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Stepping Beyond Mainstream Medicine
USC gerontology professor writes a new book offering unbiased reports on alternative therapies ranging from red clover to glucosamine.

By Allison Engel
                       
When it comes to alternative medicine, many doctors and their patients have a “don’t ask and don’t tell” relationship, said Edward L. Schneider, an M.D. who is dean emeritus and professor of gerontology in the USC Davis School of Gerontology.

Doctors rarely question patients about taking nontraditional medicines, he said, and patients rarely volunteer the information for fear of alienating their physician.

One unhealthy consequence of this disconnect is harmful drug interactions, since “lots and lots” of alternative therapies can interfere with prescription medicines, Schneider said.

For example, red clover, gingko biloba, garlic and chamomile all interact negatively with Coumadin, a common anticoagulant. Another unfortunate consequence of poor doctor-patient communication is that patients don’t learn about alternative therapies that are effective for chronic health problems.

Schneider, who said he has no bias for or against alternative medicines, decided there was a need for an objective look at these therapies. He has studied alternative medicine for years, even traveling to China to investigate traditional medicine there.

As a former deputy director of the National Institute on Aging, he lectures frequently on longevity and good health before lay audiences, and questions about acupuncture, echinacea, vitamins and the like invariably come up.

With his 35 years of experience in assessing medical research, including 180 research papers of his own, Schneider realized that he could provide useful guidance on what drugs could be recommended and which ones should be avoided.

Thus a new book, written with Leigh Ann Hirschman, that was published by Penguin. The title is self-explanatory: “What Your Doctor Hasn’t Told You and the Health Store Clerk Doesn’t Know.” It is available online from Amazon.com.

In it, Schneider rates alternative medicines as “highly recommended, recommended, acceptable and don’t use.” Glucosamine, for example, is highly recommended for arthritis. Aromatherapy, on the other hand, is given an acceptable rating. It does very little, Schneider noted, but also is relatively harmless.

His list of risky medicines and therapies includes kava kava, chelation therapy, yohimbe and what he calls “that great gimmick” – the Atkins diet. The latter is dangerous because eating a lot of protein and a lot of fat is unhealthy, Schneider said. “There’s nothing wrong with carbohydrates, especially those in fruits and vegetables.”

The book is organized by specific health issues: joint pain, depression, menopause, sleep problems, heart disease, cancer and others. For each health issue, he lists what doctors haven’t told patients about alternative therapies and what store clerks don’t know. He concludes each chapter with the “smartest combination of conventional and alternative treatments now available,” as the book’s back cover calls it.

An appendix, titled “Take This to Your Doctor,” lists medical journal articles and Web sites that back up Schneider’s specific recommendations for each health problem.

Schneider, who also is a professor in the Keck School of Medicine of USC, wrote the book last year while on sabbatical. It appears to be generating strong interest right out of the box. On June 14, a week after its publication date, Schneider was booked for interviews with 25 radio stations, including National Public Radio. He is scheduled to talk about the book at the 92nd Street Y in New York City in November.

The author thinks that his even-handed, open-minded approach is finding an audience buffeted by information from partisans.

“I’ve simply been around too long to have an ax to grind either way,” Schneider writes in the book’s preface. “I’m not employed by the pharmaceutical or alternative-medicine industries, and I don’t take a penny from either one of them.”

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Schneider rates alternative medicines as “highly recommended, recommended, acceptable and don’t use.” Glucosamine, for example, is highly recommended for arthritis. Aromatherapy, on the other hand, is given an acceptable rating. It does very little, Schneider noted, but also is relatively harmless.

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