Friday, May 28, 2004
Americans broaden concepts of medicine
Drawing from a long list of "alternative" medical therapies as diverse as the Atkins diet, acupuncture, homeopathy and prayer, federal health researchers reported Thursday that nearly two out of three Americans were using unconventional approaches to mend their bodies or maintain their health.
When prayer is dropped from the list, the federally funded survey found that 36 percent of Americans over the age of 18 used so-called complementary and alternative medicine.
"What we see is that a sizable percentage of the public puts their personal health into their own hands,'' said Edward Sondik, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, which carried out the survey.
A snapshot of American health care choices in 2002, the survey concluded that 8 percent of the nation's adults visited chiropractors; 5 percent practiced yoga for health; 1.1 percent had acupuncture; and 1.7 percent employed homeopathy.
Therapies such as massage, which are labeled as alternative medicine, are often used by mainstream medical practices, Barrett noted. Hypnosis and "progressive relaxation," also on the survey list, are techniques used by conventional psychotherapists.
The findings are consistent with those of smaller surveys of America's health care preferences, such as the work of Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. David Eisenberg, who has reported the prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine in the United States has risen to 42 percent, from 33 percent in 1990.
The federal survey broadened the previous academic work by including prayer in the alternative medicine mix. It found 43 percent of Americans had prayed for their own health during 2002; 24 percent reported that other people had prayed for them; and nearly 10 percent had been in a group that prayed for health.
Dr. William Stewart, medical director for the Institute for Health and Healing at California Pacific Medical Center, said there was a growing body of scientific work suggesting that prayer does have a beneficial healing effect. "Most people who have a cancer diagnosis now engage in some sort of social support activity,'' he said. "If we look at prayer as a support network, it could contribute to the well-being and healing of an individual.''
Stewart said he was concerned that surveys such as this one tended to lump all kinds of alternative medicine practices into one group, without much rationale for doing so. However, he said the larger picture painted by the study showed that "30 percent or more Americans say the spiritual aspects of treatment are important."
"That,'' Stewart concluded, "is a very important and salient consideration for us physicians.''
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