Many Americans turning to unconventional medicine

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Many Americans turning to unconventional medicine

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http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/healthNews/~3/fGb5PMnSV4A/idUSTRE4

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About four in 10 U.S. adults and one in nine children are turning to

unconventional medical approaches for chronic pain and other health

problems, health officials said on Wednesday.

Back pain was the leading reason that Americans reported using

complementary and alternative medicine techniques, followed by neck

and joint pain as well as arthritis, according to the survey by the

National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention.

About 38 percent of adults used some form of complementary and

alternative medicine in 2007, compared to 36 percent in 2002, the

last time the government tracked at the matter.

For the first time, the survey looked at use of such medicine by

children under age 18, finding that about 12 percent used it,

officials said. The reasons included back pain, colds, anxiety,

stress and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to the

survey.

The risks for children using these are unclear, they said.

Complementary medicine is used together with conventional treatment,

while alternative medicine is used instead. This includes such things

as herbal medicines and other natural products, chiropractic

techniques, acupuncture, massage, meditation and others.

Many people feel these may work better for them than typical medical

approaches, with fewer bad side effects. And so-called natural

products have become big business, too, with various herbal medicines

and others emerging as lucrative products.

" As I look at this data, what I'm most struck with is how much people

are turning to CAM (complementary and alternative medicine)

approaches as part of the management of chronic pain conditions,

particularly chronic back pain, but also neck pain and

musculoskeletal pain and headache, " said Dr. phine Briggs,

director of the U.S. National Center for Complementary and

Alternative Medicine at the NIH.

" And from my days as an internist seeing patients in my office, I

know that these are conditions that are hard to manage and tough to

treat, " Briggs told reporters.

Chiropractic care, acupuncture and massage therapy are among the

complementary and alternative medicine techniques used for chronic

pain, NIH researcher Nahin said.

The survey results were based on responses from about 23,000 adults

and 9,500 children nationwide.

Overall, the most common category of complementary and alternative

medicine used was natural products such as herbal medicines and

certain other types of dietary supplements other than vitamins and

minerals.

Among these natural products used by adults, fish oil was the most

commonly used. Nahin said it is used for such reasons as high

cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Nahin said use of complementary and alternative medicine seems to be

remaining at a significant but stable level, with most of the recent

increases among those age 60 and up.

Deep breathing exercises, meditation and massage therapy all showed

significant increases among adults. Overall, women and people with

higher levels of education were more likely to use complementary and

alternative medicine techniques.

Echinacea, a medicinal plant sometimes used to treat or prevent

colds, was the most common of the natural products used by children,

according to the survey. Echinacea use dropped among adults from 2002

to 2007, Nahin said.