The Alternative Medicine & Natural Health Newsletter is sponsored by
ALTERNATIVE HEALTH INSURANCE SERVICES.

Since 1985, Alternative Health Insurance Services has helped businesses and individuals find the best value in health insurance with an emphasis on coverage for alternative medicine and natural therapies. Please visit www.AlternativeInsurance.com to learn about options for your personal or group health insurance.

Fall 2005 Special Edition

Learn about our new Vision Benefit Program.  For details, please visit

http://www.alternativeinsurance.com/html/visionplan.htm

Welcome to the Fall 2005 special edition of our newsletter.  Our goal is to provide you with information and articles that are of interest to you and may be of value to you.  Information we include is gathered from a variety of publications.

The purpose of this special edition is to provide you with recently published information regarding the effectiveness of alternative medicine and insurance coverage.

We hope the information we provide is of value to you.  If you have not read our previous newsletters, they are also posted on our website.

Which Alternative Treatments Work? Consumer Reports' Survey of 34,000 Readers Finds Hands-on Treatments Most Successful

Alternative medicine is no longer truly alternative. A Consumer Reports survey of more than 34,000 readers reveals that many people have tried it, and more and more doctors are recommending it.

Readers gave the highest marks to hands-on treatments, which worked better than conventional treatments for conditions such as back pain and arthritis. Chiropractic was ranked ahead of all conventional treatments, including prescription drugs, by readers with back pain. (Readers said it also provided relief for neck pain, but neck manipulation can be risky and is not recommended by CR.) Deep-tissue massage was found to be especially effective in treating osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia. While readers suffering from back pain deemed acupuncture and acupressure less effective than chiropractic and massage, one-fourth of readers who had tried these therapies said they helped them feel much better. Of all the hands-on alternative therapies, acupuncture has the most scientific support.

Readers also reported good results for exercise, not only for conditions such as back pain, but also for allergies and other respiratory ills, anxiety, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, depression, insomnia, and prostate problems. Those results are consistent with a broad range of clinical studies of treatments for all of these conditions except allergies and respiratory ailments.

On the other hand, well-known, heavily promoted herbal treatments such as echinacea, St. John's wort, saw palmetto, melatonin, and glucosamine and chondroitin didn't work as well for readers. Readers reported that alternative treatments were far less effective than prescription drugs for eight conditions: anxiety, rheumatoid arthritis, depression, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insomnia, prostate problems, and respiratory problems. Interpreting these results of the reader survey is somewhat difficult because the U.S. regulates alternative and conventional medicines differently. Federal laws ensure that a bottle of prescription or over-the-counter pills contains the amount and kind of medicine stated on the label, and dosages are standardized, but no such standards apply to dietary supplements. Moreover, there are no standard recommended dosages.

Treating symptoms of menopause

A separate Consumer Reports survey of 10,042 women who had gone through menopause or were experiencing it found that a large minority of women have turned from hormone replacement, which can be risky, to black cohosh, soy supplements, and vitamin E for relief from hot flashes. However, those alternatives were far less effective. Sixty percent of respondents who took estrogen plus progestin said it helped them feel much better, as did 53 percent of those who took estrogen by itself. The botanicals scored far lower. Black cohosh was typical. It helped 17 percent of women feel much better, but 51 percent said it did nothing at all. Some, but not all, studies have found that black cohosh is modestly helpful against hot flashes and night sweats. However, its long-term safety has not been studied. Most studies of soy supplements have suggested that they're not very helpful, and breast-cancer patients should talk with their doctor before taking large amounts of soy. For other supplements, studies show little or no evidence of benefit.

In general, CR recommends the following:

-- Ask your doctor. Many doctors will refer patients to preferred alternative practitioners. And your doctor may be able to steer you away from potentially hazardous alternative treatments.

-- Do your own research. Objective online references include the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (nccam.nih.gov), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health; Medline Plus (medlineplus.gov), for plain-language medical information; and Consumer Reports Medical Guide (ConsumerReportsMedicalGuide.org), which rates treatments, including alternative treatments, for several dozen common conditions. It costs $24 per year or $4.95 per month; the others are free.

-- Consult other reliable sources. If your doctor doesn't have a referral list of practitioners, check with a local hospital or medical school. You can also turn to national professional organizations, many of which have geographic search functions on their Web sites.

