Americans turn to alternative medicine

About four in 10 US adults and one in nine children are turning to unconventional medical approaches for chronic pain and other health problems, health officials said on Wednesday.

Back pain was the leading reason for Americans turning to complementary and alternative medicine techniques, followed by neck and joint pain as well as arthritis, according to the survey by the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 38 percent adults used some form of complementary and alternative medicine in 2007, compared to 36 percent in 2002, the last time the government tracked the matter.