21 Celebs Who Embraced Natural Medicine

Richard Gere

One of Hollywood's most famous Buddhists, Gere started meditating at age 24 and continues to do so daily. He told PBS that it's a creative process involving finding "the space between thoughts" and that it's different for him every time.

The relaxation technique can ease a range of ailments—including chronic pain, depression, and insomnia—and it may even help smokers quit.

Olivia Newton-John

Along with chemotherapy, the singer and actress used complementary treatments such as herbal supplements, acupuncture, meditation, and visualization to battle breast cancer. When she was first diagnosed in 1992, she even considered forgoing chemotherapy entirely in favor of homeopathic treatments and acupuncture, but eventually "common sense prevailed," she told CNN.

Maintaining a positive mindset throughout the experience also helped her heal, she said.

Russell Simmons

The hip-hop mogul may not seem like the typical meditation practitioner, but he's been getting his om on for over a decade.

In a 2010 blog on the Huffington Post, Simmons wrote that meditation "has given me energy, strength, health, wisdom, and access to my own inner stillness, inner silence, inner bliss. It is my connection to myself; it is my connection to the universe."

Madonna

After claiming that urinating on your feet is a cure for athlete's foot on The Late Show With David Letterman in 1994, it's not surprising that Madonna has ascribed to some strange natural cures. Today, the buff performer is a fan of more mainstream alternative practices, such as yoga.

James Hetfield

A sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll-loving guitarist and singer isn't the typical poster boy for natural remedies. But in 2008, Metallica's Hetfield told the Houston Chronicle in order to get through the band's tour to promote that year's Death Magnetic album, he was trying out some alternative treatments, including reflexology, acupuncture, and drinking a "secret vegetable concoction."

Steve McQueen

The bad-boy actor was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a deadly cancer of the lung lining, in 1979. He traveled to Mexico in July 1980 to be treated with pancreatic enzymes, a controversial therapy developed by a dentist who had since been "blacklisted" by the American Cancer Society, the New York Times reported.

McQueen is also said to have received 50 daily vitamins and minerals, psychotherapy, coffee enemas, and injections made from sheep and cattle fetuses, all while taking part in healing massages and prayer sessions. After additional treatments with laetrile, a controversial apricot-pit-based injection, McQueen said he was in recovery, but he died shortly thereafter, following surgery to remove cancer from his abdomen and neck.
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