WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Nearly two-thirds of American adults use some
form of complementary or alternative medicine ranging from
prayer to herbs, a U.S. government survey showed on Thursday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted
the survey of 31,000 U.S. adults, asking about 27 types of
therapies such as acupuncture and chiropractic, the use of
herbs or botanical products, special diets, and megavitamin
therapy.
About 36 percent of those surveyed said they had used one
or more of those approaches. When prayer was considered, the
number rose to 62 percent.
Women, people with higher education, those who had been hospitalized
within the past year and former smokers were all more likely
to use complementary or alternative approaches, the survey
found.
"These new findings confirm the extent to which Americans
have turned to complementary and alternative approaches with
the hope that they would help treat and prevent disease and
enhance quality of life," said Dr. Stephen Straus, director
of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
"The data not only assists us in understanding who is using
CAM, what is being used, and why, but also in studying relationships
between CAM use and other health characteristics, such chronic
health conditions, insurance coverage, and health behaviors,"
Straus added in a statement.
National Center for Health Statistics Director Edward Sondik
said: "What we see is that a sizable percentage of the public
puts their personal health into their own hands."
Alternative approaches were most often used to treat back
pain or problems, colds, neck pain or problems, joint pain
or stiffness, and anxiety or depression.
Only about 12 percent of adults sought care from a licensed
CAM practitioner, the survey found.
It found that 43 percent of adults pray for their own health,
24 percent pray for someone else, 19 percent use products
such as herbs, 12 percent practice deep breathing and eight
percent meditate.
Eight percent seek care from a chiropractor, five percent
use massage therapeutically and four percent use diet-based
therapies for health, including the Atkins, Pritikin, Ornish,
and Zone diets.
