CHAPEL HILL - Right around Halloween two years ago I (along with my 10-year old cocker spaniel Max) proved the laughingstock of just about everyone we knew outside of the San Francisco Bay Area where we then lived. Why?

After our regular veterinarian diagnosed Max with a spinal rupture, the treatment plan outlined was straightforward -- if over-the-top expensive. Immediate spinal surgery. Price tag: $4,000.

Aside from the cost, I couldn't believe major surgery -- with a dog in a body cast for weeks -- could be the first line of attack.

Nor did another Bay Area vet who relies on alternative medicine techniques for her four-legged patients. She recommended eight weeks of acupuncture and some homeopathic remedies as well.

And so Max and I went for two months; he took extremely well to the countless needles inserted in his paws, backside, forehead and ears. By New Year's he was just fine, scavenging for food and chasing squirrels like before. Total cost: $680.

A miracle? Hardly. Among two-legged creatures, acupuncture is now an accepted medical intervention for dozens of conditions and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of U.S. adults have used some form of complementary medicine. Still, Max and I were the butt of many New Age jokes -- especially by friends and family here on the East Coast.

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BUT THIS IS NOT A SHAGGY DOG STORY. Recently, I was diagnosed with acute tendonitis in my left ankle, bad enough that I could hardly walk after getting up. I was in pain much of the day.

After a couple of months of hobbling around, I paid a visit to my regular doctor, a knowledgeable and respected allopathic physician in Durham, who outlined the possible treatment options: pain meds, icing and if not better, foot surgery. Ouch.

Thinking back to Max's experience, I asked her about alternative medicine approaches, such as acupuncture. Nonchalantly she said: "It won't hurt." Not a big endorsement. Had I not had any previous experience with acupuncture, I probably would have accepted her verdict as gospel.

But I'm not the most complacent of patients and so I sought out an acupuncturist at Duke's spanking new center for integrative medicine, which "draws from the very best conventional and complementary/alternative medicine strategies to create a plan to help you optimize your health." After several sessions of acupuncture, I could walk again!

Now, I don't mean this as some kind of miraculous kind of experience, but my pain is largely gone, and my range of activity pretty much normal.

Even though my primary care physician and many others don't understand or know very much about integrative medicine, an awful lot of people are now being treated with various forms of it, and there's a growing body of science proving how it can help heal us.

In 2004, the National Institutes of Health released a report showing that 50 percent of Americans had used some form of alternative therapy in their lifetime -- 36 percent of us in the past year alone. Not surprisingly, only a quarter of these patients had been referred by a medical professional.

Moreover, according to a Journal of the American Medical Association study, consumers are putting their money where their mouths are: in the last year of the study, Americans spent more than $27 billion out-of-pocket on alternative therapies, nearly equal to the $29 billion we paid out-of-pocket for all physician services.

Part of many Western doctors' reluctance to endorse these techniques comes from the lack of evidence-based testing (controlled, double-blind and peer-reviewed studies), the lack of this kind of training in nearly all medical schools, and -- to be fair -- some number of sham practitioners and practices.

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STILL, TIMES ARE CHANGING. When it comes specifically to acupuncture, dozens of reputable studies have proven its efficacy for chronic low back pain, post operative nausea, osteoarthritis, pregnancy nausea, menstrual cramps, neck pain, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel, certain kinds of headaches, joint pain and many other conditions, including what ails me -- tendonitis. Even the somewhat stodgy NIH issued a statement on acupuncture that concluded: "The data in support of acupuncture are as strong as those for many accepted Western medical therapies"

But while many Western doctors may be slow to embrace integrative medicine, patients clearly are not. And in the heart of the Triangle, we have one of the only such centers in existence anywhere.

So go ahead and laugh if you want. And while you do, Max and I are going to go for a walk -- pain free.

(Steven Petrow is the editorial director of EverydayHealth.com and lives in Chapel Hill.)