Alternative Therapies Gain Ground

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May 28, 2004 Los Angeles Times

Alternative Therapies Gain Ground, U.S. Says - From Associated Press

ATLANTA — Alternative therapies, including yoga, meditation, herbs and

Atkins-style diets, appeared to be growing in popularity in the United

States, perhaps because of dissatisfaction with conventional care, the

government said Thursday.

More than a third of American adults followed such practices in 2002,

according to the government survey of 31,000 people, the largest study

of nonconventional approaches in the United States.

If prayer is included, about 62% of U.S. adults used some form of

alternative practice.

The results seemed to indicate more people were turning to alternative

therapies, though the 2002 survey could not be directly compared to

previous studies because of differences in size and survey methods,

health officials said.

The top alternative therapies included prayer (43% of adults), natural

products (19%), meditation (8%) and diets such as Atkins, Ornish or the

Zone (4%).

More people also were using natural products such as herbs or enzymes to

treat chronic or recurring pain, said Nahin of the National

Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National

Institutes of Health.

" Many conditions are not easily treated with conventional medicine, "

Nahin said. " It may be the public is turning to complementary and

alternative medicine because it's not getting relief from conventional

medicine. "

But people should not be turning away from conventional treatments that

are proven safe, said Dr. Straus, director of the alternative

medicine center. " People are making individual decisions to neglect

those therapies and we have concerns about those choices, " he said.

Health officials said they were concerned that 13% of those surveyed

said they turned to alternative therapies because regular medicine was

too expensive.

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