Question:
the widely reported 1990 Eisenberg survey found that 34% of Americans usealternative therapies (a figure which had increased to 42% in 1997).However, the most popular therapies were relaxation techniques,chiropractic, massage, and various diets. Physicians have not traditionallyprovided these therapies, but not because they saw no benefit in them. Quiteoften, such therapies were seen as lying beyond the scope of conventionalmedicine, and therefore as being outside physicians' areas of expertise.This same survey found that some of the least popular alternative therapiesincluded energy medicine, homeopathy, and acupuncture. Yet these are oftenthe therapies people associate with alternative medicine. Broad definitionsof alternative medicine may give the impression that many people are using"unusual" therapies. In reality, however, most people are simply seeking tounderstand how their lifestyles influence their health and are taking stepsto make improvements which many in conventional healthcare would support.

Christians should be especially concerned with the way spirituality is oftenincorporated into alternative medicine. For example, spirituality may bereduced to the level of a "therapy." However, Christian faith and prayer arenot therapies which guarantee physical and emotional health. The Bible, aswell as Christian history, contains stories of many great men and women offaith who were sick, disabled, tortured, and killed. Jesus Christ came torestore people's relationship with God, a restoration which can bring peaceand contentment in the midst of illness and death. C. S. Lewis reminded usthat "Christianity is not a patent medicine. Christianity claims to give anaccount of facts-to tell you what the real universe is like." The most basicfact is that all people are born sinful and alienated from God and need theforgiveness available in Jesus Christ.

Answer: And they REFERRED patients to providers of those therapies -it's silly for an orthopedic surgeon to spend hours a dayteaching his patients to relax,or massaging kinks out of stiffmuscles ... his talent is better used diagnosing and doingsurgery. I take herbs, have had massage and regularly practice relaxationtechniques. That does NOT mean I believe in energy medicine,Hulda Clark's zapper, N-Rays, the Q-bracelet, or Benny Hinn.