating pad.
Instead of finding a place to relax, thoughts of work erupt. Imagine a beach or the woods by a babbling creek. No good. Back to work thoughts. You see flashes of red. Motzenbecker rubs your arm softly. You roll over. She moves her hands down your back. Lastly, the feet. You're heavy, sinking into the bed.
Not really sure what to make of all this, you can't help but laugh when the hour session ends. Soooo relaxed -- a sponge soaking up energy, Motzenbecker says, laughing with you.
This is Reiki.
"When things are right and they connect, the path is always an easy one to follow," said Motzenbecker, a Reiki practioner with A Place to Renew in Dothan.
Motzenbecker likes to refer to Reiki (pronounced ray-kee) as a complementary therapy. Originating in Japan, Reiki is based on the transference of energy between the Reiki practioner and the client through gentle therapeutic touch. The idea is to reduce stress and create balance in the individual, healing the spirit and thus the body.
Motzenbecker owns the downtown building where A Place to Renew is located. It's a co-op offering preventive health care with practioners, a nutrition and holistic health counselor, a therapist and a physician. For Motzenbecker, Reiki doesn't take the place of conventional medicine, it complements it.
"I want a choice in my healthcare," she said. "I want a choice in what's out there. Instead of reaching for a pill or a surgery, I'd like to know what my options are ... I don't go in with the expectation of healing a person. That's not what Reiki is about. It's a support."
It may seem new age and too out-there, but a growing number of doctors and even hospitals are turning to complementary and alternative medicines to help them better treat and connect with patients.
It's called integrative medicine, combining traditional, complementary and alternative medicines to treat patients. Medical schools, including Harvard and Duke universities, are offering courses in complementary and integrative medicine. There are hospitals -- such as Tampa General in Florida -- that have created integrative medicine departments, offering complementary and alternative methods to patients. And there are at least three traditional doctors in Dothan who have completed fellowships in integrative medicine.
Dr. Edward Planz, a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon with Southeastern Cardiovascular Associates in Dothan, graduated in November from a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine through the University of Arizona -- one of two integrative training programs in the country and created by Dr. Andrew Weil, a well-known pioneer in integrative medicine. Planz was the first heart surgeon to complete the program.
"Physicians have to be the advocates or the agencies for change," Planz said. "It's unfortunate that our health care system today is a disease-care system in the U.S., and it's not a health care system. It's broken."
Planz pursued the Internet-based fellowship because his bypass patients kept having questions about supplements and other forms of alternative medicine. And Planz didn't know how to help them. So he studied mind-body interactions, nutrition and botanicals.
He plans to embark on the pre-operative use of guided imagery -- techniques used to guide a patient, such as visualizing an image in the mind, to help them have a more positive experience. Planz said studies show patients bleed less during surgery and heal quicker if they've had a form of guided imagery before surgery.
"These people are seeking out alternative medicine," Planz said. "It's more in their paradigm of self-healing because the ability to heal is so powerful."
The philosophy of self-healing is a big part of Dr. Edmond Zlotea's approach.
Zlotea joined forces with other physicians to open MedPlus, which provides chiropractic care and alternative medicine. The practice even offers classes on reducing stress. Zlotea was on his way to becoming a dentist when he was introduced to alternative medicine as a patient, suffering for years with migraines.
His approach is to take care of the whole person -- structural, nutritional and emotional. As a chiropractic physician, Zlotea makes the connection between compromised nerves and the body's vital organs. Stress, he said, is one of the major causes of illness. He tells you real quick, he doesn't heal and that no doctor actually heals people, even though they may be compassionate and want to help their patients. The body, he said, heals itself when it's in balance.
"It's like peeling layers of an onion," Zlotea said. " ... The onion's not too healthy on the outside, but it is on the inside. You just have to peel the layers of stress from the onion."
And Zlotea's no friend to pharmaceutical companies.
"They've turned something that's supposed to be about healing into a business," he said.
Zlotea, Planz and Motzenbecker all said alternative medicine is not a religion, although a lot of spirituality goes into it.
"I find the skepticism is slowly disappearing for the most part," Planz said. "I think 20 years ago, most people would not have embraced this integrated medicine or these modalities ... There's a lot of naysayers out there, especially in institutions who do not embrace integrative medicine."
Motzenbecker loves to get a skeptic on her table.
"If I can get them on my table, I know I can change their mind," she said. "They might not understand Reiki. That's OK. That's not a requirement."
A guide to alternative medicine
What is CAM?
Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products not considered part of conventional medicine. Complementary medicines are used with conventional medicine, while alternative medicine is typically used in the place of conventional medicine.
What is integrative medicine?
Integrative medicine, sometimes called integrated medicine, combines treatments from conventional medicine and CAM, usually when there's evidence to support the effectiveness of CAM.
How does CAM work?
There are many approaches. The National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) with the National Institutes of Health divides CAM into four major groups:
Whole Medical Systems -- Those built upon complete systems of theory and practice, such as homeopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine. Examples of systems that have developed in non-Western cultures include traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda, where therapies used include herbs, massage and yoga.
Mind-Body Medicine -- Techniques designed to enhance the mind's capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms. Some of these techniques have become mainstream (for example, patient support groups and cognitive-behavioral therapy). Other mind-body techniques are still considered CAM, including meditation, prayer, mental healing and therapies that use creative outlets such as art, music or dance.
Biologically Based Practices -- The use of substances found in nature, such as herbs, foods and vitamins. Some examples include dietary supplements and herbal products.
Manipulative and Body-Based Practices -- Based on manipulation and/or movement of one or more parts of the body. Examples include chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation and massage.
Energy Medicine -- Therapies that involve the use of energy fields. There are of two types:
--Biofield therapies intended to affect energy fields that purportedly surround and penetrate the human body but have not been scientifically proven to exist. Some forms of energy therapy manipulate biofields by applying pressure and/or manipulating the body by placing the hands in, or through, these fields. Examples include qi gong, Reiki and Therapeutic Touch.
--Bioelectromagnetic-based therapies involve the unconventional use of electromagnetic fields, such as pulsed fields, magnetic fields or alternating-current or direct-current fields.
Copyright (c) 2008, Dothan Eagle, Ala.
