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As we enter the new millennium, a dramatic shift in our health consciousness has arrived.

Midwives are now licensed to deliver babies both in the hospital and at home. Pharmacists are being trained in herbal and homeopathic medicine. Canada now has over 490 general medical practitioners who prescribe to the principles of natural medicine. Many more medical doctors practice "integrative" medicine, in which they combine the best of alternative or complementary medical treatments with the best of allopathic medicine. Several hundred licensed naturopathic doctors are also offering excellent patient care.

As little as two decades ago those seeking medical treatments using herbs, homeopathy, detoxification, vitamins and minerals would have had a hard time locating a general practitioner who would even discuss these types of treatments, let alone recommend their use.

The term given to this non-drug approach to disease elimination was "alternative." Alternative medicine was generally chosen in direct opposition to standard allopathic treatments prescribed by our general practitioners. People sought this type of treatment after exhausting what mainstream medicine had to give.

Only a handful of Canadian medical doctors would offer "alternative" medical care to their patients, for fear of being threatened by their provincial medical boards. Anyone seeking an alternative approach to drug therapies had to educate themselves by reading books and other materials. They enlisted the help of health food store owners, herbalists, homeopaths, traditional Chinese medicine doctors, acupuncturists and the rare naturopath.

Only one health magazine existed-alive Magazine. Alive had the courage to tell the truth about the many types of alternative treatments available.

A New Health Consciousness

According to an Angus Reid survey completed in September 1997, over 42 per cent of our population now uses natural remedies and/or visits a doctor offering alternative treatments. Why the dramatic shift?

In 20 years much has changed. Information has been disseminated, people are taking charge of their health care, our consciousness is heightened and alternative medicine is becoming accepted.

If you are looking for referrals to the medical doctor who uses the best that alternative and mainstream medicine has to offer, you can contact The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine in Toronto at 416-733-2117 or Purity Professionals in Vancouver at 888-443-3323. As well you can contact the American College for Advancement in Medicine for physician referrals in Canada at acam@acam.org or visit its web site at www.acam.org. The toll free number does not work from Canada.

Medical universities now offer courses on alternative medicine. The University of British Columbia offers a three-credit, 400-level course to medical students on alternative and integrative medicine. See ams.ubc.ca/aims/ for information on UBC’s Alternative and Integrative Medical Society.

McMaster University in Hamilton, ON and the University of Alberta in Edmonton also offer alternative medicine programs for medical students. Post-graduate degrees are available in homeopathy and naturopathy at Bastyr University in Seattle. The University of Maryland at Baltimore offers a two-year fellowship in Integrative and Complementary Medicine. Harvard Medical School Center for Alternative Medicine Research also provides post-secondary education for doctors. Stanford Medical school, the University of Arizona and the University of Berkeley, California, also offer such programs.

Thousands of research studies on plant nutrients are being performed in university laboratories and clinical settings. These studies confirm the effectiveness of alternative treatments, giving validation to decades of traditional use.

Access to Health Information

Lorna Vanderhaeghe is a health journalist and former editor-in-chief of Healthy Living Guide. She is an award-winning author of the best-selling book The Immune System Cure.

Source: alive #210, April 2000