Dear FRONTLINE,

I feel that this program falls into the catagory that I like to call the wolf-in-sheeps-clothing phenomenon that happens with CAM. You get a trusted authority, such as an MD, and have them title a book or report with phrases that seem to sound as if they are going to shed light on the subject of CAM, but then the whole work is used to cast doubt and mistrust by stating that in their limited opinion they don't understand the concept and therefore deem it as irrelevant and suspect.

I noticed that next week there will be a program concernig the drug industry and the FDA. Many people I see have been commenting about how we should be taking a closer look at these pharmaceutical behemoths with the same doubt that has been turned on CAM in this program. I am glad that this show is next in line. In all honesty, as a conventional medical student and professional acupuncturist, I have seen the limitations of both camps in providing care as well as the difficulty involved in trying to make sense of their politics and rationale. It is not an easy job.

In light of this task I would like to point out a major observation that I have realized concerning this. In order for CAM to become accepted it must pass through the same trials that other treatments and substances must go through. These trials cost plenty of money. We belive that our academic institutes will be the unbiased eye that will give everyone a chance, but this is not true. The nutraceutical companies were represented as financially booming, but no mention was made that Pfizer with just it's Viagra stocks alone could buy out any one of them! The money sounds big, but relative to the big guys it isn't. So who really has the upper hand here? Who can push the product through the trials and who has to wait for the mercy of grants?

Rodrigo Ceballos
San Antonio, TX

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am a pharmacist, and I specialize in oncology research at a major teachig hospital. However, homeopathy is my passion, and it saved my ability to be independent when I was almost sidelined by severe chronic pain.

I believe in the necessity of research, but I know that personal experience is the "proof of the pudding", as the Brits put it.

Thank you for the dialogue. It is important that people see the merging of complementary and alternative medicines. This is where complementary medicine is truly complementary-- when the best of the best are used together for healing.

Linda Hultgren
Baltimore, Md

Dear FRONTLINE,

PBS thinks that they are providing "balanced" journalism by having advocates and critics on alternative medicine speak. However, the critics are untrained in this field, have little or no experience in actually using these methods, and seemed to be ignorant of the wide range of basic science as well as clinical research on these natural therapies. I wonder if PBS will have spokespersons from alternative medicine on every program that they create on conventional medicine to provide "balance."

And for the record, if homeopathic doses are so "impossible," why has the NEW SCIENTIST reported on 3 basic science studies that have shown dramatic effects from these "nanopharmacological" doses? Go to www.newscientist.com and search "homeopathy" for these stories and studies. And if you want to access the 100+ clinical studies on homeopathy, I wrote an e-book called "Homeopathic Family Medicine" that references and describes these clinical trials (this is an e-book, in an Acrobat file, just so that I can continue to provide up-to-date information about clinical homeopathic research.

Dana Ullman, MPH
Berkeley, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

As a homeopath I watched with trepidation - those kind of shows are usually very bad for my health. But since I am such a big fan of Frontline, I held my breath and watched. I was not disappointed.

All of the other network coverage of so-called "alternative" medicine is usually so shrill and biased. It was refreshing to see an even-handed and calm reporting of non-mainstream medicine. The discussion of homeopathy was even okay. Just okay. Too bad there wasn't time to mention the double-blind,clinical trials called "provings" done on every single remedy on healthy human beings prior to use without assumption as to outcome. The choice of showing a Tarentula case was unfortunate only because of how it would seem to the non-homeopathic population. Using venoms as healing substances is certainly nothing new. Further, someone once looked at a moldy piece of bread and thought, "hmmm. Now I wonder if that has any healing properties..."

And for those who say that highly-dilute substances can have no healing power, I refer them to the other PBS recent airing of the Elegant Universe. Homeopathic medicine is no more mysterious than quantum physics - and string theory - in fact, in my opinion the explanation of homeopathic medicine will emerge as the string theorists get it together.

