A survey released by the United States' National Institutes of Health in December 2008 found that 38% of the American public had made use of alternative therapies not covered by their health insurance in the preceding year, including herbal remedies, meditation, yoga, massage, osteopathy, and acupuncture. As a not surprising consequence, the health insurance and healthcare industries bucked the layoff trend plaguing most US business and actually grew their payrolls by more than 40,000 new workers in the second half of last year.

Meanwhile, a quiet medical revolution seems to have already begun in Taiwan. Data from five years ago show 75% of the public utilizing supplemental alternative therapies in the previous 12 months and the National Health Insurance system already allocating more than NT$16.8 billion for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatments.

If you were to visit a typical natural medicine clinic in the US or Europe, your examination might go something like this: Your doctor will greet you when you enter the examining room, then ask you to talk about your physical health, aches and pains, lifestyle, eating habits, love life, and recent sources of stress and anxiety. He or she will then ask about your childhood, work experience, family background, and major life events, probing for further information on your physical and mental state.

In an hour or two, after hearing your whole story, your doctor will give you a lozenge containing a mixture of natural herbs and nutrients. Alternatively, he or she might send you a lozenge compounded to address your specific condition in a few days, and arrange a follow-up appointment.

(far left) Chiropractic aligns the spine, muscles, and nerves in their proper positions, thereby improving nerve conduction and balancing the hormonal system.

Miracle pills

In Taiwan, the process is a bit different. The initial consultation will be equally intensive, but your therapist will be a licensed physician who will also use an Automatic Reflexive Diagnosis System (ARDK) to examine 40 meridians on your hands and feet. The doctor will analyze the ARDK's results in light of your specific complaints, looking for obstructions to the flow of blood and qi that could be the source of your distress.

After pinning down the likely cause of your distress-a process that usually takes about two hours-your doctor will begin to stimulate the meridians with an appropriate amount of electrical current. Once that's done, he or she will prescribe a lozenge, mineral water, or essential oil, which the patient will consume or apply at home over a period of time.

In Taiwan, naturopathy has yet to be legally recognized as a form of medical treatment. Even doctors licensed abroad cannot actively practice in Taiwan, and must instead "consult." Practitioners here therefore focus on training those who are permitted to practice-doctors of Western and Chinese medicine.

Originally a pediatric internist, Fan Wenqing first encountered naturopathy a year or two ago and went on to acquire a license through a correspondence course. Since purchasing an ARDK system about six months ago, he has been slowly promoting naturopathic methods.

"I've advised more than 30 patients," says Fan, "but only a few have been interested in continuing treatment." Fan, who only recommends naturopathy to the people close to him, says that the majority of patients continue to be suspicious of the approach even after undergoing testing and being provided with pages of material on the subject.

(left) James Chen believes that the difference between naturopathy and conventional Western medicine isn't one of natural versus manmade medicines, but one of conceptual framework. Where Western medicine treats symptoms, naturopathy takes a holistic approach to treatment. As such, he views them as complementary practices.

Time to heal

Fan remembers an elderly patient who was suspected of having bladder cancer, a kidney infection, or kidney stones after the discovery of blood in his urine. When the patient came to Fan for help, Fan tested his meridians and discovered that he had an excessive amount of fungi in his intestinal tract. He also learned that long hours and stress at work had caused the patient to develop "leaky gut syndrome," a condition in which large undigested food particles or microbial toxins pass through the walls of the small intestine and into the blood. The patient's leaky gut had damaged his liver and kidneys, resulting in blood in his urine. Fan concluded that if the patient could alleviate his stress, eat a proper diet, and get sufficient rest, his body would heal itself.

"But these explanations didn't lay the patient's doubts to rest," says Fan. "The next day, he went to a hospital to have an ultrasound exam, but there was no blood. Reassured about the naturopathic approach, the patient accepted a lozenge and Fan's recommendation that he add probiotics and more vegetables and fiber to his diet. Within a short time, his urine was completely normal.

