Once, the road signs on the path to better health were clear.

Go to the doctor. Do what he said (back when most doctors were men). If you didn’t get better, there wasn’t much else you could do.

In recent decades, more alternative forms of treatment have become available, and advocated. Most people use them in conjunction with conventional medical treatment, including quite a few health professionals.

In Cherokee County, some of the optional paths to health include Reiki, healing touch, reflexology, bioenergy therapy, acupuncture, yoga, and Praise Moves, a Christian alternative to yoga.

For many years, medical experts pooh-poohed such healing techniques as superstition, saying they had no foundation in medical science.

More than half of readers responding to a Daily Press poll said they have tried alternative therapies or would consider them. Of the respondents, 16.67 percent said they have and will continue to use such therapies because they believe they contribute to their overall well-being. Another 44.44 percent said they would consider such methods.

However, 5.56 percent said they have used them and found them ineffective; 14.41 percent wouldn’t consider them because they don’t think they work; 9.26 percent would never use them because, even if they work, they may be “the work of the devil;” and another 9.26 percent were undecided.

Recently, the Catholic U.S. Bishops’ Conference on Doctrine decreed that Reiki, a spiritual healing technique developed in Japan, was superstitious and not an appropriate technique, although it had become common among women in many Catholic religious orders, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

Reiki master Nancy James, also a registered nurse, believes that technique, among others, can help patients when working in tandem with conventional medical treatment. She became a Reiki master in 2000, after studying a four-step program. She operates the Clear Creek Wellness Center, west of Hulbert.

“It’s called universal life force or universal energy,” she said. “There’s basically energy all around us. Everything that has substance has energy in it.”

James said Reiki is suitable for a variety of conditions, both physical and behavioral. She said Reiki practice energizes the practitioner as well as the patient. When completing a treatment, she doesn’t feel drained; she feels better and has more energy.

And the benefits aren’t limited to humans.

“I’ve used it on pets and on plants. If I buy plants from the store that are wilty-looking, I put my hands around them and I give them some of that Reiki energy before I plant them,” she said.

During the 30 years James has been a nurse, she has seen acceptance of alternative healing grow not only among patients, but among doctors and other medical officials. Early in her career as a Reiki practitioner, she considered using it on a patient who was extremely sick.

“I asked her doctor about it, and he said, ‘She needs all the healing energy she can get. Go ahead,’” James recalled.

After the treatments, the woman was more relaxed, was able to sleep and felt better.

“I use Reiki all the time in nursing. Anytime you put your hands on something, you use that energy,” she said.

Her husband, Michael, a licensed practical nurse, said over the past few years, he has seen more acceptance in hospitals of herbal therapy and other alternative treatments. Hospital officials may ask patients if they are taking herbs as well as conventional medicine, realizing the two can be used in conjunction.

“It goes hand in hand, like it should,” he said.

Nancy James also practices foot reflexology, emotional freedom technique and other therapies. Emotional freedom technique involves tapping on points on the patient’s chest, head and hands while he or she talks about emotional topics.

“As you’re tapping on those positions, it sends little bursts of energy through those areas and frees you to get rid of those emotions,” she said.

James believes science backs up practices involving body energies. “All of them, all different methods of working with the energy of the body, are kind of new to western medicine,” she said.

But an electrocardiogram shows the electrical path of energy through the heart, and an electroencephalogram tracks the electrical energy of the brain.

“It doesn’t stop with your heart and your brain. It goes all through your body,” he said.

Hospitals also use the TENS machine to send energy through the body and reduce pain, to cut down the need for pharmaceutical pain relievers, Michael James said.

Another form of energy used for therapy is healing touch. Iris Brenda Tate, a retired licensed practical nurse, is a massage therapist and the only licensed healing touch practitioner in Tahlequah.

“Healing touch is a branch of what they call alternative complementary medicine,” she said. “I want to emphasize the ‘complementary,’ which means we work alongside doctors. We don’t want to replace them.”

Tate said at least 36 medical schools in the United States teach some form of complementary and alternative medicine, at least as elective courses.

She has referred patients to doctors when she has discovered problems she believes need medical testing or attention. In at least one case, a woman’s breast cancer was discovered before a doctor was able to detect it. Frequently she works with patients who are about to enter surgery or as they recuperate in the recovery room.

Tate combines healing touch and massage.

“Massage does help the immune system. It raises their immune system a lot. Healing touch will make a recovery take about half the time,” she said.

She used healing touch on a knee replacement patient, who was able to lay aside her cane within two weeks following surgery. Patients with broken ankles have recovered as much in two weeks as they would in six weeks under conventional methods.

“Healing touch balances the body so it will help it to better heal itself,” she said. “Healing touch uses the human electromagnetic energies people have to help them to heal themselves. It was started by nurses for nurses to use on people.”

She compares attaining national certification to the type of study required for a master’s degree. Students go through five phases of instruction, involving mentoring by a certified healing touch practitioner. At the end of the process, they must write a complete case history of someone they have worked on, present it to a committee, and write a thesis-type document.

Healing touch first became known as a part of holistic medicine, Tate said.

“We balance the chakras, which are the little energy centers in the body,” she said.

Like Reiki, the treatments involve moving the practitioner’s hands over the patient. Tate can feel energy flowing through her hands into the patient, and patients tell her they can feel it, too.

“Sometimes amazing things happen. You can’t count on them happening, but I’ve had at least six miracles happen that were life-saving miracles,” she said.

Fitness is an important component to health, and there certainly is no shortage of fitness programs available in the Tahlequah area. Yoga combines physical and mental aspects of fitness, and conventional yoga lessons are available through Northeastern State University’s Continuing Education program and through the Yoga Barn at the Canebrake Resort on Lake Fort Gibson. Classes are also taught at Angela’s Fitness.

Several years ago, Laurette Willis of Tahlequah, who had studied yoga earlier in her life, decided a Christian alternative was needed. So she developed PraiseMoves, which now has 150 certified instructors throughout the United States and in several foreign countries.

Willis said a soldier in Iraq is currently completing certification and will teach the stress-reducing program in that area of conflict. She said PraiseMoves has been used successfully by people with back problems, sciatica, arthritis, asthma, and other medical conditions.

“We’ve had a number of testimonials also from people who suffered from anxiety, and who no longer suffer from anxiety,” she said.

It increases a person’s flexibility and builds strength, reduces stress, and helps injuries to heal, and also can assist with weight loss, according to the PraiseMoves website. Students in PraiseMoves classes have ranged from toddlers to great-grandparents, and several Christian schools are incorporating it as their physical education program, Willis said.

She values the spiritual element of PraiseMoves, along with its physical benefits.

“I think it’s also the spiritual benefits of meditating on scriptures from the Bible. It’s peace-producing. It’s a workout with benefits on several different levels,” Willis said.

For example, the angel posture exercises several muscles in the arms and legs.

“At the same time, you’re also meditating on or speaking aloud Psalms 91:11,” she said. That verse describes the protection provided by angels. You’re not only strengthening the body, but also feeding the mind and being spiritually uplifted.”

She considers PraiseMoves the ultimate workout.

“We like to say transform your workouts into worship with PraiseMoves. You’re combining faith and fitness. It’s multi-tasking that’s good for you,” she said.

The local people who practice methods that used to be considered radical or unconventional foresee a growing acceptance among the medical community and among the general public.

“Acupuncture used to be ‘woo-woo’ stuff, and now it’s accepted. This is coming, too,” Tate said. “About 10 years ago, a doctor in Muskogee ordered a practitioner out of the hospital. It’s not that way anymore.”