As alternative medicine becomes more and more mainstream, 
patients including Jan Alcott and Carroll Clark are now 
being offered massages, acupuncture, and other complementary 
therapy along with their standard medical treatment. And 
the results are excellent, according to preliminary studies 
now underway at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Alcott and Clark recently participated in studies that 
allowed them to receive massage therapy, acupuncture, 
or guided imagery after undergoing open-heart surgery.

"Our patients have gone through a very dramatic event 
and they're often in a great deal of discomfort," states 
study leader Gregory P. Fontana, MD, a heart surgeon at 
Cedars-Sinai in a written press release. "I've always 
believed that massage and other therapies can be very 
powerful in helping patients relax. If they can allow 
themselves to relax, accept what has happened, and 
realize a state of well-being, pain becomes a less 
important part of their consciousness."

Fontana's studies on the benefits of massage and 
acupuncture (the insertion of tiny needles at specific 
points on the body) are now in their final stages, 
while the study using guided imagery is just beginning. 
Guided imagery aims to make beneficial physical changes 
in the body by repeatedly visualizing them. These 
experiments, Fontana says, will pave the way toward 
larger studies. 

Alcott, 62, a resident of Englewood, Calif., received 
a daily massage for the week and a half after he underwent 
heart surgery. "It was wonderful," he tells WebMD. "I 
found that it relieved a lot of my tension and discomfort."

Within 15 minutes of the therapy, Alcott says he was so 
relaxed that he actually fell asleep.

Carroll Clark, 53, a salesperson in Ridgecrest, Calif., 
had a similar experience when she received acupuncture 
for 20 minutes a day while in the hospital after undergoing 
bypass surgery on four clogged heart arteries in April.

"I had no pain when I was in the hospital," she tells WebMD. 
"I actually thought I was on pain medication when I wasn't."

Mitchell Gaynor, MD, has been on the front lines of such 
complementary care for several years. He is director of 
medical oncology and integrative medicine at Strang-Cornell 
Cancer Prevention Center in New York City.


"Our major focus is in cancer treatment and cancer prevention, 
and we hold weekly meditation groups for cancer patients and 
their families," says Gaynor, the author of several books 
including "Sounds of Healing: A Physician Reveals the 
Therapeutic Power of Sound, Voice, and Music."

Meditation using sound and music helps patients feel better, 
he says. "Sound and music are two of the most overlooked 
healing modalities ever," Gaynor tells WebMD. "All systems 
in the body are profoundly affected."

For example, music and sound can lower heart rate, blood 
pressure levels, and levels of stress hormones. 
In one study, heart patients who listened to 15 minutes of 
classical music had lower complication rates than those 
who didn't listen to classical music, he says.

Gaynor was recently appointed medical director of the 
Cornell Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine -- 
which is slated to open on September 1, 2000. "The goal of 
this new center is to incorporate guided imagery, nutrition, 
music, acupuncture, acupressure, and massage into traditional 
care and to examine how this works on a basic science level,"
he says.

Gaynor's advice to patients who are interested in complementary 
medicine is to "find a physician who really practices 
alternative medicine. He or she can help you identify 
the core issues and traumas that affect illness and make 
a recommendation as to what type of alternative therapy 
may best help you."

For information about pain management as it relates to cancer 
treatment, visit WebMD's Quick Facts.