There are doctors and there are yogis.
Rapid changes are occurring in healthcare, with more than one-third of American adults now supplementing or substituting mainstream medicine with acupuncture, meditation, yoga, and other therapies long considered alternative. I’m awake.
In 2022, 37% of adult pain patients will be using nontraditional medicine, a marked increase from 19% in 2002, according to a study published this week in JAMA. This change is being driven by increased insurance reimbursement for clinical alternatives, more scientific evidence of their effectiveness, and increased acceptance among patients.
“It’s become part of the culture in the United States,” said study lead author Richard Nehin, an epidemiologist at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, a division of the National Institutes of Health. “What we’re talking about is use for general health, stress management, sleep, energy and immune health.”
And for pain management. The use of yoga to manage pain rose from 11% in 2002 to 29% in 2022, but this increase is due to patients’ efforts to find alternatives to opiates, as well as media and social media Dr. Nahin said that this also reflects the influence of the
“It’s very public domain,” he said. “People hear about acupuncture, meditation, yoga. They start learning.”
This change is also impacting healthcare workers. Dr. Sean McKee, director of Stanford University’s Division of Pain Medicine, said there is a growing body of research examining alternative therapies, and traditional clinics like Stanford’s are also offering mind-body therapies and other non-pharmaceutical tools. He said that He said acceptance of these ideas is growing, especially among younger people, but patients of earlier generations may have considered these options too far-fetched.
“Our parents and grandparents looked at them and were like, “What, are you kidding?”? ”
At the same time, Dr. McKee said the increased popularity of these treatments can be a “double-edged sword” as they do not necessarily provide the same relief of symptoms that are available over the counter.
“My advice to people pursuing this is to give these things a try,” he says. “But if you’re not seeing long-term, sustained benefits, don’t just keep going.”
The JAMA article cited data from the 2002, 2012, and 2022 National Health Interview Surveys. The survey was conducted in person and by telephone. The researchers used the data to evaluate the use of seven complementary health care approaches: acupuncture, chiropractic care, guided imagery, massage therapy, meditation, naturopathy, and yoga.
Meditation as a health therapy has sharply increased to about 17% of American adults in 2022, up from about 7.5% 20 years ago. Dr. Nihan said low cost is a factor: “How much does it cost to do meditation or yoga?” Prices for these activities vary widely depending on whether you do them at home or in a classroom.
It seems that for some people, the alternative will turn out to be better. Jee Kim started pursuing traditional medicine in 2022 because she was suffering from insomnia and anxiety due to her separation. A family doctor in Boulder, Colorado, prescribed Kim’s first drug, but it proved to have intolerable side effects.
“I got serious about yoga and meditation,” he says, and eventually found a better solution. “I tried the pharmaceutical route, but I wanted a tool I could come back to. I knew this wouldn’t be the last hard life transition for me.”
Kim, a 49-year-old political consultant and former college tennis player who still plays avidly, also believes yoga helps prevent injuries and is an occasional yoga instructor herself. That’s right. “It’s a pillar of my physical and mental health, even at work,” he said.
Dr. Jennifer Rose, a Boulder psychiatrist who specializes in treating women experiencing hormonal changes, mentioned the study’s treatments, saying, “The vast majority of my patients utilize adjunctive interventions such as stress management. “I am doing so,” he said.
She said she was open to the concept but cautioned that drug therapy could also be important.
“Get acupuncture and massage,” she said. “But it is unfair to ask someone who is severely depressed or anxious and is not functioning to be employed until their nervous system calms down.”
