Take charge: how to talk with your doctor about complementary medicine. (beautycare).

So you've found an alternative therapy you'd like to try in addition to your doctor's current recommendations. Maybe you've even gone ahead and started a complementary treatment.

Of course, you should tell your doctor, right?

But somehow, you forgot to bring it up. You're anything but alone in your reluctance. According to a 1999 study performed by the University of California at San Francisco's Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine, the vast majority of breast cancer patients make use of complementary therapies but don't discuss them with their conventional physicians.

Why all the secrecy? The patients cited their doctors' disinterest and inability to contribute useful information as leading reasons why they kept their complementary treatments to themselves.

In the seven or so minutes the average doctor gives each patient, it's hard enough to even get adequate information about a standard approach to your condition.

For instance, a 1999 analysis of more than 1,000 audio-taped, doctor-patient interviews revealed that the discussion of basic information about standard treatments--such as side effects--almost never occurred, so expecting enthusiastic chitchat about alternative therapies that could address the cause of your health care options is even more unrealistic.

Unfortunately, most traditional doctors have little incentive to learn about natural or non-pharmaceutical therapies--in fact, they aren't even required to keep up with independent research in traditional medical journals for new treatment options. While numerous well-designed, published studies on the efficacy of natural remedies--such as the use of black cohosh to relieve menopause symptoms--have existed since the late 1970s, your doctor is unlikely to have learned about them until fairly recently, when such treatments began receiving widespread media publicity.