Alternative Medicine Goes Mainstream

But Safety Net Flimsier
MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
POSTED: 10:40 am MDT June 7, 2009
UPDATED: 5:02 pm MDT June 7, 2009

BALTIMORE -- At one of the nation's top trauma hospitals, a nurse circles a patient's bed, humming and waving her arms as if shooing evil spirits. Another woman rubs a quartz bowl with a wand, making tunes that mix with the beeping monitors and hissing respirator keeping the man alive.

They are doing Reiki therapy, which claims to heal through invisible energy fields. The anesthesia chief, Dr. Richard Dutton, calls it "mystical mumbo jumbo." Still, he's a fan.

"It's self-hypnosis" that can help patients relax, he said. "If you tell yourself you have less pain, you actually do have less pain." Click here for the rest of the article...