How 4 women defied doctors and disabilities

Kathy Simonik, 52, Barrington, IL, Graphic Designer

Then: Needed a metal rod to support her spine
Now: "I do 10-minute headstands"

After several back operations and years of therapy, Kathy Simonik was advised 5 years ago to have two final surgeries to implant a metal rod running through much of her spine. Although it would drastically impede her range of motion—she wouldn't be able to turn her head without turning her entire body—the procedure, her doctors said, would relieve her incessant pain.

Simonik had good reason to be skeptical about the operation's success. Her last surgery, to implant two metal rods and six screws, left her with 18 months of sciatic nerve pain. So she ignored their advice and turned instead toward an obscure alternative treatment called naprapathy. "I left the doctor thinking, I gave this my all. I said no and never went back."

She mentioned her decision to a friend, who recommended that she see Patrick Nuzzo, a local naprapath. (Naprapaths are licensed only in Illinois and New Mexico.)

Courtesy of Prevention Kathy Simonik says her back pain was brought under control with the help of naprapathy.

Naprapathy is a form of manual medicine that, like chiropractic care, focuses on musculoskeletal conditions. "Where we differ from chiropractors is that we don't continually adjust the spine the way they do," Nuzzo explains. "We treat the tissue around it as well. Each vertebra in the spine is supported by 17 ligaments. Tension in those supports causes rigidity, reducing blood flow to nearby tissues. From her degenerative disease and the surgeries, Kathy had decades of tension built up in her spine. My challenge was to release that tension."

Simonik received treatments every 2 weeks and continues to today. Her mobility gradually increased and the intense pain faded. She was able to go off the pain medication she'd taken every day for years.

At Nuzzo's suggestion, Simonik began working with a yoga instructor to strengthen her muscles and increase her flexibility. Today, she can do backbends and headstands.

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"It didn't come easy," she says. "It's taken 4 years. It wasn't hard to be dedicated, because I was in so much pain. I was willing to do anything to stop it. My instructor says the most motivated student is the one who wants to move out of pain and into freedom. I'm a living example."

Second opinion
After three failed back surgeries, Simonik can hardly be blamed for not having another. "I tell my patients to try anything and everything before they resort to an operation," says Noah S. Finkel, MD, an orthopedic surgeon in Huntington, NY, and spokesperson for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

"The reason she got better was probably because her therapist helped break down all the scar tissue she had and stretched out the cramped ligaments around her spine. The exercises then helped her rehab her muscles and stabilize her pelvis." Finkel says a variety of therapies, including chiropractic and deep-tissue massage, may help back surgery candidates avoid an operation.

Courtesy of Prevention MiAsia Pasha credits naturopathic medicines for helping get her back on the dance floor.

MiAsia Pasha, 55, Phoenix, Small-Business Owner

Then: Bedridden from chronic pain
Now: "I go dancing with friends"

As you watch her shimmy and shake on the dance floor at a local club, you'd never guess that just 3 years ago MiAsia Pasha was depressed, discouraged—and in constant agony. HIV positive since 2001, she was taking a cocktail of antiretroviral medication that caused terrible side effects, including pain in her feet that made it impossible for her to walk—not to mention enjoy her favorite recreational activity, dancing.

"It was like stepping on hot needles," she remembers. "You can't think when you're in such constant pain. All I did was sleep and watch television. And take more pain pills."

Her doctors told her that the drugs Kaletra, Epivir, and Viread, which prevent the HIV virus from replicating, were causing peripheral neuropathy—damage to nerves that results in severe pain. Pasha was in a nasty bind: Take the lifesaving medication and suffer, or forgo the drugs and die.

Optimistic by nature, she believed there had to be another choice and sought help at Phoenix Body Positive, which provides services, including naturopathic medicine, to people with HIV/AIDS. There she met Mark Green, then a resident naturopath.

Green says he sees many HIV patients who have become so discouraged by the side effects from their antiretroviral drugs that they stop taking them. His work at Body Positive focuses on making patients well enough to stick with the regimen—and stay alive.

For Pasha, he devised a treatment plan that included injections of vitamins B12 and B6, to improve nerve function, and twice-weekly acupuncture. Although phobic about needles, Pasha embraced the therapy: "I was willing to try anything." After 3 months, she was no longer bedridden and started driving her car again. Biweekly treatments reduced the pain in her feet to an occasional prickling sensation—a small price to pay for being able to tolerate lifesaving drugs.

Almost as important, she was able to dance again. The memory of her first venture back onto the dance floor with her friends brings tears to her eyes.

"I must have danced to about six records in a row," she says of that night. "I was like, I've got my life back."

Second opinion
Because there is often no cure for neuropathy, it's a prime candidate for alternative treatments. To date, no clinical trials have proven that acupuncture works better than medication for neuropathic pain. "But I have patients who receive acupuncture, which seems to help them," says Todd Levine, MD, codirector of the neuropathy center at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix. "Acupuncture is not wacky. It's safe and if it helps, it's wonderful."

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