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Holocaust Survivors Introduced to Ancient Medicine

The 5,000-year-old Chinese medical tradition of acupuncture and herbal medicine is gaining acceptance in an unlikely setting, a nursing home that caters almost exclusively to Holocaust victims.
The idea for introducing Traditional Chinese Medicine into the Margaret Tietz Nursing Center program came when its medical director, Dr. Gail Lowenstein, injured her foot and had no success when she turned to western medicine.
"I was dancing with my husband at my nieces Bat Mitzvah in Florida last May when I fell and hurt my leg," Lowenstein said. "Going home I wound up in a wheel chair at the airport."
Back in New York she sought aid from orthopedic specialists and underwent an MRI. "The MRI didnt turn anything up," she said. "I became bothered, despondent and a little crazy."
One of the nursing centers suppliers urged her to visit a Flushing acupuncturist and herbalist, Dr. William Young.
"I took a taxi one day to Chinatown to see him," she said. "There was no nurse at his office when I hobbled into his apartment house. There were no other patients in the office."
Youngs treatment involved placing 10 needles in her ailing leg and attaching it to an electrical current. The treatment required five visits and included herbs prescribed for her.
"I really felt better after the first treatment," Lowenstein said. "The herbs he gave me were black pills and I took three to four a day, although I admit there were days I skipped a couple of doses."
After five sessions Lowenstein was almost completely cured, she says. She discarded her cane and walked on her own.
"Thats when I became interested in bringing Dr. Young on board at Margaret Tietz so he could treat some of our residents particularly those with severe wounds and in need of pain relief."
Lowenstein decided to approach the United Hospital Fund to seek a $35,000 grant to help set up an acupuncture program at Margaret Tietz. The grant was approved and Young was brought on board to provide Chinese medicine to Tietzs elderly residents.
One of his first cases was an 81-year-old resident who was admitted to Tietz with five years of non-healing ulcers on his lower legs. It was noted there was a foul odor emanating from his lower leg through a plaster boot meant for wound healing. The next day the smell had worsened and drainage from the leg wound was oozing through the plaster boot.
Young, who was trained in Taiwan and Hong Kong, added an orange powder, yunnan paiyao to the western medications. Young told the nursing home staff that he had never seen such severe wounds before. He later added aloe vera wound gel to the orange powder, and the wounds healed, he said.
Administrators at Tietz say have documented cases of successful treatment with traditional Chinese medicine.
Alternative medical care is booming in the U.S., according to a recent report by the National Institutes of Health. It points out that Americans spent $217.2 billion in 1998 on providers of alternative health care, including those in chiropractic, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, naturopathy and massage therapy. Sales of herbs are also growing to $4.4 billion last year, from nearly $2.5 billion in 1995.
A survey of more than 2,000 adults published in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that 46 percent of the American population had visited a practitioner of alternative health care in 1997, up from 35 percent in 1990.
The Nutrition Business Journal, an industrial trade publication, reports that Americans spent $27.2 billion in 1998 on providers of alternative health care, including those in chiropractic, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, naturopathy and massage therapy. Sales of herbs are also growing to $4.4 billion last year, from nearly $2.5 billion in 1995, the journal said.
Dr. Young, 50, who practiced at Elmhurst General Hospital, has been at Margaret Tietz for a year. His patients at the nursing home suffer from chronic disease syndrome, arthritis, and other conditions and they need pain management.
"In my experience many western physicians refuse to listen when you discuss traditional Chinese medicine," Young said. "They are not educated about it in medical school and have no experience."
But Dr. Gail Lowenstein isnt one of them.