"Natural medicine may be slow," argues Fan, "but it allows you to find and completely resolve the causes of illnesses." He acknowledges that Western medicine's allopathic and "repressive" approach to treatment rapidly eliminates outward symptoms and pain, but says it doesn't really address root causes.

Fan offers a patient who suffered from laryngopharyngeal inflammation for more than four years as a case in point. The patient had to take strength-sapping antibiotics and painkillers for 10 days every month, but since these failed to address the root cause of the condition, the problem continually recurred.

"I persuaded him to try natural medicine, and his test results pointed to a fungal infection," recalls Fan. "I treated him for five months, and he hasn't had any throat inflammation since." Instead of antibiotics, Fan administered several varieties of herbal remedies and had the patient get more rest. As the patient slowly recovered his strength, he also noticed a huge improvement in his spirits.

Alternative therapies are more expensive than a clinic visit covered by the National Health Insurance system. While the latter costs the patient only NT$200-300, the former runs NT$3,000-5,000 for the initial consultation, plus another NT$1,000-2,000 for each follow up visit. Given that each patient is likely to have to see the doctor four to eight times before noticing significant improvement, many find the cost a real obstacle. "The people who are willing to give natural medicine a try are those who have exhausted the possibilities of Western medicine and whose treatment is beyond the scope of TCM. People like cancer patients," says Fan, who recognizes that he has chosen a difficult field.

The background picture is Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man; the photo at the lower right shows an aromatherapy treatment.

First, do no harm

James Chen holds a license to practice naturopathy from Bastyr University in the US and returned to Taiwan to four years ago. Chen is one of the few in Taiwan to have a very strong background in the field. Having temporarily suspended his clinical practice to keep within the confines of Taiwanese law, he now provides dietary advice. He is also planning a series of books and a lecture tour to promote natural medicine while waiting for the appropriate moment to again take up the rod of Asclepius.

"Taiwan's medical community and competent authorities lack a solid understanding of naturopathic medicine," says Chen, "and go so far as to reject it on subjective grounds." Chen notes that doctors of naturopathic medicine overseas undergo comprehensive training in medical fundamentals at a medical school. Including their studies of physical medicine, pharmacology, medical nutrition, gynecology, and minor surgery, they receive more than 4,000 hours of training. After taking their boards and receiving their licenses, they have the same status as doctors of Western medicine, and are permitted to work in hospitals and clinics. Chen says he was shocked to learn that he'd be unable to put his training to use in Taiwan.

"The mainstream medical community always acts as if there is no scientific foundation for naturopathy," complains Chen. "In fact, 90% of our treatments have a scientific basis." He mentions that over the last decade the number of studies on natural medicine published in major scientific journals has soared from the single digits to around 15,000, and that Bastyr University has analyzed the components and medicinal properties of 126 medicinal herbs, including milk thistle's efficacy in treating liver disease and St. John's wort's antidepressive properties. The university put all the herbs through clinical trials and produced replicable results.

"Whereas the misuse of pharmaceuticals has become a terrifying source of poisoning," says Chen, "natural medicine takes 'first do no harm' as a foundational premise." He explains that practitioners do their utmost to avoid Western allopathic approaches to control symptoms. Instead, they use natural medicines and physical modalities to guide the body's own healing mechanisms and return it to health.

He recalls treating a 30-something-year-old female author in Seattle for hives. In listening to her relate her autobiography, he learned that she first suffered hives at the age of seven when her parents separated. He also discovered that she had recently been shaken by the premature death of a dear friend's baby whose birth she had witnessed. Her story made it clear to Chen that stress was a primary cause of her outbreaks. Once she had released all this pent up emotion by crying her eyes out, she took a dose of allergy medication. By the next day, her hives were gone.

Color therapy, another form of naturopathy, holds that the optic nerve's transmission of the wavelengths of various colors to the brain stimulates the production of hormones in seven glandular centers. These, in turn, have a medicinal effect on our mind and body.

