Dr. Richard Younge talks about Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Dr. Richard Younge is a family physician at the Herman "Denny" Farrell, Jr., Community Health Center in Washington Heights where he treats patients of all ages and backgrounds. (http://www.nyp.org/services/acn_morgan_practice.html)

Q: What are some of the reasons that physicians should talk with the patients about complementary medicine?

A: We see patients frequently who are taking traditional medicines and it kind of always surprises me that they will sometimes say with some hint of embarrassment in their voice "well I'm taking this root or this herb or this tea that my grandmother suggested for sleeping or for helping with my diet". I think it's so important that patients and their health care providers establish the kind of dialogue where patients can feel open to telling us things that we might not otherwise know about their lives outside the office when they come to see us.

The real reason for physicians to be open to that and to have people feel comfortable talking to their doctors about it are the possible interactions between the medicines that we prescribe and what people may be taking from the botanica or from the local herbalist. I don't claim any real expertise in what to recommend in terms of herbal medicines or natural medicines, but I do have resources that I can go access to understand whether something that a patient is taking may be interacting with something that I'm prescribing. So that it might make it more likely that the patient would have side effects and complications.

Harlem Word is a series of interviews with community health experts written by HHPC and reviewed by our Health Advisory Board.