Healthcare is changing rapidly, pushed by the rise of a new breed of informed patient who is seeking alternatives to conventional treatments.
That much is apparent from patient spending. Americans forked out $30.2 billion from their pockets in 2012 on health practices such as herbal supplements, medication, chiropractic care and yoga, according to a report by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, or NCCIH, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The former agency is part of the National Institutes of Health.
While that amount represented only 9.2% of all out-of-pocket healthcare spending and 1.1% of total healthcare spending, the combination of conventional medicine and nonmainstream approaches known as integrative care is on the rise.
Not Alternative
First thing’s first—the term “alternative medicine” is out, several industry experts told the Business Journal.
The NCCIH defines conventional medicine as Western medicine, the practice of treating symptoms and diseases using drugs, radiation or surgery. What it calls alternative medicine refers to the practice of using nonmainstream practices in place of conventional ones. It has no official list of what alternative medicine comprises, but treatments falling under the category typically include acupuncture, meditation, massage, aromatherapy and hypnosis.
“True alternative medicine is uncommon,” meaning the use of those approaches alone, the center said. “Most people who use nonmainstream approaches use them along with conventional treatments.”
NCCIH started funding research last year in the areas of pain, the interplay between mind and body, and whether there are real health benefits from natural products, such as vitamins, minerals and plants.
What You Eat
The phrase “you are what you eat” rings with undeniable truth. After all, food provides essential nutrients for the proper functioning of the body.
Metagenics Inc. Chief Executive Brent Eck said he’s a firm believer in lifestyle medicine, such as diet, exercise and sleep to best manage chronic disease. The 30-year-old Aliso Viejo-based company sits in the middle of the movement as a provider of professional supplement-grade medical foods and as a nutrition products maker. Its products are prescribed through doctors.
He said the company has observed the shift of nutraceuticals—or supplements and fortified foods—from alternative to mainstream, and while traditionally its sales came from alternative medicine, like acupuncture and chiropractics, “Last year we saw most of our businesses came from medical doctors.”
Eck said that not all doctors are trained to practice lifestyle medicine and that the company has been working on a suite of digital tools for practitioners. It will soon launch a nutritional physical-exam platform designed to help doctors quickly assess which nutrients a patient needs. Top therapeutic areas include general wellness, healthy weight gain, chronic disease, gastrointestinal disorders and cardiometabolic diseases.
Metagenics told the Business Journal earlier this year that it plans to open a clinic at the headquarters next year. The approximately 9,000-square-foot facility, according to Eck, will operate like a functioning medical clinic, providing patient care and collecting data.
The private company generated over $330 million last year.
Cannabis
Medical marijuana is illegal on the federal level, yet legal on the state level in 30 states and including Washington, D.C., including California. The reality is that “people are turning to cannabis because they think it’s safe and effective in areas where traditional medicine, while effective, comes with troubling side effects,” said Danielle Piomelli, professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of California-Irvine and its new interdisciplinary cannabis study center.
For more than 25 years, Piomelli has been studying the endocannabinoid system, neurotransmitters that bind with active chemical compounds in cannabis, such as THC and CBD. He said research has shown cannabis’ potential therapeutic benefit in treating pain, nausea and multiple sclerosis, a disease in which the immune system eats away nerves’ protective covering, disrupting the flow of information in the brain and between the brain and the body.
Israel-based NiaMedic Healthcare & Research Clinics is betting on that opportunity, planning to open its first U.S. clinic at the end of the month in Orange County, just outside the Laguna Woods Village community (see related story, page 35).
The company operates a number of geriatric healthcare clinics in Israel that provide what it calls research-backed medical cannabis treatment as part of a patient’s conventional care.
“Cannabis is not right for everybody,” said Alon Blatt, business development officer of NiaMedic USA.
He said it’s important to avoid self-administering because different types of marijuana plants produce different effects and that each strain is effective for treating certain types of pain and medical conditions.
There are also delivery and dosage. He pointed out that eating marijuana tends to produce a stronger and much longer-lasting effect than smoking it, as much as “five times stronger.”
A visit to the clinic costs $350 for a full health assessment, consultation, treatment planning and a month of routine monitoring. Patients can choose to become a member for $100 a month and $150 per visit. Treatment isn’t currently covered by insurance.
NiaMedic doesn’t sell cannabis directly to patients.
It was co-founded by Chief Executive Nir Dror and head nurse Inbal Silkorin.
