ALTERNATIVE COLD TREATMENTS GAIN BELIEVERS.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

Faith Sutton used to reach for the sinus tabs when she felt a cold coming on. These days, the Valencia mom battles her family's sniffles, sneezes and scratchy throats with a Chinese herb formula prepared by her acupuncturist.

``It works really well,'' said Sutton, 44. ``If the bug lasts a week for everybody else, it lasts a day for us.''

As cold and flu season launches its annual assault, more and more consumers like Sutton are spurning conventional medicines in favor of alternative therapies, such as herbs, vitamins and supplements, dietary changes, acupuncture and chiropractic.

These remedies are nothing to sneeze at, many consumers and health care practitioners say.

``The old saying goes, if a patient takes care of a cold themselves, it goes away in a week. If they see their medical doctor, it takes seven days,'' said Kevin McNamee, a chiropractor and acupuncturist in Woodland Hills.

``What I'm seeing in my office is patients improve dramatically in three to four days, maximum,'' McNamee said.

McNamee's cold-fighting weaponry includes vitamins and supplements to boost the immune system, chiropractic techniques to drain the lymphatic system, and spinal manipulation.

The popularity of alternative cold and flu remedies is just one reflection of the enormous influence of unconventional healing therapies in the United States.

On herbal remedies alone, Americans spend an estimated $3.2 billion a year, part of the $6.5 billion spent on dietary supplements.

Some health experts believe Americans are throwing their money away.

Many alternative cold remedies ``are worthless,'' said William Jarvis, a consumer health specialist at Loma Linda University and president of the National Council Against Fraud.

Alternative remedies

Jarvis said that many of the nation's most popular alternative remedies - among them herbs, zinc lozenges, Vitamin C and acupuncture - lack scientific evidence of their effectiveness in fighting the common cold, or have been proven mostly ineffective.

Still, for many consumers and health care practitioners, feeling is believing.

``I've become a real advocate,'' said Wilma Jackson of Santa Monica, who switched from Contac to the herb bupleurum to combat colds.

Despite denouncement from critics such as Jarvis, retailers say that the herb echinacea is flying off the shelves.

Echinacea is derived from the purple coneflower and is touted as an immune system booster that increases the ability of white blood cells to fight and destroy toxic organisms that invade the body.

Lori Singer, a hospital executive and mother of five from Calabasas, can't afford to stay home sick with a cold. She carries a bottle of green, powder-filled echinacea capsules in her purse so she can load up at the first hint of a cold.

``I can't be real scientific, but I think I've avoided nine out of 10 colds,'' Singer said.

``Echinacea helps the body gear up for the infection. It's a call to action for the troops,'' said Singer's physician, Michael Hirt of Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center. Hirt is a Harvard-trained nutritionist and proponent of herbal and other natural cold remedies.

Reseda acupuncturist Ahnjel Ali, who treats Sutton and her family, sends her cold clients home with plastic baggies filled with Chinese herbs, specially mixed for each client's individual symptoms.

The herbs are generating such good word of mouth that Ali and other herbalists say their waiting rooms are jammed with cold sufferers.

``Friends have friends who have been on herbs, and they're getting better. When you see results like that, you can't deny that it works,'' Ali said.

Like Hirt, Gilbert Saliba, who specializes in infectious diseases at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys, is among physicians who supplement their conventional practice with alternative healing methods.

Saliba avoids prescribing antibiotics when he can. Instead, he favors familiar remedies such as fluids and bed rest, plus megadoses of Vitamin C, echinacea, zinc lozenges, and strong, spicy plants and herbs mixed into teas and soups.

``Spicy kinds of things help loosen mucous and dispel it from your system,'' he said.

Alternative healing methods are surging in popularity as prescription and over-the-counter remedies fall out of favor among some physicians and patients.

Asian medicine practitioner David Katz of Toluca Lake said he favors Chinese herbs because they promote healing, rather than just suppress symptoms.

``You start pounding them down at the first sign of a cold or flu, and you have an excellent chance of not getting it,'' Katz said.

Except in cases of bacterial infection, physicians are increasingly backing off from the use of antibiotics.

``Most colds are caused by viruses, and antibiotics don't kill viruses,'' Hirt said. ``Even if you have bacteria as a cause for your cold, taking antibiotics will only shorten the course of the illness by about one day.''

Antibiotic danger

Saliba noted that the over-prescribing of antibiotics has become a grave public health concern, with the emergence of resistant strains of bacteria.

Other drugs have unpleasant and even dangerous side effects, especially among the elderly.

Codeine, found in many cough syrups, can cause nausea, constipation and altered mental states, while Sudafed can lead to urinary problems, Saliba said.

Sutton said the ``over-the-counter junk'' she used to take made her feel jittery, while doing little to reverse the course of her cold.

Her health plan doesn't cover visits to a Chinese herbalist, so she pays for Ali's treatments out of her own pocket. It's worth it, she said.

``My kids are in school, they're feeling better, and they're not coming down with things as much,'' Sutton said. ``What does it cost to take a day off from work, or stay home with my kids 'cause they're sick for a week? That costs me a lot more.''

But Jarvis said that consumers are better off buying over-the-counter medications because they have a proven track record.

``Over-the-counter decongestants do a pretty good job. With those 12-hour nasal sprays you can sleep, you can breathe,'' he said.

Legally in the same category as dietary supplements, herbal products are sold without prescriptions and do not require premarketing testing by the Food and Drug Administration.

However, the FDA restricts claims used to market such products. For example, an herbal remedy may claim to boost the immune system or settle a queasy stomach but may not boast of curing or preventing illness unless the proper medical trials have been performed, said FDA spokesman Arthur Whitmore.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, about one in three U.S. adults used unconventional therapy in 1990. But fewer than three in 10 of those people told their doctors that they used such therapies.

That worries physicians and herbalists, who point out that natural medicines can be dangerous when combined with certain drugs.

``Herbs have active ingredients in them, and if you're taking a pharmaceutical at the same time, there can be definite side effects,'' said Maureen Rogers, director of the Herb Growing and Marketing Network, a trade association in Lancaster, Pa.

Not all physicians have taken the leap of faith to nontraditional remedies.

Dr. Pamela Nagami of Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills said she follows the advice of Sir William Osler, the famous internist who died in 1919.

How did Osler treat the common cold?

``With contempt,'' Nagami said.

ALTERNATIVE REMEDIES

Alternative-health practitioners, consumers - and many medical doctors - say that herbs, vitamins and minerals can stave off cold and flu symptoms.

ECHINACEA

- The E. angustifolia and E. purpurea species are effective against colds.

- Most potent in tablet or capsules of standardized extracts.

- Those with allergies to daisies or who have lupus or rhematoid arthritis should avoid.

CHINESE HERBS

- Should be mixed by a licensed professional.

- For sinus congestion: Chrysanthemum, Lonicera flower, Forsythia, or Xanthium.

- For sore throat: Arctium, Aster, Belemcanda, Houttuynia, Fritillaria.

- For achy muscles: Stephania, Siegesbeckia, Pueraria, Siler.

VITAMIN C

- Take 500mg to 1,000mg three to four times daily.

ZINC LOZENGES

- Take 500mg to 1,000mg three to four times daily.

GARLIC EXTRACT

- Odor-free tablets and capsules work just as well as others.

- Take three to four times daily at the onset of cold symptoms.

Sources: Tarzana medical doctor Michael Hirt and Reseda acupuncturist Anhjel Ali.

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