Wellness Spas: Separating the Quality From the Quackery

Can a therapeutic touch massage help you heal more quickly? Does acupressure massage provide the same benefits as acupuncture, and what good is that, anyway? In other words, how does one separate the bona fides from the quackery in the growing field of wellness spas?

Break that last question into at least two parts, says Marc Micozzi, a physician and author of "Fundamentals of Complementary and Integrative Medicine," a textbook used in many medical schools.

On the first level, consider spa treatments that, if nothing else, make you feel relaxed. About those, Micozzi says, "Just about every medical problem can be improved by rest and relaxation. And there is no medical problem that is not made worse by stress. That applies across the board."

Therapies that claim to do more than ease your mind should be assessed on a different scale. Micozzi says to trust first those that have been practiced in one or more cultures for centuries. Acupuncture and herbal medicines, to cite two examples, fall easily into that category.

Therapies created and popularized by a single person may be legitimate, but do some research before trusting them. A library or Web search can turn up information to help you understand the treatment and find out whether it has been adequately studied. You can find advice, including questions to ask and sources for information about alternative treatments, from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (888-644-6226, http://www.nccam.nih.gov/).

Be most skeptical of alternative treatments for complex, life-threatening problems such as cancer, unless they are simply complementing mainstream care, Micozzi says. Cancer treatments that require foreign travel are the most suspicious of all.

"A lot of us have worked hard for years to establish standards for what is legitimate alternative medicine as opposed to quackery," says Micozzi, who is director of the Policy Institute for Integrative Medicine in Bethesda, a nonprofit organization that educates policymakers, health professionals and consumers about alternative medicine. "Physicians cross-trained in alternative medicine have millions of patients and thousands of studies to back up their claims, and there is a growing body of literature to support the validity of this field," he says. Numerous studies support the efficacy of Chinese and ayurvedic therapies, Micozzi adds.

In general, spas represent a good health-care resource, Micozzi says, particularly for education and preventive care. "Huge capital investments have been made in spa resorts. It's my view these provide great environments to deliver a lot more health-care services that, despite luxuries, can still be done at a lower cost than in urbanized hospital centers with enormous square-footage costs."

Janice Gronvold, a spa industry consultant and professor of spa management at the University of California, says that a huge percentage of disease can be attributed to diet and lifestyle choices. Spas, by encouraging people to eat more wisely and to adopt healthy habits, are already playing a major role in preventive health care, she says.

She also notes that "anybody that touches anybody" in the spa industry must be licensed and certified to perform whatever specialty treatment he or she might be offering. If you're in doubt, ask about the person's certification.

-- Cindy Loose