Reuters

HEALTH: A Senate panel is told that 'tens of millions' of Americans are
combining ancient wisdom and modern science.

WASHINGTON - Doctors and scientists argued for better government support for
alternative medicine Thursday, saying it needed to be treated seriously.

People are using alternative and complementary medicine anyway, so it
should be researched as thoroughly as any other branch of medicine, they
told a Senate subcommittee.

"We are in the midst of a revolution in the practice of medicine and a
transformation in the kind of health care Americans want and receive," said
James Gordon, a psychiatry and familymedicine professor at Georgetown
University.

"For tens of millions of Americans, it is no longer a question of either
modern science or ancient wisdom, but of combining both in a new, richer,
more effective and more humane synthesis," Gordon told the Senate Labor and
Human Resources Subcommittee on Public Health and Safety.

The subcommittee was considering whether to create a National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research, on a par with other
National Institutes of Health agencies such as the National Institute of
Mental Health and the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

There is an Office of Alternative Medicine, but witnesses testifying to the
panel said this was underfunded and did not have the needed clout to do the
right research.

"The OAM needs to become the National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine, an independent NIH body with its own granting
capacity and with an advisory council that has the authority to approve
these grants," Gordon said.

Gordon said the interest in and need for more research was clear. "Between
12,000 and 14,000 acupuncturists of all races practice in the United
States, and some 3,000 are physicians," he said.