ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608260001
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
It's not yet 8 a.m., but Pat Sollinger is on the road in her specially built, 34-foot-long Winnebago. The former Ohio real estate woman is off to bust some stress, rattle the chakras, the channels of energy in our bodies.
With the help of adult son, Joe, she'll chock the RV's wheels on the parking lot of Affiliated Rehab P.C. in Northwest Roanoke.
Every third Thursday, Sollinger sets up shop by 8 a.m. at the Plantation Road therapy center. From then until 6 p.m., she sees clients referred by the center's staff or enticed off the road by the blue vehicle with All's Well painted on the side.
On the second Tuesday and fourth Saturday of the month, she parks at Salem Total Automotive; on the first Friday, she's at Southwest Plaza Shopping Center.
Other days, Sollinger can be found at country club golf and tennis tournaments or on the grounds of companies such as Medeco Security Locks Inc. and Atlantic Mutual Cos., both of which were willing to try something new to encourage good health for employees.
Sollinger had never had a massage until 51/2 years ago when she decided to quit real estate and enroll in the Carolina School of Massage Therapy in Carrboro. Now as president of All's Well, a stress management company, she's a cutting edge provider of alternative health care.
Despite being considered outside the mainstream of traditional health and medical care, practices such as Sollinger's are drawing a lot of attention. Americans spend $13.7 billion annually on therapies that fall outside the traditional Western allopathic medicine, the New England Journal of Medicine reported last year.
Traditional medicine depends on drugs to relieve the symptoms of an illness. Alternative medicine is focused on prevention. It uses a variety of methods such as in Sollinger's Mobile Stress-Buster, the $115,000 van that was delivered in the spring.
The van contains three shiatsu massage chairs, a back saver massage lounger and a water bed that burbles up and down in time to music designed to relax, massage or rejuvenate the body.
The shiatsu chairs have padded mechanical rollers that move along the spine to stimulate neurological points. The back saver version is gentler.
The babbling bed, a HydroSonic Infrasound Rejuvenation System, is driven by four 15-inch speakers. Taking advantage of the human body being mostly water, the motion sends sound into the user's deep tissue in a way that can rejuvenate. Finishing out this treatment is a "Bodylight" and the chakra CD, that sends a specific frequency of colored light to each of the seven endocine centers in the body.
Sollinger, a certified massage therapist who also see clients in her home in Southwest Roanoke County, put the rolling mechanical relaxation parlor on the road in the spring. Charging prices ranging from $10 to $30 for sessions that last seven to 30 minutes, Sollinger expects to meet her expenses within six months of start-up.
Even though skeptics are in a majority in the United States when it comes to nontraditional health care, it has crept into the mainstream and captured the attention of groups looking for ways to cut health costs.
A theme in a report published last year for the National Institutes of Health is that traditional medicine, which treats illness, hasn't kept treatment costs down, so maybe it's time to look at the health care techniques designed to keep people from getting sick in the first place.
In 1991, the Office of Alternative Medicine was established as part of the NIH, a government agency, and given $2 million to "explore unconventional medical practices."
The Senate Appropriations Committee supported its decision to fund the agency by observing that radiation therapy as a treatment for cancer, now widely accepted, once was considered quackery.
The first part of the study was to find out what was what in the world of alternative medicine. The 372-page report "Alternative Medicine, Expanding Medical Horizons" published last year was the result.
In the preface, the authors further establish the need for health care to take a different tack by using heart disease as an example of the traditional system's failure.
About 300,000 coronary artery bypass graft operations are performed in the United States annually, at a cost of $9 billion, the report notes.
"Yet, coronary artery bypass surgery prevents premature death in only a few patients with the most serious main coronary or multiple-vessel heart disease," the authors wrote. "On the other hand, heart disease is almost entirely attributable to poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle decisions (alcohol consumption and smoking), and thus can be avoided."
The U.S. health care system treats infectious disease and traumatic injuries "extremely effectively," but is often ill-equipped to handle complicated chronic conditions, the report says. Disease prevention must be the "ultimate focus" of the primary health care system rather than disease treatment, was the conclusion.
The report explores the preventive potential of alternative practices, ranging from mind-body intervention to herbal medicine. It's also a fascinating look at medical history and a reminder of how the system has changed.
