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(January 16, 2009)

Trying the alternatives


Chiropractic Manipulation
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A survey finds treatments that don’t involve conventional medicine are pretty common. It indicates 38 percent of adults and 12 percent of people 17 and younger use complementary and alternative medicine, also known as CAM, such as herbal supplements, meditation and chiropractic.

Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health worked on the report. At the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, Patricia Barnes says CAM was more commonly used by women and by people ages 30 to 69.

Barnes says the cost of conventional medicine seemed to be a factor:

[Patricia Barnes speaks] ``Those who worried about the cost of conventional care, whether it was delayed or preventive, were more likely to use CAM, and that was for both adults and children.’’ 

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: January, 16 2009