Americans Using More Alternative Medicine Approaches

One of the leading ailments Americans are using alternative medicine is for back pain, followed closely by neck and joint pain including arthritis. The survey conducted by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 38 percent of adults are using alternative medicine approaches in 2007 up from 36 percent in 2002.

Not only are health officials looking at adults who use alternative medicine techniques, they have turned the spotlight on children under the age of 18 as well. It was discovered that 12 percent of American children are also using alternative medicine for ailments like anxiety, colds, back pain, stress and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It isn’t clear if there are any risks involved with giving children alternative medicine.

Herbal medicines, natural products along with massage and chiropractic techniques are being used in conjunction with conventional medicine. Americans are seeking alternatives to pharmaceutically prescribed medicines in the hopes of gaining an advantage on what ails them.

The alternative medicine industry has emerged as a big business entity. Most Americans seem to think that alternative medicine techniques work better than prescribed medicines, and alternative medicines have fewer negative side effects.

"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. Josephine 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.

The leading alternative medicine approaches to treat chronic pain are chiropractic care, acupuncture and massage therapy, health researcher Richard Nahin revealed. Data results were concluded from 23,000 adults and 9,500 children across the country. Dietary supplements such as natural products like fish oil caplets are the most popular category of alternative and natural medicines.

Adult use of fish oil caplets is for high cholesterol and high blood pressure treatment. Many Americans want to get away from traditional medical treatment of these diseases and rely on a more natural, alternative approach to managing them. The study showed that women and people with higher levels of education were more likely to use alternative medicine techniques.