Alternative medicine

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More Than One-Third of U.S. Uses Natural Medicine

The government has suggested that more and more people are turning to meditation, herbs, yoga and other forms of alternative medicine because of lack of results with conventional care. One of the largest U.S. studies conducted on alternative medicine found that over one-third of American adults practiced some type of non-conventional medicine in 2002. The report was based on information from 31,044 interviews with adults aged 18 and older.

Researchers believed the results of the study pointed to the fact that more people are using alternative medicine. Also, it was apparent that an increasing number of people have turned to natural products like herbs or enzymes to help with chronic or recurring pain.

Experts suggested that people should not neglect conventional medicine in those instances where it has been proven to help certain conditions and also recommended consulting a doctor before practicing alternative medicine. Experts were concerned about the number of people turning to alternative medicine because they felt they were no longer able to afford the costs of conventional care.

Experts cautioned people who assumed that just because a product was natural that it was automatically safe to use. An example they cited was the 6.6 percent of people in the study found to use the supplement kava kava, which has been linked to liver disease.

Significant findings from the study include:

62 percent of the participants used some form complementary and alternative medicine over the past year for a specific medical condition, broken down as follows:

Prayer for own health, 43 percent Prayer by others for the respondent's health, 24 percent Natural products (such as herbs, other botanicals, and enzymes), 19 percent Deep breathing exercises, 12 percent Participation in prayer group for own health, 10 percent

Meditation, 8 percent Chiropractic care, 8 percent Yoga, 5 percent Massage, 5 percent Diet-based therapies, 4 percent

45 percent turned to some kind of prayer to help them heal in the past 12 months

There was a higher tendency for women to use complementary and alternative medicine than men

28 percent of the participants felt that conventional treatment would not help them

Based on the findings of this report, there appears to be a greater percentage of people turning to complementary and alternative medicine for their health needs.

Center for Disease Control National Center for Health Statistics May 27, 2004 (20-page Full-Text PDF Report)