Treating the whole person

"Naturopathic medicine diagnoses and treats the mind, body, and spirit together," says Chen. "It differs from the compartmentalized approach of Western medicine, which 'treats the head when the head hurts and the feet when the feet hurt.'" He's excited to see many doctors in Taiwan going into the field, but laments that most haven't had solid, comprehensive training in it and are prone to utilizing single modalities, whether music therapy, aromatherapy, spinal adjustments, or homeopathy-as if they comprise the whole of naturopathy. This creates misunderstanding among the public and detracts from efforts to promote natural medicine.

"Natural medicine covers a tremendous amount of territory. Therapists must have a complete understanding of all of it if they are to make the most appropriate choices for their individual patients. They can't just favor one particular modality. On top of that, too many are reliant on machines and technology, ignoring the aims and implications of the natural approach itself," says Chen.

For example, homeopathy, which involves eliciting an immune response by administering a small amount of a substance that induces similar symptoms, is a very powerful treatment. If a patient's skin is inflamed for an unknown reason, a doctor might add bee venom (which has inflammatory effects) to alcohol, then repeatedly dilute and shake the mixture to produce a liquid with only faint traces of bee venom. This dilute solution is then applied to the inflamed area, where it triggers the body's own anti-inflammatory mechanisms.

"But the choice of which insect or herb to use in homeopathic therapy depends entirely upon the therapist's grasp of plant and animal extracts. Some electronic device won't find a solution for you," says Chen.

(near right) Vibrational medicine, which is a type of naturopathy, holds that the body is composed of complex energies. Every cell vibrates at its own frequency and can experience problems if disrupted by external forces. Vibrational medicine argues that energetic fluids released by natural materials can be used to adjust the body's energies and promote health.

Conventional and alternative

T. K. Chou, who doesn't come from a medical background, has become an unlikely promoter of the American Naturopathic Medical Association in East Asia as a result his friendship with Julia J. Tsuei, a pivotal figure in Taiwanese naturopathic medicine.

Chou believes that reductivist thinking leads the typical Western doctor to believe that the causes of illnesses are unitary and inseparable (e.g. viruses, bacteria, vascular obstructions, or the proliferation of cancer cells). But the medical community has learned that our state of mind and body affects our immune system and therefore whether we "pick up" even simple viral infections. Traditional Western medicine is even more incapable of addressing the roots of the diseases of civilization-ailments such as diabetes and heart disease-for which the causes are far more difficult to unravel.

According to the World Health Organization, 21% of the diseases afflicting humanity can be treated with drugs or surgery, 63% rely on stimulating the body's own healing capabilities, and 16% are untreatable. "Naturopathy is already being incorporated into mainstream Western medicine," says Chou. "Taiwan's medical community really needs to get on board."

The integration of mainstream and naturopathic medicine is largely a result of naturopathy's development of a variety of precision devices that better enable it to withstand scientific scrutiny.

Chou mentions the EAV developed by German Reinhold Voll to test the meridians of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Under normal circumstances, the meridians of a healthy person produce values of 50 on the device. Values above 50 indicate hyper-function of the organ being tested. Those below 50 indicate hypo-function. The device can also be used to check for food allergies (with an accuracy of above 80%) and the blood-glucose levels of diabetics (with an accuracy of above 95%).

With testing devices, theories underpinning modalities and data to support them, and practitioners gaining experience and sensitivity, naturopathic medicine is ready for the big time. As the use of its techniques spread, its effectiveness will truly be put to the test.

(right) In tai chi, our ancestors have passed on an almost miraculous gift. This martial art strengthens the body, improves concentration, memory, balance, and digestion, and even alleviates stress and anxiety.

(far right) Most naturopathy institutions utilize the EAV developed by the German physician Reinhold Voll. The EAV uses sensors placed on the surface of the skin to measure the body's electrical energies, yielding information on organ function similar to that provided by acupuncture's testing of meridians.

The background picture is Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man; the photo at the lower right shows an aromatherapy treatment.

(near left) A qigong master with years of training uses external qi to diagnose pain, illness, and obstructions to the circulation of blood and qi, as well as to stimulate areas of the body in which its qi and energy are out of balance. Though there is scientific evidence of the effectiveness of these treatments, patients must be careful to select a reliable practitioner.