TRR file photo Selma Field

The best of both worlds

An Interview with Selma Field

By TOM KANE

Selma Field is director of public relations, marketing and program development at Community General Hospital (CGH) and executive director of the CGH Foundation. She has been instrumental in instituting classes and programs in areas such as yoga, aromatherapy and tai chi at CGH. Field spoke to The River Reporter recently about her interest in alternative and complementary medicines.

TRR: You have been a pioneer of complementary medicine for years. What got you started?

I got started a long time ago because my father-in-law, Richard M. Field, M.D., was a world-renowned homeopath. When I got seriously ill with complications, he dropped a few pills on my tongue and within minutes I was cured. I became curious about it.

When I began studying other forms of alternative medicine I found that, while current traditional medicine is based on theories and drugs that come and go, alternatives have lasted for thousands of years, consistently providing people with relief—medicines like traditional Chinese medicine, for example, Chinese herbs and acupuncture, and Ayurvedic Hindu medicine, and native American medicine and, of course, homeopathy.”

How should this affect our attitude towards orthodox/allopathic medicine?

This is not to say that we should not have a great deal of respect for orthodox medicine. Certainly the advances in surgery and in diagnosis have been life saving. They’re remarkable. Basically, what we should be looking for is a synthesis of the best of both worlds.

In a crisis especially, you will need the skills of allopathic medicine, and people should have faith in their physicians, who have gone through a rigorous training. There must be someone who guides the healing process, in addition to the forces of nature.

Information was released by David Eisenberg of Harvard recently that in 1994 over $4 billion dollars was spent on alternative medicine.

I think the amount is higher that that. What’s remarkable is that it is out-of-pocket money, not covered by insurance companies. It’s an enormous trend.

It has been said that orthodox medicine treats the symptom but alternative medicine treats the cause of a disease. What is your reaction to that statement?

Yes, allopathic medicine is trained to treat the symptom and most alternative medicine aims at treating the whole person. It used to be called holistic medicine, meaning that you are treating body, mind and spirit. This approach believes that the goal is to enhance the immune system whereby the body cures itself. And the other aims at attacking the symptom. It’s a matter of strengthening the constitution, the alternatives say. Some people call it the vital force, the Chinese call it chi. The Ayurvedics call it prana.

What types of alternative medicine are now being accepted by the medical profession?

Certainly acupuncture is becoming more and more accepted. Many physicians practice it themselves or refer to another. Certainly, nutrition has become an important part of medicine and many doctors are referring patients to nutritionists. Also many physicians have great respect for the role exercise plays in relieving stress that causes many diseases, especially cardiac diseases.

There are many referrals now to meditation, to yoga and tai chi and other forms of therapy that integrate mind and body. And there’s a recognition of the importance of physical therapy and massage.

Has there been an acceptance of what’s being called “energy medicine?”

Things like Reiki and Semei find it harder to get through to the orthodox community. Orthodox medicine looks for double blind studies that are scientific, while energy and alternative medicines present experiential and anecdotal results.

The growth of alternative medicine has been enormous in recent years. Why do you think that is?

First, people are living longer so there is more chronic disease. Second, there is more knowledge now, especially with the Internet, in the media and elsewhere. And third, there is dissatisfaction, even on the part of professionals, that most medicines have side effects. While they can suppress symptoms, they don’t cure the entire problem.

You get to the point where the doctor says, “Well, this is all we can do for you.” And the patient doesn’t think that that’s enough. So they begin to look elsewhere.

Years ago, the famed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi came to Sullivan County with his Transcendental Meditation. Today we have the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale and spas and things like the Dean Ornish approach, which combines orthodox medicine with the alternatives. The National Institute of Health and its Division of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has an enormous amount of information on its web site where it reports clinical trials on numerous types of alternative medicines.

Is there still a lot of resistance by orthodox physicians to alternative medicine?

Yes, it’s true.

I think that, as more medical teaching schools introduce courses in alternative medicine, there will be less and less resistance.  Also, many doctors who can no longer help their very sick patients are beginning to turn to these modalities. We’ll see more and more of this, I think.

The hardest thing to do is go it completely alone. It’s still hard to find holistic practitioners who can integrate the best of both medicines. There is a tendency on the part of the lay person to try every thing because if a little is good, more is better and that’s not necessarily so. You can get into as much trouble that way as you can with anything else.