New-age prescriptions including yoga, hypnosis, acupuncture By Cecilia Oleck, Detroit… New-age prescriptions including yoga, hypnosis, acupuncture By Cecilia Oleck, Detroit Free Press

DETROIT – Belinda Lowe is the kind of patient the medical profession is scrambling to catch up to.

The 43-year-old from Westland, Mich., sees her doctor regularly, exercises and eats well and wants her health care providers to be as interested in caring for her mind, body and spirit as she is. And she wants her health care to be as natural as possible.

So when Lowe decided to have surgery last fall to get her tubes tied, she was surprised and pleased when the obstetrician/gynecologist suggested that she undergo hypnosis before surgery rather than receive anesthesia to numb her body and prevent pain.

The experience, Lowe said, was like being on a tropical vacation, albeit in a doctor’s office.

“It was like lying on the beach, it was so serene,” Lowe, a project manager for a telecommunications company, said.

Physicians like Richard Herman, the Botsford General Hospital obstetrician/gynecologist who performed Lowe’s hypnosis and surgery, are part of a new wave in the movement of therapies from the fringes of health care into mainstream medical circles. Traditional health care providers are responding to patients like Lowe by offering hypnosis, acupuncture, massage, vitamins, herbal supplements, meditation, yoga and guided imagery in addition to conventional medical care.

For Herman, learning hypnosis and incorporating it into his medical practice makes sense for him and his patients.

“People are looking for a better way,” Herman said, adding that since last summer, about 20 patients have opted for hypnosis in place of anesthesia. “If there’s a way we’re treating people, there’s a way to do it better.”

Lowe says she chose hypnosis because “I would rather see what I could do holistically before pumping myself with medicines.”