Herbal medicine, for example, was a mainstay of disease treatment for American Indians and for country folk in early America. The American gingseng, which grows in this area, is a sizeable export. But herbal medicine is considered ineffective, even dangerous, by the Food and Drug Administration, which is why herbal products can be marketed only as food supplements.
But that doesn't stop people from turning to them for help, and income, said Leah Cooper of Roanoke.
Cooper, who with husband, Carl, and son, Marc, recently moved to the area from California, is a distributor for Achievers Unlimited. The West Palm Beach, Fla., company began in January 1992 selling nutritional products. Its main product is Tri-Chromaleane (chromium picolinate) for weight management.
But Cooper was attracted to its Tranquell product, which she hoped she could use it instead of the widely prescribed tranquilizer Ritalin to control her son's hyperactivity.
While still living in California, Cooper began using homeopathic remedies to calm Marc. They worked, she said, until recently. Marc, 6, is now taking Ritalin, but Cooper is also trying to gradually add Tranquell to his diet in hopes that he can give up what she calls the "big R," which makes him too lethargic.
In the meantime, Cooper says she is making money selling the supplements.
Despite the FDA's position, the U.S. herbal supplement market is estimated to be worth more than $700 million.
As the NIH report notes:
"People increasingly are willing to 'self-doctor' their medical needs by investigating and using herbs and herbal preparations."
People also are discovering the values of massage therapy, which unlike herbal medicine, has been officially embraced in the United States.
Massage therapy was actually popular from the 1850s and done by doctors until the early 1900s when technology took over medicine, notes the NIH report. However, it points out, the country has rediscovered massage as a way to help premature infants gain more weight and have shorter hospital stays or to prevent colitis in stressed-out adults.
There are an estimated 50,000 practitioners of massage therapy in the country, the NIH estimates. Only 16,000 of them are certified, though, says the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork in Arlington.
Virginia certifies massage therapists; some states, such as Florida, also license them, which requires practitioners to pass competency exams.
No one can better speak of the changes in the status of massage therapists than Jade Daniels in Roanoke.
Although her office now is on Franklin Road Southwest in the medical district near downtown Roanoke, it used to be in her home and almost a secret.
In reaction to the sex massage parlors that popped up throughout the country in the 1970s, Roanoke, like many communities, made it illegal for a person to massage an opposite-sex customer.
Daniels, who is licensed as a massage therapist in Florida and certified in Virginia, had clients of both sexes, and ended up in court because of the local ordinance.
She was charged in 1986 with violation after an undercover police officer bought a massage session from her. However, he proved to be her best witness that the experience was nothing like what went on behind the dark windows of the neon-marked Williamson Road storefronts that prompted the law she was charged with breaking.
"The policeman went to sleep during the massage," said Daniels, who has been a leader of holistic therapies in the area.
Daniels, who once served as fitness director at Roanoke's Central YMCA and still teaches yoga-aerobics there, started offering meditation classes in 1975. She has taught tai chi, a gentle form of martial arts, since 1977 and started a program in it at Hollins College. She also teaches it for the Roanoke County Recreation Department.
She has a full schedule of massage clients, but Daniels also works as a consultant, be it helping soccer players at North Cross School focus or assessing the decor at a local chiropractor's office to determine if it is soothing to patients.
Two weeks ago, she was the featured speaker at a meeting of the Roanoke Jaycees. She tells business groups that there's a reason we use such terms as "chip on the shoulder" or "can't stomach."
"They represent stress within the body," she said.
Life should be fun, Daniels said. It's also nice when it's fun and lucrative, she admits. As operator of a private business, she won't reveal her income, except to say: "I make a lot of money."
But not from insurance companies: "Some of them pay; some don't," she said.
Insurance companies will generally pay for what businesses are willing to cover in their health plans, said Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield spokeswoman Brooke Taylor.
Some of the self-funded groups served by Trigon have asked for coverage of particular therapies, especially acupuncture, she said.
Taylor said Trigon has done periodic customer surveys in an effort to determine the popularity of alternative health care.
"What we found the last time we did this was it seems to be premature in the Virginia market to be offering a lot of this right now," she said.
Lack of insurance coverage hasn't hurt Daniels' massage business. Most of her clients pay for the services directly, and many have come to her for years, she said.
