Alternative Medicine

Just like their parents, kids are taking herbal supplements including fish oil and ginseng, a sign of just how mainstream alternative medicine has become. More than 1 in 9 children and teens try those remedies and other nontraditional options, the government said Wednesday in its first national study of young people's use of these mostly unproven treatments.

THE fur is flying, not to mention the acupuncture needles, the firewort and the $15,000-a-pound bull gallstones. China's ancient healing arts, as integral to national identity as the Great Wall or steamed dumplings, have become embroiled in the country's struggle to balance tradition and modernity. A relatively obscure professor at a regional university kicked off the controversy in October with an online petition calling for traditional medicine to be stripped from the Chinese Constitution.

Oxygen is one of those non-negotiable items in life. You can skimp on food, sunlight and, in emergency situations, morning coffee, but you can't last more than a couple of minutes without oxygen. The vital gas makes up about 20% of the air we breathe. The product: If 20% sounds skimpy, you can always try breathing 90% pure oxygen from an Oxygen+Stick (pronounced "oxygen plus stick"), a hand-held device sold over the Internet and at resorts and health spas across the country.

In the early evening of March 17, the man Erica McLean had hired to cure her husband of cancer arrived at their ranch in Sunland. David Chuah, a biochemist from Canada, carried a large brown bag brimming with pills, drops and powders, Erica recalls. Clive McLean, 60, was to take them in addition to the other therapies Chuah had prescribed during six months of treatment, she says.

American skiers Bode Miller and Erik Schlopy, set to compete in Alpine events at the Turin Olympics, crossed into Mexico to receive alternative therapy for knee injuries from a controversial physician who was barred from practicing in the United States. Miller reportedly was treated within the last year; it was not clear when Schlopy sought treatment.

GUMMY VITES. Strawberry Flavored Fish Oil. Super Kids Salve. Gum-omile Oil. Children's Echinacea. Herbs for Kids. Squeezed onto the shelves of your local drugstore, near the baby aspirin and children's Robitussin, is a steadily growing crowd of colorful supplements and herbs specifically for children. To many parents, these products are a safe first-defense against the aches and pains of childhood, ones that can be tried before drugs with their sometimes risky side effects.

As assistant district attorney in San Francisco, Keith Vines prosecuted one of the largest illicit drug busts the city had ever seen. Then he came down with AIDS wasting syndrome and lost 60 pounds over three years. To stimulate his appetite, he started taking marinol, an FDA-approved drug containing THC, one of the active ingredients in marijuana. He says he couldn't control the dose of the drug, which must be swallowed. "I would be out of it for four or five hours," he says.

LIFESTYLE changes can boost the health and well-being of heart patients, proponents of such programs have long said. Now Medicare has acknowledged that as well. The federal insurance program will now pay for the intensive cardiac rehabilitation plans created by preventive health guru Dr. Dean Ornish and mind-body medicine pioneer Dr. Herbert Benson -- the first time the federal government has agreed to reimburse consumers for specific lifestyle intervention programs.

WHEN a medical crisis hits, people want to know that someone smart in a white coat can prescribe Prozac to boost their mood, perform heart surgery to open their clogged arteries, or administer chemotherapy, radiation or surgery to cure them of cancer. But growing numbers of Americans are also eager to experiment with alternative therapies. They take herbs to boost their immunity, meditate to calm frayed nerves and seek acupuncture to combat nausea and pain.