So you’ve been having this eerie and persistent twinge in your abdomen. It’s slightly disconcerting, but not quite wrenching enough for you to be truly disturbed. Months pass. Finally, you drag yourself to the doctor. You spend an hour and a half and a $20 co-payment for what amounts to 15 minutes of prodding, fleeting eye contact, and hmmms before you get the diagnosis: a big shrug. "Keep me posted," the doctor offers, "and let me know if anything changes."

Gee, thanks. You walk out deflated, frustrated — and then, owww, you’re hit with another twinge.

What to do? Get thee to an alternative health-care practitioner. Here’s a newsflash: alternative medicine is no longer the sole province of wishy-washy West Coast hemp-wearers. New Age magazine reports that almost a third of all Americans have tried some kind of alternative health care. And Boston’s a hub of holistic offerings; judging from anecdotal information, it appears our fair region may be second only to the San Francisco Bay Area or the aggressively Zen Beverly Hills in the wide range of remedies offered in the field of natural health.

Doctors trained in Eastern medicine employ a different perspective of the body’s workings to treat the entire system. That means your persistent twinge could be related to your insomnia, which also has connections to the fact that you’ve had a powerful craving for salty foods — all pointing to a deficiency in one of your organs. The solution may be as simple as a series of treatments — whether it’s acupuncture, acupressure, naturopathy, or massage — to strengthen the flow of energy between your body’s organs, coupled with a prescription for herbs.

And beyond the standard offerings — those listed above, plus naturopathic medicine and chiropractic care — there are alternatives to the alternatives, such as magnet therapy, ear candling, and the unappealingly named urine therapy. But we plan on sticking to the basics here.

Before selecting your treatment, though, it’s important to find the right practitioner; the efficacy of your treatment will depend on whom you’re working with. Most practitioners will offer to explain their services over the phone. Take advantage of the opportunity, to see if you like their manner. And don’t hesitate to ask questions: will it hurt? How many patients do you treat a week? What are your specialties? How long will the treatment course take? Have you ever treated someone with this symptom or condition before?

Above all, it helps to have some idea of what’s out there. Here’s a list of the core group of alternative health treatments:

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an Eastern school of medicine in which practitioners use strategically placed needles — often coupled with herbal prescriptions — to cure ailments as varied as chronic illness (like arthritis) and digestive problems. It’s a form of holistic medicine, in which everything from diet to nightly sleep regimen is believed to affect your body’s ability to function. Acupuncture is based on the theory that energy, called chi, flows along meridians that course lengthwise from head to toe. The thinking goes that a build-up of chi can wreak health havoc, so acupuncturists use needles to unblock the chi, which in turn allows the body to achieve a healthful balance. Choosing where to "needle" is a diagnostic process that relies on information culled from, among other things, the color of tongue fur, the area in the skull that hurts when you have a headache, and various indicators gleaned from a trip to the loo.

Boston is a veritable hub of this form of alternative medicine, if only because it’s host to the oldest school of Oriental medicine in the country. New England School of Acupuncture (40 Belmont Street, Watertown, 617-926-4271), housed in an old elementary school, has been teaching new doctors and pricking Massachusetts residents in its clinic for 27 years.

Acupuncture practitioners may specialize, just as practitioners of Western medicine do. Caroline Rabiner is an acupuncturist in private practice at ABM Health Care Associates in Brookline (385 Harvard Street, Brookline, 617-738-7499). "I specialize in women’s health," Rabiner says. "The list [of conditions I treat] is long, but it’s most of them: PMS, menstrual pain, headaches, and infertility are the most common. I also get the usual muscular complaints, back problems, arthritics, allergies, respiratory problems." Rabiner, who graduated from the New England School of Acupuncture in 1992, normally treats around 40 patients a week and has seen strikingly positive results. "In the past year or two, almost all of my patients’ doctors have enthusiastically endorsed my treatments. I’m really happy to say that we’re integrating the two [fields of medicine]."

The list of acupuncturists in the Boston area is extensive and, therefore, daunting. But the Acupuncture Society of Massachusetts can help you weed through the list. Call (781) 893-2185 or (800) 444-1565 to find a licensed and accredited practitioner in your area.

Massage

It may seem like a simple pleasure, having someone work out the dense mess of knots in your back. But the service can actually be healing as well, reducing stress and thereby lessening stress-related symptoms such as headaches and muscle pain.

At the International Wellness Center (669 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, 617-623-5055), a health center that offers a wide variety of alternative health services, massage is the most popular ministration. The center also offers chiropractic care and acupuncture, along with various types of massage therapy: Swedish, aroma, sports, deep-tissue.

Acupressure is a type of massage that places pressure on specific points — as in acupuncture — for longer stretches of time, in order to release energy blocks in the body. Cindy Banker is one well-known local acupressurist (131 Harvard Street, Brookline, 617-734-7991).

Shiatsu is one of the best-known types of massage. It’s a Japanese form of physical therapy and therapeutic massage that follows the dicta of Chinese medicine to combine pressure, physical manipulation, and massage. One place to experience shiatsu is at the Boston Shiatsu School (1792 Mass Ave, Cambridge, 617-497-6630), where students with at least 400 hours of training and practice get to work on you, their guinea pigs, for as little as $30 an hour. You can also receive massage from their teachers or the school’s graduates in the professional clinic for $50 an hour.

