As Surrey’s population increases and the traditional health care system faces more demands, the role of alternative and complementary medicine is growing significantly.

The number of and accreditation standards of naturopaths, acupuncturists, chiropractors, reflexologists and other such practitioners have increased dramatically as more people turn to them for help.

However, these health professionals often struggle with credibility issues.

Dr. Mark Prii runs the South Point Chiropractic office in South Surrey. He has been in practice for 20 years, and moved to Surrey four years ago from Toronto.

Prii says the public largely isn’t aware of the rigourous training and certification processes chiropractors go through, and many patients view chiropractic work as a quick-fix remedy rather than a preventative measure.

“The general public knows we treat lower back and neck pain, but we generally look throughout the spine for any irritation,” Prii says.

But Prii says chiropractic techniques can be beneficial for everything from headaches to knee pain to arthritis.

Like chiropractors, the number of naturopathic physicians has increased significantly over the last few decades.

Dr. Navi Badesha runs the Newton Naturopathic Clinic, which opened in 2005. He says very few people came to see him at first.

“Reception was scarce, and it took a lot of time to get my name out there,” he recalls.

“In the beginning, it was a lot of word of mouth.”

Badesha says in the early years, he had to spend a lot of his time educating people on what a naturopath does and the benefits of naturopathic medicine.

“It’s not like having a conventional medical clinic, where you just put up a building and get swamped as soon as you open,” he says. “There’s a lot of work involved, a lot of promotion and marketing. It took a while, but now it’s really paying off.”

Badesha says he thinks Surrey and Fraser Valley residents tend to be less aware of alternative medical therapies than those who live closer to Vancouver, due to the increased availability of those therapies in the city.

“There aren’t a lot of naturopaths out here,” he says. “A lot of people don’t really understand what you do.”

Badesha explains that he is a primary health care provider who treats patients without using prescription drugs or surgery.

“I can treat anything a conventional general practitioner can treat.”

He employs various techniques, including acupuncture, chelation and mesotherapy. He treats people for a wide range of conditions, but he also specializes in sports therapy.

In addition to his clinical work, Badesha is the medical director for the Langley-based mixed martial arts Revolution Fight Team and the ringside physician for Honour Combat Challenge. He has also served as the ringside physician for the B.C. Amateur Boxing Association.

One of the key treatments he uses for athletes is prolotherapy, which involves injecting an irritant solution of sugar and local anesthetic at specific points where ligaments and tendons are damaged, increasing the immune system’s response and building new connective tissue.

“It’s for dealing with chronic ligament and tendon problems,” he says.

Badesha says athletes, especially those at higher levels, can be more receptive to alternative treatments.

“They’re more willing to try whatever it takes to improve their performance,” he says. “If they can get back on the field quicker, they’re willing to do it.”

Naturopathic medicine isn’t just for athletes, however. Badesha says many serious health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, can be avoided with dietary and lifestyle alterations.

“A lot of the chronic diseases out there are preventable through diet and lifestyle changes,” he says.

Badesha would like to see the provincial government do more to legitimize alternative and complementary medical therapies. He attended the Advancing Natural Medicine Conference in Vancouver from Oct. 16-18, and was pleased to hear health minister Kevin Falcon speak positively about naturopathic medicine.

“He said, ‘We need to start putting money into disease prevention and not disease management’.”

Those words are music to Badesha’s ears.

“I would like it if people would come see us first instead of us being the last resort.”

Integrated care:

Although people often use the terms complementary medicine and

alternative medicine interchangeably, there is a difference.

• Complementary medicine is a non-standard treatment or medicine used together with conventional treatment or medicine. For example, acupuncture, when used to treat nausea and vomiting that accompany chemotherapy or post-surgery pain, is a complementary therapy.

• Alternative medicine is a non-standard treatment or medicine used instead of conventional medicine. If you use St. John’s wort in place of prescription medications such as anti-depressants to treat depression, the St. John’s wort is considered alternative medicine.

• Integrative medicine is, according to the U.S. National Center for

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a combination of standard medical therapies and complementary or alternative

therapies about which there is scientific evidence of safety and

effectiveness. As practitioners of conventional Western medicine pay more and closer attention to the benefits of many complementary and alternative therapies and determine how to use or recommend them, the mainstream health care system becomes more integrative.

Common examples of alternative or complementary medicine include:

• Naturopathy

• Chiropracty

• Homeopathy

• Hypnosis

• Herbalism

• Chinese medicine

• Ayurveda