-- Check your health plan. Many cover some alternative therapies.

-- Check the practitioner's credentials. Make sure your practitioner has the proper license, if applicable, or check for membership in professional associations, which require minimum levels of education and experience. Some also make practitioners pass an exam.

12 FAQ About Insurance Coverage
According to national surveys, overall usage of alternative medicine jumped 45% between 1990 and 1997. A recent survey of 18 major HMOs and insurance providers, including Aetna, Medicare, Prudential, and Kaiser Permanente, found that 14 of them offered at least...read more

Physicians Divided on Impact of CAM on U.S. Health Care; Aromatherapy Fares Poorly; Acupuncture Touted

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)----A new national survey of more than 700 physicians revealed that they are divided evenly on the impact of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) on U.S. health care. Approximately 36% believe it has a negative impact, 35% believe it has a positive impact and 20% feel CAM has no impact.

Despite their close division on the impact of CAM on U.S. health care, 64% of doctors reported that they have recommended complementary treatments to their patients, while 36% indicated they have not. Sixty-three percent would be willing to recommend them under some circumstances and 65% believe that the National Institutes of Health should fund research on CAM.

The survey which probed physicians' views on controversial techniques such as acupuncture, therapeutic touch and homeopathy, was conducted by HCD Research and The Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religion and Social Studies of The Jewish Theological Seminary, during September 1-2. The margin of error for the study was plus or minus 3% at a 95% level of confidence.

The well-known alternative and complementary therapies including acupuncture, chiropractic and massage received higher marks for their effectiveness than treatments such as aromatherapy, electromagnetic field therapies, homeopathy and naturopathy.

Among the findings:

-- More than half of the physicians (59%) believed that acupuncture can be effective to some extent.

-- Nearly half of the physicians (48%) believed that chiropractic can be effective, while 29% indicated that it is ineffective, and 57% of physicians reported that massage therapies can be effective.

-- A mere 10% of physicians reported aromatherapy to be effective. Similarly, only 12% indicated that electromagnetic field therapies were effective, and 16% of physicians believed that homeopathy and naturopathy were effective to some degree.

-- While a plurality of doctors (46%) felt that alternative approaches could be helpful to patients in some cases, 28% felt that they could be harmful. Thirteen percent believed that the putative helpfulness of CAM was due to the placebo effect.

"The one trait that all complementary and alternative therapies share is the fact that they are not conventionally used," noted Glenn Kessler, co-founder and managing partner, HCD Research. "However, they are not all the same and as we see in this study, physicians clearly recognize that each therapy must be judged on its own merits."

"The message here is that techniques, like acupuncture, which have made it into the mainstream, are recognized by physicians as useful complements to scientific medicine," said Dr. Alan Mittleman, Director of the Finkelstein Institute. "Other therapies remain on the fringe and are viewed with suspicion. Nonetheless, physicians seem willing to let their patients -- and future research -- decide what has credibility and what doesn't."

To view detailed results for this poll, please go to: http://publish.hcdhealth.com/P1007/

Alternative Health Insurance Services now includes a free benefit for our individual and group clients that provides up to 20 acupuncture and/or chiropractic visits per year with a $20 co-payment for each visit. This complimentary benefit is a bonus for doing business with us and is included with most of the health insurance plans we offer.

We have contracted with Landmark Healthplan of California, Inc. to provide a combined chiropractic and acupuncture benefit that utilizes Participating Chiropractors and Acupuncturists. A directory of these providers may be found on the Landmark website at www.LandmarkHealthcare.com or from Alternative Health Insurance Services.

Participants will have a co-payment of only $20 per visit and can receive up to 20 visits per year. Treatments must be medically necessary to treat an injury or illness. After an initial visit, subsequent visits need to be pre-authorized by Landmark. Each participant will receive a Schedule of Benefits and other materials that fully describe their benefits, limitations, and exclusions.

This benefit is being provided at no cost to California clients of Alternative Health Insurance Services who are actively participating in a permanent health insurance plan where commissions are being paid to either Alternative Health Insurance or Steve Gorman. These benefits are being provided only to each primary policyholder and their spouse/partner.

This program is only available as a complimentary benefit to clients who have purchased their health insurance plans through Alternative Health Insurance Services and can not be purchased as a "stand-alone" benefit.