Some people believe that there’s a big war going on between conventional and complementary and alternative medicine. But I have news for you: the war’s over!
Physicians now routinely recommend complementary and alternative medicine to their patients. No, I didn’t say, “they roll their eyes, but they’ve given up arguing.” I said they “routinely recommend.” The doctor brings the topic up. The doctor makes the pitch. The doctor refers patients to specific practitioners — if they know any good ones.
To paraphrase an article in JAMA Internal Medicine from March 9, 2011, When Conventional Medical Providers Recommend Unconventional Medicine: Results of a National Study:
In a 2007 study including 23,393 respondents, 2.9% answered “yes” when asked if they had used a mind-body therapist in the last 12 months because it was recommended by a health provider. Extrapolated to the whole US population, that’s 6.4 million successful referrals per year. Read More...