| USA – A recent news
article reported the findings of federal health researchers on “alternative" medical
therapies as diverse as the Atkins diet, acupuncture, homeopathy and prayer.
Researchers said that nearly two out of three Americans were using unconventional
approaches to mend their bodies or maintain their health.
Even if prayer is excluded 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. The survey of 31,000 Americans was conducted at a
cost of $3 million over a two-year period. It is said to be the largest
and most comprehensive of its kind.
The findings of the study are consistent with those of smaller surveys
of Americans‘ health care preferences. For example, the work of
Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. David Eisenberg has reported that
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 treatment list. 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.
Stewart said that 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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