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Brief Description:

A new government survey found that 38 percent of adults and 12 percent of children use complementary and alternative medicine, which is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine. 

Transcript:

Akinso: A new government survey found that 38 percent of adults and 12 percent of children use complementary and alternative medicine, which is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine. Dr. Josephine Briggs, Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, says the survey provides the most current, comprehensive, and reliable source of information on Americans’ use of complementary and alternative medicine.

Briggs: We found that many Americans are turning in pursuit of better health to practices like the use of herbs, acupuncture, yoga, meditation, message and chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation. These approaches are used for many health problems but most particularly for chronic pain.

Akinso: Dr. Briggs explains NCCAM’s effort to support complementary and alternative medicine research.

Briggs: We are working hard to support research that will help us understand better the optimal role of complementary and alternative interventions. The data also highlight the importance of patients and doctors, talking about complementary and alternative medicine use.

Akinso: Dr. Briggs added that future analyses of the survey’s data may help explain some of the observed variation in the use of individual complementary and alternative medicine therapies and provide great insights into usage patterns among Americans. For more information on the survey, conducted as part of the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an annual study in which tens of thousands of Americans are interviewed about their health- and illness-related experiences, visit www.nccam.nih.gov. This is Wally Akinso at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.