Johnson State looks to alternatives

Students in the wellness and alternative medicine program at Johnson State College see wellness as a combination of all those approaches.

The program — the only one in the U.S. offering a bachelor of science degree in complementary and alternative medicine — draws students with broad-ranging interests. Some students plan to become full-time alternative wellness practitioners; others want to make those alternative approaches part of traditional health-care professions, such as nursing and family medicine. Still others want to work as health-care advocates.

Dr. Susan Green helped found the program, which was approved as a major in 2000; she’s now the program director.

The program’s premise is that alternative medicine can complement and strengthen traditional care, Green said.

Most medical schools offer few, if any, courses on alternative medicine. As a result, Green says, traditional physicians are unprepared to answer patients’ questions about chiropractic care, acupuncture or other alternative therapies.

In founding the Johnson program, “the idea wasn’t to bash conventional medicine,” Green said. “It was to use the same standard of evidence for both, so people could evaluate what might work best for them.”

Most promising, Green says, is how integrative medicine — an approach that uses both traditional and alternative treatments — could alter the way we prevent and treat diseases such as cancer, which occurs at the same rates today as it did during the 1930s.

Some graduates of the Johnson State program have gone on to medical school, and Green is excited about how they’ll be able to use what they learned at the college.

“They will be the doctors who are able to evaluate their patients and give them the best options,” Green said. “Medicine is very uniquely individual. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. Integrated medicine says, ‘Why not bring all the options together so you can get the best possible outcome?’”

Starting from scratch

Green, who has a doctorate in sociology, got interested in alternative therapies in the 1990s because of her dog.

The beloved mixed-breed dog had become lame, and said that, without aggressive treatments such as surgery and medicine, he’d likely have to be euthanized.

On a friend’s advice, Green took her dog to a chiropractor who treated animals.

“After 10 minutes of chiropractic adjustments, my little dog was able to run out of the office, was never lame again, and lived to be 17,” Green said. “It was like watching magic.”

Green, who has taught sociology at Johnson State since 1990, was asked to be part of a college committee looking at starting an undergraduate alternative wellness program.

There weren’t any undergraduate programs, so she contacted the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the only official federal public-education research center for nontraditional medicine. At that time, the center was conducting research for the National Institutes of Health.

The committee also looked at courses at Bastyr University, a naturopathic school where Andrew Weil, a physician and alternative health-care expert, teaches integrated medicine.

“Starting a program in an academic setting meant it had to be science- and evidence-based,” Green said.

What Johnson came up with was a four-year program that covers all science courses of a typical pre-med program, plus integrative medicine courses.

Now, about 70 students from across the U.S. are enrolled.

Multiple views

The Johnson program explores health from a variety of perspectives — sociology, anthropology, history, economics, political science — and also looks at its biological and chemical components.

Each component is important because it provides unique information, Green said.

“When we look at health from a cultural perspective, we’re looking at the beliefs, values and norms of the language that guides health,” Green said. “When you look at it sociologically, you’re looking at how economics, family structure and religious foundations affect health-care delivery. When we look at it psychologically, we’re looking at the mind and how it affects wellness and well-being for the individual.”

Green teaches an introductory course for the program, plus courses on science and disease and global health care.

In addition to courses taught by college faculty members, students gain knowledge from guest lecturers who are experts in chiropractic, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda (Indian medicine) homeopathy, Reiki energy therapy, massage, nutrition, alternative veterinary medicine and herbalism, among others.

Students also attend integrated medicine conferences throughout the U.S. to meet experts.

And during an Integrative Medicine Day held every semester, students get to experience everything from Thai massage to Tibetan-Mongolian medicine, from sound healing to meditation.

Green expects the program to expand both its scope and enrollment as public interest grows in integrated medicine, particularly in light of rising health-care costs and rising rates of chronic ailments such as heart disease.

“Our students are an interesting group,” Green said. “They come in so passionate and excited. They are turning out to be some of the best students at the school.

“It’s very exciting to learn about options in health care and to be able to use that knowledge to help their communities and families.”