Health providers profiting from alternative medicine.

With her shiatsu therapist certificate almost in hand after 300 hours of instruction at a Santa Monica shiatsu school, Alexandra Kummer is about to go into the alternative medicine business.

"My dream is to open a healing center," said Kummer, who works as a waitress and has studied since January at the Shiatsu Massage School of California. "I think there is a demand for it as people are opening up to alternative medicine."

Indeed, demand for non-Western products and services is on the upswing, and all sectors of health care, from small entrepreneurs to huge managed care companies, are looking to capitalize on it.

"Consumer demand is driving the alternative medicine market to levels unheard of," said Jim Lott, a spokesman for the Health Care Association of Southern California.

Sales of alternative medicine products and services are growing 15 percent a year, according to Alan Kittner, president of the San Francisco-based Consensus Health Corp., a multi-disciplinary network of alternative practitioners. Americans will spend $25 billion on alternative medicine by the end of this year, he said.

Kittner, citing figures from the New England Journal of Medicine, says 36 percent seek relief from back problems, 28 percent from anxiety and 27 percent from headaches.

Kittner said Americans will spend $8.7 billion on natural products like vitamins and minerals this year, up from $3.7 billion in 1990.

Dana Kim, a USC sophomore whose parents came from Korea, spends about $40 a month on Eastern herbs, teas and other vitamins to maintain her health.

"A friend at USC got me interested in Eastern herbs," said Kim. "My parents used them some, but I didn't really think about them until now. I like the feeling of using the earth's natural medicine."

Purveyors of alternative medicine and treatments say that while demand has been on the increase, the business pressures have intensified.

"There's been a lot more competition in the past few years," said DoAnn Kaneko, who has run the Shiatsu Massage School of California since 1982. "There has not been big changes in numbers of students, but there's been more schools starting around here."

Indemnity insurers have offered coverage of chiropractic services since the mid-1970s. Now, HMO insurers and even hospitals are taking notice of demand for non-traditional medical treatments and expanding their coverage.

Last week, Blue Shield of California announced an alliance with Consensus, in which members will have access to the Consensus network of acupuncturists, chiropractors, message therapists and fitness clubs.

That deal, along with the announcement from Woodland Hills-based Health Net Corp. that it will add coverage of alternative medicine, are being touted as evidence that alternative medicine is finally being recognized as having legitimate medical value.

"Certain complementary and alternative treatments have proven to be very effective for diagnoses such as chronic, intractable pain or musculoskeletal conditions," said Arthur Southam, Health Net president and CEO.

Local hospitals, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital, are getting into the act as well.

Cedars is launching a Complementary Medicine program that will provide to its patients chiropractic, herbal medicine, massage therapy, and homeopathy. In August, Daniel Freeman began an intern program where students from the Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine in Santa Monica will treat its patients under the supervision of a state-licensed acupuncturist from the college.

Indeed, the 1990s have seen a number of medicine's top authorities attesting to the benefits of alternative medicine and paving the way for Western medicine's embrace.

If any endorsement can be considered a watershed, it would be a January 1993 article in the New England Journal of Medicine called "Unconventional Medicine in the United States."

The article's authors found that one third of those surveyed had used "unconventional" treatments - including diet, chiropractic, massage, lifestyle changes and spiritual healing - for various ailments.

The study also suggests that support for alternative treatment is strong among the American public. Even so, some say that the decision by HMOs to embrace alternative care is motivated more by profits than from any recognition of alternative medicine's value.

"I'm a pretty conservative fellow but I say they are tiding on alternative care's success," said Steven Becker, a West Los Angeles chiropractor and member of the Los Angeles Chiropractic Association's board of directors. "They say, 'hey, maybe we ought to get in on this.'"

Becker and other alternative medicine doctors bristle at the use of the phrase "complementary care," as if to suggest that acupuncture and massage therapy are only useful if in conjunction to Western treatment.

Kittner said he has heard the criticisms and he doesn't deny that the companies see a business opportunity in alternative medicine.

"The plans are responding to demographics and economic trends. It's very much part of what people are using," he said.

The demand for alternative medicine products and services is not expected to level off any time soon, practitioner say.

Baby Boomers are the largest users of alternative medicine, according to Kittner. As they begin to gray and encounter age-related infirmities and illnesses, he said, their demand for remedies will only increase.