BALTIMORE SUN
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/
ats-ap_health11may27,0,5992834.story?coll=sns-ap-tophealth
By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press Writer
May 27, 2004, 2:47 PM EDT
ATLANTA -- Alternative medicine -- including yoga, meditation,
herbs and the Atkins diet -- appears 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 used such practices
in 2002, according to the government survey of 31,000 people, the largest
study on non-conventional medical approaches in the United States.
If prayer is included, about 62 percent of U.S. adults
used some form of alternative medicine.
The results seem to indicate more people are turning to
alternative medicine, 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 percent
of adults), natural products (19 percent), meditation (8 percent) and diets
such as Atkins, Ornish, or the Zone (4 percent).
More people also are using natural products such as herbs
or enzymes to treat chronic or recurring pain, said Richard 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. Stephen 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 percent
of those surveyed said they turned to alternative medicine because regular
medicine is too expensive.
"It needs to be explored -- we need to find out whether
they were insured or not," Nahin said.
Health officials also were surprised that 6.6 percent
of those surveyed used the supplement kava kava, which has been associated
with liver disease.
"People make the assumption that because something is
natural that it's safe," Nahin said. "But a number of studies have shown
that natural products can be unsafe when used inappropriately or with other
drugs."
He said people considering using alternative medicine
should consult their doctor first.
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On the Net:
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine:
http://www.nccam.nih.gov
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
