Alt. medicine finds a beachhead - Westfair Communications

The demand for cheaper health care is increasing and so is consumers”™ interest in traditional Chinese medicine as an alternative.

Opposed to sometimes more expensive drug therapy, patients are looking into the use of herbs and acupuncture to treat illness and pain, when appropriate.

At the University of Bridgeport (UB), student enrollment has steadily grown within the three-year acupuncture masters program since it began in 2002. Now to keep up with a growing interest in herbs and patient demand, UB will soon offer an expanded masters program in traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese herbology.

Students at the University of Bridgeport learn alternative treatments. Photo courtesy UB.

“For many things acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine are less expensive than drug therapy,” said Dr. Jennifer Brett, director of the UB Acupuncture Institute. “It depends on the problem. You have to have evidence to identify what”™s best for the patient.”

Traditional Chinese medicine dates back as far as 5,000 years ago and is rooted in the idea that humans are microcosms within a larger universe, interconnected by nature and its changing forces. Acupuncture and the use of herbs are among the most common practices to achieve a balance between health and disease within the practice. However, scientific evidence of its effectiveness is limited, especially within Western studies, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS).

Despite a lack of quantified healing data, demand has continued to grow, both nationwide and within UB”™s acupuncture clinic.

According to the latest DHHS survey, roughly 3 million people nationwide used acupuncture in 2007, which was 1 million more than just five years earlier.

“Acupuncture has taken off in the last few years,” Brett said. “The (patient) waiting list has grown more than anything.”

Annually the UB acupuncture clinic treats at its capacity of 3,500 patients. But with the expanded degree program, the school also plans to add four additional patient rooms, increasing how many patients the clinic can see by more than 50 percent.

Brett said the increased capacity will greatly benefit the patients who”™ve found success in acupuncture and want to make more regular visits. The majority of the clinic”™s patients come from Fairfield County.

Brett said acupuncture can be an effective solution for allergies, nausea, chronic pain and other internal pains, while the use of herbs can be helpful in resolving deficiencies in energy or digestive problems. Both methods can also be more cost effective than drug therapy, Brett said. However, she cautioned there are obvious times when Western medicine and drugs are necessary to heal aliments.

Several states now require acupuncture practitioners to also have training in herbal medicine, which also led to the expanded masters program. Only students licensed in another health care field can be admitted into the new masters program, such as pharmacists or chiropractors. The degree is not open to the public.

“We”™ve had the Acupuncture Institute for 10 years now and we”™ve been successful,” Brett said. “Our goal is to get people to be able to practice wherever they want and to be able to help people as much as they can.”