Companies can also get hooked on massage. It happened at Wampler Foods Inc. of Rockingham County.
Almost five years ago, Wampler Foods was approached by a massage therapist who suggested the chicken processing company's employees could benefit from her services.
The company tried a pilot program at one of its plants and liked the results, said Jane Brookshire, vice president of human resources.
About half of the company's 8,500 employees in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina now have access to massage therapy. It's not yet available at a new plant in North Carolina, Brookshire said.
But it will be, no doubt. When Wampler opened a new plant in Moorefield, W.Va., and couldn't find massage therapists in the area, it sent two employees through the Virginia School of Massage in Charlottesville.
They are now the staff therapists on the day and night shifts at the plant.
For a Wampler employee to get a massage - which is generally a 15-minute session - the worker must be referred through the company's medical department. The massage therapists also can refer, however. If they think an employee could benefit from counseling or some other treatment, they make the recommendation.
Brookshire said she didn't have any statistics on cost-savings for the program, but that the "evidence speaks." The company wouldn't have continued the program if it didn't think it was valuable, she said.
"It is a proactive way to deal with soreness and minor muscle strain, and deal with it early so we can prevent further injury," Brookshire said. Clerical employees who work at computers also use the massage benefit, she said.
It has become a "work hardening" program, she said.
"The massage therapists can teach employees exercises that strengthen them so they can better do their jobs," Brookshire said.
Experiences like that of Wampler Foods, and the individuals who seek out alternative health treatments on their own, have prompted seven states to pass laws affecting alternative practitioners. Eleven other states are considering legislation, points out a new report from the Virginia Board of Health Professions. So far, Virginia is just studying the situation.
The regulatory board commissioned a review of alternative and complementary medicines as a reaction to the NIH report and to determine if some of the practitioners should be regulated.
Public comment was solicited in August 1995 and again in March. The first request brought 110 responses, all but one supporting alternative medicine practitioners.
The second request drew 27 letters, 19 in favor of policy to support alternative medicine. Respondents also pointed out that there is a lack of alternative practitioners in the state because of "unattractive legal climate, lack of insurance reimbursement, lack of advertisement of alternative practices for fear of retaliation, and the negative attitudes from traditional medical professionals.
The Virginia report concluded that "public opinion is highly supportive" of the practice of alternative health care."
And so are some of the traditional medical professionals, said Dr. Pink Wimbish, a Roanoke Valley podiatrist.
Wimbish and his partner, Dr. Conrad Claytor, recently expanded into the alternative field because of what they learned from patients.
In their regular practices, the doctors routinely ended each patient's treatment with a foot massage using therapeutic lotion.
"People went crazy when we did that so we looked into it and found a whole lot of massage therapy going on," Wimbish said last week.
The physicians added a foot reflexology clinic to their Grandin Road Southwest office and hired a therapist to run it.
Wimbish said he couldn't document the medical value of reflexology, but that it certainly is relaxing. Hourlong sessions cost $35.
Also, he said he knows a couple of insurance companies will pay for it, but his office hasn't filed any claims yet. It hasn't even advertised the service.
"It's been pretty popular," he said. "It's kind of advertising itself."
The doctors plan to look into acupuncture services next, he said.
"A lot of times in the states, if we didn't discover it, we don't practice it," he said. "But we see so many patients where nothing [traditional] helps."
HEALTH TALK
Acupuncture - Shown to have positive results in management of chronic pain and drug addition; evidence indicates it can also help in treating osteoarthritis, asthma, painful menstrual cycles and migraine headaches
Ayruveda - India's traditional, natural system of medicine that states all disease begins with an imbalance or stress in the individual's consciousness. Studies have documented reductions in cardiovascular disease risk factors, including blood pressure, cholesterol and reaction to stress
Homeopathic medicine - Practiced worldwide and a multimillion-dollar industry in the United States. Homeopathic remedies, made from naturally occurring plant, animal or mineral substances, are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The remedies are used to treat acute and chronic health problems; recent clinical trials suggest homeopathic medicines have a positive effect on allergic rhinitis, fibrositis and influenza
Naturopathic medicine - Founded as formal health care system at turn of century, it integrates traditional natural therapeutics, including botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, homeopathy, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, traditional Oriental medicine and naturopathic manipulative therapy with modern medical diagnostic science and standards of care. Recent study indicates natural botanical formula is a possible alternative to estrogen replacement therapy.
