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rom conventional traditional herbal medicines, massages and acupuncture to the more extreme use of electrical shock and bee stings, alternative medical treatments show that people will do whatever it takes to stay healthy.

As medical expenses become increasingly unaffordable and doctors seem to have become less reliable with the frequency of malpractice cases, people from all social classes have flocked to non-conventional treatment, hoping to find a cure for what ails them.

People with minor ailments like colds, fever and extreme fatigue or long-term patients with untreatable illnesses come to these places to find what they cannot get from their doctors.

“I decided to go to a healer in Garut [West Java] because my doctor had given up,” housewife Euis Wahyuningsih, 48, who has suffered endometriosis, a painful condition that affects the womb, since 2002.

Euis said her healer only massaged her and gave her drinking water for two months.

Euis is not the only one who has experienced the “miracle” of alternative treatment. Many others have come to the conclusion that shamans may be able to offer them an answer to their health issues.

This belief has in part triggered a proliferation of non-conventional medical clinics in the capital.

Besides that are economic reasons, as most of these treatments are much cheaper than hospital services that might be out of reach for some people.

As opposed to formal conventional health institutions, a lot of these alternative services apply payment system that allow patients to pay voluntarily.

Euis said she spent less than Rp 100,000 (US$11) for her alternative therapy, compared to Rp 600,000 she spent on several occasions receiving hospital treatment.

Despite economic reasons, patients reportedly find alternative medical approaches more effective than going to the doctor.

Media freelancer Puty Rahmania, 32, has since doubted doctors and hospitals after suffering a severe brain concussion from an accident couple years ago.

“[Doctors] declared me okay, but I still suffered massive headache. A healer then found that I had suffered a brain concussion,” Puty said, referring to her medical guru near her house in Ciputat, Tangerang.

Puty said she went into intensive treatment for a week with a healer and recovered. During that period, the man only massaged her head.

“Since then, I prefer to go to alternative healers,” said the woman who has a list of contacts for different alternative treatments specific to different complaints and diseases.

Despite its success story, many health experts still question alternative treatments because no standards or clear diagnoses are given during the process.

However, research has identified growing public trust in alternative therapy practitioners.

From only 15.3 percent of people that choose alternative treatment in 1998, the number increased to 16.24 percent in 2000 and 30.76 percent in 2004, based on the National Economic Social Survey.

Some doctors have also acknowledged non-conventional approaches to be included in their medical treatments.

“The primary thing we believe in is how to best cure our patients,” said Heldy Sukmana, a doctor, who offers acupuncture as part of his treatment.

Some doctors have also joined Indonesia Society for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which was established in 1999.