"More than one-third of Americans are turning to alternative forms of health care," Dr. David Eisenberg, a Harvard Medical School instructor, said at the 12th annual Helmut Schumann Lecture last night.
Eisenberg's lecture was titled "Alternative Medicine: Opportunities for Scientific Discovery and Improved Patient-Provider Interaction."
Alternative forms of medicine include acupuncture, biofeedback, chiropractic care, herbal remedies, homeopathy, imagery and massage.
More that 70 percent of patients seeking alternative health care choose not to tell their doctors, Eisenberg said. He feels this may be due to a breakdown in patient-doctor relationships or because Western physicians are hostile toward patients who use unconventional medicine.
In contrast, patient-provider communication improves in non-conventional therapy because the patient feels he or she has more of a role in determining the type of care received, Eisenberg said.
Eisenberg said he strongly believes that "the mind can influence biology predictably and significantly -- it varies by degrees."
He said he feels that greater research involving unconventional medicine is needed.
Eisenberg, who is also an intern at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Mass., first became interested in alternative medicine while in China in 1979, as the first National Academy of Science medical-exchange student. There he worked beside doctors who practiced traditional Chinese medicine, like acupuncture, herbal medicine, massage, meditation and t'ai chi ch'un.
The Helmut Schumann Lecture series deals with improving health care by going beyond the conventional practice of medicine.
Some audience members at Eisenberg's lecture had to stand outside of the doors of Cook Auditorium because the room was filled to capacity.
