Alternative Medicine Use Grows
The use of alternative treatments including herbal alternatives is on the rise in America thanks to the financial crisis, although evidence is often lacking on their safety and effectiveness.
Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market Inc. says its stores nationwide have seen an increase in sales of nutritional supplements and herbal products in the past several weeks.
That’s "noteworthy" given the retail industry’s financial slump, said Whole Foods spokesman Jeremiah C. McElwee.
And while winter is normally a busy time for herbal medicine sales because it’s the season for colds and flu, "more people are value shopping" now because of the economy, McElwee said.
Cathy Birleffi says she’s among the customers looking for a deal.
"The doctors are so much higher, the insurance isn’t paying as much," the 61-year-old self-employed bookkeeper and notary told Reuters.
Her husband, a retired dispatcher, has high blood pressure and seizures. Recent changes in their health insurance coverage resulted in $1,300 in monthly premiums, double what they used to be.
Birleffi said until they tried herbal alternatives, including valerian for insomnia, "every time I turned around, it was $50 here, $75 there" for prescriptions.
Nationwide herbal and botanical supplement sales totaled $4.8 billion in 2007, when the recession began, up 4.3 percent over 2006.
Plus, a government survey released in December said concerns about the cost of conventional medicine influenced Americans’ decisions to try alternative remedies.
"Nonvitamin natural products," including fish oil and herbal medicines, were the most commonly used alternatives, taken by almost 18 percent of Americans in 2007, the report said.
Report co-author Richard Nahin of the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine offered cautionary advice on the topic.
People taking herbal and other supplements should let their doctor know what they’re using, said Nahin.
Alternative treatments don’t require rigorous testing and government approval. They also can interfere with prescription drugs, and combined, can be life-threatening in rare cases, Nahin said.
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