Rolfing is another type of massage that has a wide following. Its vomitive-sounding name comes from Dr. Ida P. Rolf; the treatment is also known as structural-integration therapy, which is a form of deep, digging soft-tissue massage seeking to alter structure and posture and thereby ease pain and chronic stress. Word is that Rolfing may even enhance neurological functioning. One certified advanced Rolfer is Paul Gordon (875 Mass Ave, Suite 83, Cambridge, 617-628-6661), who’s been in private practice for about 25 years, has studied at Lesley College and Harvard Medical School, and has been on staff at the Sports Medicine Resource, an orthopedic and sports-medicine clinic. Other practitioners can be located on Rolf.org.

Chiropractic

Often misunderstood as brutal yet simple back-cracking, chiropractic has fought an uphill battle for credibility. It involves manipulation of the spine to heal muscular-skeletal problems and pain. Chiropractors make a series of adjustments to the spine, which work on joints and allow a fuller and easier range of motion. The American Chiropractic Association is a good source for finding a licensed practitioner in your area.

For those in need of care but lacking funds, the Boston Benevolent Chiropractic Clinic (14 Beacon Street #512, Boston, 617-523-1400) is a free center headed up by founder Dr. Ken Lowey and staffed by volunteering area chiropractors. The BBCC, which was recently profiled in Natural Health magazine, serves large numbers of recovering drug addicts, recently released prisoners, and AIDS patients. "Anything that blocks the free flow of energy, like stress or a poor diet, can cause pain," says chiropractor Kenneth Goodman in Natural Health. "Your body will heal itself if I can remove the energy blockage."

Reiki

Perhaps the healing art most difficult to grasp theoretically, Reiki is a type of body work in which practitioners often don’t physically touch the patients. They place their hands either on or slightly over various points of a person’s body. "By placing my hands in different positions, it promotes positive energy flow," explains Sylvia Gray, a Reiki master at Champagne Universe (335 Broadway, Cambridge, 617-608-5390). "It’s a very gentle hand movement. Basically what people feel is heat; sometimes they feel cold, and sometimes they feel vibrations. It helps to relieve blockages that can be found in the human-energy system. I’ve never had a client who says that they were in pain or who left not feeling better than when they came in."

When it comes to how Reiki works physiologically, Gray is at a loss for words. "Reiki is based on love," she concludes. "It sounds kind of hokey. But it’s a healing technique that enables the body to heal."

One-stop shopping

New initiates might want to experiment with alternative offerings by heading to an all-purpose holistic center, such as Wellspace (1 New Street, Fresh Pond Mall, Cambridge, 617-876-2660), a kind of clearinghouse for alternative therapies. "Just as there are many paths to illness," says the center’s Web site, "there are many paths to health." Wellspace, which recently opened another center in Waltham, offers a slew of services meant to be used in conjunction with Western medicine.

"It’s complementary health care," explains Chelsea Gloyd, the operations manager for the three-and-a-half-year-old center. "It’s really bringing a lot of the alternative therapies together and providing a professional place to get those services. We address chronic problems as well as relaxation. Our services draw from acupuncture, chiropractic, naturopathic medicine, massage, and we also provide facials and classes and workshops."

Wellspace, which typically treats around 400 to 500 patients a week, offers a seemingly inexhaustible list of services ranging from yoga classes, medicinally based facials, and acupuncture — both Chinese and Japanese — to homeopathy and 10 different types of massage. All 45 practitioners have been trained and licensed in their respective modalities.

But don’t confuse this joint with a soothing spa or an austere doctor’s office. Rosemary Drinka, Wellspace’s founder, explains that it’s neither a spa nor a medical center. "It’s a kinesthetic experience," she says. "We had an acupuncture student walk in and say, ‘Thiiisss is the future.’"

The services range in price from $25 for a 15-minute chair massage to $125 for an hourlong comprehensive naturopathic health assessment. Massage, the most popular service, costs $85 an hour; the center offers relaxation, problem-specific, sports, pregnancy, Reiki, shiatsu, and Thai versions. The next-most-popular service, acupuncture, is $70 a session, following the initial hourlong evaluation ($85).

Wellspace also offers a Headache Relief Program, which incorporates interdisciplinary medicines, such as acupuncture, chiropractic, problem-specific body work, Feldenkrais (a form of movement education), nutrition counseling, naturopathy, and cranio-sacral therapy. It even has a program aimed at lessening the duration or severity of the common cold or flu through naturopathic medicine.

Across town sits the similarly all-inclusive Market Street Health (214 Market Street, Brighton, 617-787-3511), which bills itself as a center for complementary medicine and holistic therapies. The offerings range from standard (acupuncture, chiropractic, holistic medicine, homeopathy, naturopathy) to fringe (colon hydrotherapy, flotation-tank sessions, bioenergy therapy). The goal of some of these services might not be immediately apparent (DreamWeaver Vibro Acoustic Therapy, anyone?), but you can surely speculate.

The BodyMind Integration Center (118 Main Street, Suite 1B, Watertown, 617-926-9770) is yet another multipurpose healing center, offering sessions in physical therapy, massage and body work, and Feldenkrais.

For general information on alternative health care and referrals to practitioners in your area, you can also head to the American Association of Oriental Medicine Web site at www.aaom.org.

Nina Willdorf can be reached at nwilldorf[a]phx.com