Energy medicine goes mainstream: techniques to balance your energy are among the most widely used disciplines in alternative medicine. Before taking your pick, here's what you need to know

homeopathy

What it is: Highly diluted substances, which if given in higher doses would produce the same symptoms experienced by the person who is sick, are the mainstay of this treatment. Practitioners individualize treatment, taking into account the wide range of physical, emotional and lifestyle factors in a person's life before making the diagnosis and prescribing treatment. The remedy, which can be a single solution or a combination of solutions, is thought to promote the body's own defenses against whatever is causing the illness.

State of the art and science: A review of homeopathy studies in the Annals of internal Medicine reported a lack of conclusive evidence on homeopathy's effectiveness for most conditions, including migraine and delayed muscle soreness. Nevertheless, the authors acknowledge that some randomized, controlled trials showed homeopathy was useful in treating influenza, allergies and childhood diarrhea.

A review published this year in the British Medical Journal reported that homeopathy was twice as effective as a placebo in treating rheumatic syndrome, a disorder involving the musculoskeletal and immune systems.

Light therapy

What it is: A range of light--such as full-spectrum or colored light, or colored strobe light--is used to induce relaxation or treat physical complaints. Exposure to full-spectrum light for an hour each day has been shown to be effective in relieving the depression of seasonal affective disorder by stimulating the body's release of mood-altering hormones.

Quickly pulsating strobe lights are known to cause seizures, but by slowing down the flashes of light to less than 12 cycles per second, light therapists believe that they can coax the brain into a state of deep relaxation, says Norman Shealy, M.D., professor of spiritual healing at Holos University in Fair Grove, Mo.

State of the art and science: Research at the Shealy Wellness Center in Springfield, Mo., indicates that green and violet lights cause the release of the hormones oxytocin and prolactin (which, among other functions, increase feelings of well-being) and pain-relieving endorphins. Researchers in Shealy's lab have also shown that exposure to a pulsating light improves depression and helps normalize the slightly irregular heartbeat that can occur in times of stress.

Biofield therapy

What it is: There are various techniques that aim to promote healing by influencing the energy that surrounds and penetrates the body. One is the ancient Chinese art of qi gong (pronounced "chee-GUNG"), which combines movement, meditation and regulated breathing. Another is Reiki ("RAY-kee"), a Japanese technique that aims to alter the energy pathways of the body. Reiki practitioners claim to accomplish this as they draw sacred symbols with their hands in the energy field just above their subjects' bodies. In medical centers, therapeutic touch, a variation of the ancient healing method known as "laying on of hands," is becoming more widely used. It involves lightly touching or holding the hands above the body in order to manipulate the energy field.