As for the "we're in it for the money" business. Please. That's kind of the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?

Thanks for the calm look.

Judy Crane
Manchester, VT

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you for an informative and balanced program.

It is good to finally see at least a reasonable amount of skepticism being shown alongside a torrent of pseudoscience. The alternative practitioners got to show their stuff, which will no doubt be good publicity for them, and the scientists got to counter their claims with rationality. Fair enough.

Most revealing I thought were the comments of Matt Fink, former CEO of Beth Israel, who admitted that he didn't think some of these modalities actually did any good, but that they had to offer them else patients would go elsewhere. At least he's being honest.

However, as Bob Park pointed out, this is completely unethical. The job of a hospital is to treat people. Fink knows that homeopathy (to pick one of many examples) has a non-existent track record of provably helping anybody, yet he encouraged its adoption at Beth Israel. Once a therapy is performed inside a hospital, it is inveigled with an appearance of efficacy. It is therefore dishonest for any hospital to allow unproven modalities to be practised inside its walls.

Sen. Hatch's primary motivation for allowing a flood of unproven and unregulated supplements onto the market seems to be that people want them, and they shouldn't be hamstrung by the pettiness of the FDA. Well, plenty of people want marijuana and cocaine too, but they seem to face all kinds of governmental intervention. We owe our safe food supply and pharmacopoeia to the FDA. In the 19th century the country was awash with quacks selling their nostrums to an unsuspecting public. The DSHEA returns us to these times, in the name of offering the public a choice.

As expected, Gil and Christie Goren have complete faith in Papa Joe, despite the fact that he predicted they would be pregnant in three weeks and they are still childless a year later. No doubt the public is still taking St John's Wort, ephedra, and Vitamin O, despite the evidence that they are worthless and even dangerous. It would be fascinating to see a program which investigated the desire of the public to believe in alternative medicine, despite the mountains of evidence indicating that it does not work.

Thomas Kite
Beaverton, OR

Dear FRONTLINE,

I have come to expect unbiased reporting from Frontline and was totally shocked by this shows coverage of herbal supplementation. It was so far from being unbiased that it could easily have been produced by the pharmaceutical industry. As a corporate executive that is multi-degreed and spent over 30 years in the insurance industry I have the professional background to discuss this but it is my personal experience that I will share in the limited time available to answer.

I have suffered from a form of arthritis since I was a child. Many years of tests and trial and error with seemed to be the "drug of the year or month" resulted no only in no improvement but continued deterioration and side-effects from the pharmaceuticals to the point where in my 50's I became homebound. In February of this year, I met a person that had been relieved of similar symptoms by the use of supplements. After asking my rheumatologist it the ingredients could hurt me, I tried them and within 10 days had improvement, and since have been able to stop all the many pharmaceuticals that were damaging my body and am not leading a full life and walking over a mile a day. This is not a rare situation and my rheumatologist is not referring many of his patients to me for information on using these supplements. Just like pharmaceuticals, not all solutions work as well for all people, unlike pharmaceuticals, there have been ZERO negative side-effects. There are no effective pharmaceutical "fixes" for the symptoms of Fibromyalgia, Lupis and many forms of arthritis. Yes there is pain relief and anti-depressents but these don't address the causes of the pain and depression. Herbal rememdies work for millions of people and have for centuries.

In Europe, they use herbal solutions BEFORE resorting to pharmaceuticals and have great results and keep the use of drugs to a minimum. Unfortunately their is a huge ongoing lobbying effort by the drug industry in this country so it is unlikely that we'll see unbiased reporting and investigation. Please, whatever you do, be certain to look into the entire story on topics so that you can present unbiased and accurate reports to us all. I believe that even in the case of Ephedra that your reporting was not complete or unbiased. Even common kitchen salt has been reported as a caus of death because it is poisonous in large quantities, and harmful in the quantities in the typical American diet. IF Ephedra had been an FDA approved pharmaceutical, the number of incidents that have been reported would not have been newsworthy because it is not uncommon for adverse effects from overdoses of approved drugs. Be certain you use an even hand when reporting topics of this importance!