QI (Chi, Ki) - Energy that connects and animates everything in the universe; includes individual qi (personal life force) and universal qi, which are coextensive through the practice of mind-body disciplines, such as traditional meditation, aikido and tai chi.
Reflexology - Massaging or placing pressure on hand or foot points to stimulate certain body organs; this is using the body's meridians.
Meridians - In Asian traditional medicine, the body has a channel with 12 portions, or meridians, which loop through the body in an endless circuit and carry the energy that regulates the functioning of various body structures
Biofield - A massless field (not necessarily electromagnetic) that surrounds and permeates living bodies and affects the body; possibly related to chi.
Chakra - One of the areas of rotation in the biofield, first elaborated in Indian metaphysics
Visualization therapies - Describes a variety of visual techniques used to treat disease; based on inducing relaxation
Massage therapy - Referenced in Chinese medical texts 4,000 years old and introduced in the United States in the 1850s; the scientific manipulation of soft tissues of the body to normalize those tissues
- Sources: "Alternative Medicine," a report to the National Institutes of Health, and "Alternative Health Medicine Encyclopedia."
TWO WAYS TO RELAX
Deep Breathing Relaxation
1. Get in as comfortable and quiet a place as possible. Close your eyes and focus on breathing.
2. Take a slow, deep breath from your diaphragm. Allow your abdomen to expand as if you were filling a balloon in your stomach. Let your chest and shoulders stay calm and relaxed as you breathe in and out.
3. If you have difficulty breathing from your diaphragm while letting your upper torso relax, practice with one hand on your abdomen and the other on your chest. The hand on your abdomen should go out as you breathe in and go in as you breathe out. The hand on your chest should not move while you are breathing.
4. Take slow, deep, rhythmical breaths. Inhale for a count of three to four and exhale for a count of six to eight.
5. Practice this for two to three minutes several times a day. Once you feel confidence in your ability to relax using this deep breathing technique, begin to use it in mild to moderate anxiety-provoking situations.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
1. While seated (or lying down), tense and release muscle groups in sequence, beginning with extremities, then torso, then head.
2. Lower arm: Hold hand palm down, make fist and then pull wrist up toward upper arm.
3. Upper arm: Tense biceps, with arms by sides, pull upper arm toward side without touching; try not to tense lower arm, let lower arm hang loosely.
4. Lower leg and foot: Extend leg so that it's straight, point toe upward toward knees.
5. Thighs: Pull knees together until upper legs feel tense.
6. Abdomen: Pull in stomach toward back.
7. Chest and breathing: Take a deep breath and hold it about 10 seconds then release.
8 Shoulders and lower neck: Shrug shoulders, then bring shoulders up until they touch ears.
9. Back of neck: Put head back and press against back of chair.
10. Lips: Press lips together but don't clench teeth or jaw.
11. Eyes: Close eyes tightly but not too hard; be careful if you wear contact lenses.
12. Lower forehead: Pull eyebrows down; try to get them to meet.
13. Upper forehead: Raise eyebrows and wrinkle your forehead.
- Source: Dr. James Culbert, clinical psychologist, Medical College of Virginia
LENGTH: Long : 353 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. In the Mobileby CNBStress-Buster, owner Pat Sollinger looks after Christy Wente while
Wente relaxes in a shiatsu massage chair. The chair creates a
variety of motions to knead muscles while the headset projects
lights and plays music that help induce relaxation. color.
PHOTO: 1. STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. A client gets a HydroSonic
Infrasound Rejuvenation System treatment (above) while lying on a
warmed water mattress in Pat Sollinger's Mobile Stress-Buster van
(left). 2. ERIC BRADY/Staff. Jade Daniels (seated, right) leads a
meditation group at her office on Franklin Road in Roanoke. 3.
PHILIP HOLMAN/Staff. Leah Cooper and her 6-year-old son, Marc, look
over some family photos. Cooper sells natural supplements, a
business she got into as a result of her son's mild autism. Her
intention is to replace his more traditional course of medication
with Tranquell, which is herb- and vitamin-based. color.