Sly Young doesn’t always believe in “woo-woo” medicine. But she comes from a long line of traditional healers predisposed to trust themselves over conventional Western medicine. Which is one reason why, when she felt her treatment for her neurodivergence and chronic post traumatic stress become less effective during the pandemic, she started exploring what she describes as sacred earth medicine.
For Young, that means spiritual ceremonies, yoga and active meditation, as well as psychedelics like mushrooms and even toad venom, which have been studied by researchers for treatment of depression, anxiety, and addiction, though vary widely in terms of legality as well as testing and Food and Drug Administration approval.
“I was willing to have toad poison put in my body before I was even willing to take my antidepressant medicine,” Young said. “Some of that is just ignorance, right? Just not being educated and having the literacy of these things.”
But the other reasons are more complex. Young’s background has made navigating the modern American health care system tough. She presents as a Black woman, and said she’s experienced discrimination from care providers dismissive of her symptoms. She grew up in a cult, and said she experienced abuse, making it difficult in adulthood to trust authority figures. A family history of substance abuse also left her scared of getting addicted to pills.
So when she met a shaman, and he started sending her an e-library’s worth of reading material, she decided it was worth the risk to explore options beyond a medical system that hasn’t always met her needs. And she’s not alone.
An increasing number of people are turning to complementary and alternative medicines. The terms are evolving, and often used interchangeably for health care approaches not typically part of conventional medical care or that originated outside of Western medicine. However, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, part of the National Institutes of Health, defines complementary medicine as approaches used together with conventional medicine, and alternative as in place of conventional medicine. Complementary approaches include everything from dietary supplements and botanical drugs, to mindfulness practices like Thai Chi, and physical approaches like massage therapy.
The field is booming – it was valued at $193 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $244 billion in 2033, according to a report from Astute Analytics, a market research and advisory firm.
A 2017 Pew report found that about half of Americans surveyed reported that they had tried alternative medicine either instead of or in conjunction with medical treatments. And, in a study published in 2024 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the National Institute of Health found that the number of people using practices like yoga, acupuncture and naturopathy rose from 19.2% in 2002 to 36.7% in 2022.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rode a particular brand of alternative health care into public office, via the Make America Healthy Again movement. Kennedy has pledged to end the FDA’s “war” on alternative medicine, most recently by pushing support for unauthorized peptides. The protein building blocks can have anti-inflammatory and muscle-building properties – though studies and safety analyses of their benefits and efficacy as supplements or injections vary widely.
Though interest in peptides is popular in certain wellness circles, including with podcasters like Joe Rogan, many of those who are seeking alternative medicine or who are going back to traditional cultural practices don’t fit the MAHA archetype.
Some, like Young, are from racial and cultural backgrounds that have been historically underserved by Western medicine. Or worse, hurt by it.
The need for respect
James Sherrell, a program specialist at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, points to misconceptions around vaccine hesitancy as a classic example. The memory of forced vaccinations under the Soviet Union is still alive for the Ukrainian community that Harborview serves, Sherrell said, so “if you don’t approach that conversation with respect, you’re not going to get very far.”
“I think we get this binary in our heads of, you know, people are either believing in fake news or not at all,” Sherrell said, “but there were practices by a lot of Western cultures of rolling out vaccines in other countries before they were ready, and they did real harm.”
Dr. Duncan Reid, an internist at Harborview, noted that vaccines are reviewed by the FDA, and have a long history of safe and effective use with guidance from governmental agencies and professional associations.
Harborview is the safety net hospital in the Seattle region for non-English speaking refugees and immigrants. Reid and Sherrell said they see patients who speak as many as 140 different languages — meaning basic communication can be a challenge, not to mention making such informed recommendations and providing adequate care.
Winnie Chan saw that in her own life. Growing up around Washington, D.C., the child of Chinese parents, she sometimes didn’t have the language to explain Western medical practices to her parents, who follow Traditional Chinese Medicine. Chan has a mild case of scoliosis and said translating terms like physical therapy was a challenge.
“I didn’t know how to say it in Chinese to them because of the language barrier,” she said.
Chan’s parents always treated their back pain from laborious food industry jobs with acupuncture and cupping, the practice of using cups or suction on the skin to stimulate blood flow and the flow of chi, or energy.
“I wanted to go to physical therapy because my doctor told me, and then my parents are telling me not to,” Chan said. “It’s definitely really difficult to try to balance the two.”
Chan said she’s glad she learned about Traditional Chinese Medicine because it brought her close to her heritage. Now 18 and heading off to college, she likes having access to both forms of medicine, and wants doctors to have a broader understanding of different cultures.
That’s something that experts say the American medical system hasn’t always been good at.
‘We don’t appreciate how unique our health care system is’
Reid is also the medical director of EthnoMed, which serves as a bridge between health care providers and immigrant and refugee communities. He first picked up on the hierarchical mentality of medicine while in school. “I just saw a lot of mistreatment,” he said. It felt like, “you need to memorize all these things, and this is the way you do it, and then you tell the patient what to do, and if the patient doesn’t do it, then the patient is not good, and they’re not compliant,” he said.
What’s more, Reid and Sherrell said, condescension from medical providers over cultural beliefs or practices can be a death knell for public health.
Young agrees. One of her family members believes they cured a leukemia diagnosis through mangoes and meditation, never receiving traditional help.
“You still have to speak in a way that honors and respects them, even if you don’t agree with them,” Young said.
Reid is unaware of any medical literature on mangos as treatment for leukemia, but says it’s possible to make space for people’s experiences without precluding Western medical treatment.
Another hurdle driving people to alternative care, including potentially dangerous ones, is the cost of U.S. health care.
“We don’t appreciate how unique our health care system is, and how difficult it is to navigate,” said Sherrell, who also works with EthnoMed. “We get a lot of folks coming here from other countries, and they’re used to everything being covered, or they can just go to the emergency room for anything.”
They may be shocked to discover that a trip to the E.R. is out of network and comes with a giant bill, which “can be really, really devastating for families,” Sherrell said.
Those instances can cause a ripple effect — someone tells a neighbor, and they tell others, and people are scared they can’t afford to go to hospitals. But it’s not just immigrant and refugee communities. The rising cost of health care has frightened many people, including those with health insurance.
‘The only thing accessible’
Last year, Young said she went through a rough patch and wasn’t able to afford her prescriptions. A friend asked how he could help.
“He was like, ‘Well, I could send you a week’s worth of micro dosing of mushrooms, if that helps to calm your anxiety, so you can get out of bed and take a shower and call organizations that could help you figure something out,’” Young said. “Sometimes that was the only thing accessible.”
Psychedelic drugs remain largely illegal under federal law, and vary under state law, though there is increasing support around medicinal use. Reid stresses seeking guidance from trained providers, noting safety risks with self-treatment.
In a perfect world, Young said, she wouldn’t have to choose. She’s developed coping skills to better work with medical providers, like bringing an advocate to appointments. She also teaches movement classes like burlesque and dervish whirling that help with her symptoms.
“I found my balance is blending them all. Some days it is just my prescription medicine, some days it is a sacred earth ceremony,” she said. “Holistically it’s all of that in different percentages, depending on what I need.”
Cara Kelly is an investigative journalist, and a journalist-mentor with Youthcast Media Group. Preontee Barua is a senior at Wakefield High School, Alice Cheng is a junior at Arlington Tech, Mariamawit Nega is a senior at Washington-Liberty High School, Ximena Puican is a senior at Arlington Career Center and Maria Romero is a senior at Arlington Tech. The students were participants in a Youthcast Media Group journalism camp in collaboration with Arlington Public Schools in Virginia.