Lavona Rann
Naperville, IL

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you. I represent associations with 1000s of mainstream Complementary Healthcare providers.

Your show is a good start for an extremely important discussion - but missing important details.

Many excellent mainstream modalities were completely missed and most of the others were given a confusing introduction - see www.CompWellness.org/eGuide for brief descriptions of 100+ modalities.

Glad to see congress holding the FDA at bay - it tends to continue reliance on Rx drugs, even though it is our watchdog. Missing: Rx-Supplement interaction databases and that the FDA is inserting itself more in the supplement industry. See front-page article at www.CompWellness.org/Journal/back.htm, Mar-Apr 2003, "FDA's Two-Edged Sword."

Kenton Johnson
Centennial, CO

Dear FRONTLINE,

I found your show informative. I also commend Beth Israel Hospital in its efforts to give patients a choice. In hospitals we give patients informed consent. I don't see the difference in giving the patient the choice. At one hospital that I worked at we had massage therapist as well as music therapy. The patients that I helped care for who received these therapies reported less pain, required fewer narcotic pain medications, and reported a good hospital experience. Is this scientific, no, but did it work for those patients, the answer is yes. This may not have been the only factor but if it helps the patient feel better then why shy away from it, as long as there is no harm to the patient. Until all allopathic practitioners recognize that there is a strong mind-body connection and you must heal both the mind and body there where be an inherit flaw in healthcare as we know it.

Jason Alvarez, RN
Gainesville, Fl

Dear FRONTLINE,

I feel consumers must be educated in all forms of medical therapy.Currently, our society gives to much athority to conventional western medicine,current scientific theories and drug therapy.

As a person with a terminal illness(meaning no conventional treatments can cure me)I want the ability to choose alternative therapies whether they are proven scientifically or not.

My personal opinion is that people understand the basic theories behind each alternative therapy and then choose what will work best for their situation.Science should continue to look at how different alternatives might work together and also look at incompatability.

On the issue of herbal suppliments,there should be some unified standards set by the manufactures and tests for safety by independent labs but by no means should the FDA be allowed to regulate suppliments.Thank You,SR Phoenix

SR Phoenix
Girdwood , Alaska

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was born into a medical (western medicine) family. My mother, father, 2 brothers, 2 uncles, 3 cousins and 2 second cousins are doctors. A Westen method of medecine was a norm when growing up, however, no doctors including my parents ever taught me about maintain the health when you are healthy. Now I have been seeing chiropractors for over 20 years, accupuncture for 10, yoga, meditation and other healing methods I cultivated keeps me not physically healthy but mentally and spiritually. Thanks to holistic concept of "whole life", that's what's western medicine is lacking in my book. Thank you for your program.

Mihoko Tokoro

Dear FRONTLINE,

I was very disappointed in this show. The producer and writers came off biased and uneducated in the alternative health industry and proved it by interviewing the very people who set the double standard. "The medicines approved by the FDA are safe?" Please. Define "Safe" may cause nausea, internal bleeding cramping digestive orders headaches... and on and on, one disclaimer after another?

There are questions and doubts and there are frauds. This is just true. Not only in alternative care, but traditional medicine as well. The cases are too many to do in one show, but really, what was your point? To show alternatives, comprehensivly, as in, tell me something new, or that I don't know, or to promote the FDA, and Harvard Medical School? Many deaths are caused by mistakes and in competence right in our sared hospitals. . But this exploration into the "new" alternatives, (yes, new to the few in the show but not to one out of three Americans, as they themselves state in the show) deserves better than the producer gave it. The audience expects them to get facts straight about studies done on homeopathy as proven effective, facts on sucxcessful cases for both The Maoris and the Cancer doctors. Straight about homeopathy studies and accupunture. Better luck next time, if anyone ever lets you back in their office.

Colleen McLean
Venice, CALIFORNIA

Dear FRONTLINE,

I found this program very frustrating. I have more comments than time to write.

I am fortunate to have found an excellent primary care physician with whom I can discuss what alternative practices I employ to keep myself healthy. I had cancer of the kidney in 1976 and was given 6 months to live.

I'm still here and I'm healthy with no re-occurance of the cancer. Mainstream medicine gave me little or no hope, outside of radiation therapy - so I turned to alternative practices.

Papa Joe is only one of the many dedicated healers I have been fortunate enough to have been helped by over the years.

True healing is more than fixing something. It is deep and abiding and for many of us, a lifetime commitment.

Do more shows, look deeper, talk to more people who not only practice alternative medicine, but more people like myself who found little or no help in the conventional medical model and had to search elsewhere.

Cirelle Raphalian

Dear FRONTLINE,

Your program seemed more critical of the Alternative Medicine options and more biased toward Conventional Medicine. Your report stated that 'regulating for safety before supplements go on the market would require the revamping of DSHEA' and go on to say that Congress has made no move to do so. However, there are two bills that have been introduced this year that prove otherwise. One of those is Bill 722, that would unnecessarily impair the current efforts of the FDA to implement DSHEA. And the other is Bill 1538, the DSHEA Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2003, that would provide more funds to the FDA over the next 5 years in order to step up enforcements of DSHEA.

It would have also been worth mentioning that in March 2003, the FDA published a proposed regulation that would establish “current good manufacturing practices” (cGMPs) for dietary ingredients and dietary supplements. The rule is intended to reduce adulteration and misbranding of dietary ingredients and dietary supplement and would require proof of product identity, strength, quality, and purity — data achieved through testing, controlled manufacturing, and detailed documentation.

You also failed to mention the enforcements that the FDA has made in the recent months in regards to dietary supplements. According to the Dietary Supplement Enforcement Report July 2003, listed on the FDA's website, over the last 6 months the FDA issued 73 warning letters and Cyber letters to marketers of dietary supplement products, seized products worth almost $9 million, refused import of 368 shipments of dietary supplement products offered for entry, and supervised the voluntary destruction of $515,000 worth of dietary supplements promoted with unsubstantiated structure/function claims. By comparison, in 2001, they issued 21 warning letters and seized unlawful dietary supplement products worth $2 million.

So give DSHEA a fair shake and it WILL benefit the American consumer.

Eileen Campbell
Wilber, NE

Dear FRONTLINE,

Homeopathy is a subtle form of scientific medicine based on scientic observation by herbalogists for years.... The drug industry is infamous for promoting now on TV their versions of healing medication based on experimentation in 3rd world countries, it is said. "Is there proof they work? Does it worry you?"

As the previous letters so politely suggest, the presentation was very biased. Nutri-sweet is said to cause tumors in various parts of the head including eyes, yet it has expanded from cold to hot foods, etc. The food industry has stripped basic food from their products. The basis of it all....???? Much politeness. Take a look at the tobacco industry. Is this the future of the med and food industry???

Susana McBride

Dear FRONTLINE,

As a 4th year student of naturopathic medicine, I was disappointed at Frontline's "Alternative Fix" piece, finding it an incomplete portrayal of the reality of alternative medicine. The examples portrayed the field of alternative medicine narrowly and completely failed to even brooch the subject of the alternative medicine schools that are training highly qualified primary care physicians in natural medicine.

The long history of alternative medicine includes many different highly trained doctors, including DO's, Chiropractors, Naturopathic Doctors and Chinese Medicine Doctors. Yes MD's are also using alternative medicine practices in their offices or hospitals, but that trend has multiplied since the Harvard Study showing the publics interest in alternative medicine.

I found that you did try to portray 2 "sides" of the debate, but with so much time spent on DHSEA, much time was lost that could have been more informative and educational on what alternatives are really out there.

Tabatha Parker
Portland, Oregon