[caption id="attachment_4272" align="alignleft" width="245" caption="St Johns Wort"]
[/caption]Carol Forsloff - Considering
the growing costs of health care, especially prescription medications,
more and more people are turning to alternative sources with a
significant growth in the past 10 years, with growth poised to continue.
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies
experienced a significant growth in the United States in the last
decade, and a new analysis finds that CAM use becomes more likely when
access to conventional care has been restricted.
Health Behavior News tells us how remarkably this growth in alternative health care has become.
“In
both 2002 and 2007, having unmet needs in medical care, or delayed care
due to cost, was associated with a higher chance of CAM use,” said lead
author Dejun Su, Ph.D. “Importantly, for Americans without health
insurance, who cannot afford medical care, CAM might be their last and
only resort.” CAM refers to complementary alternative medicine.
As
director of the South Texas Border Health Disparities Center at the
University of Texas-Pan American, Su’s research involved 23,000 adults.
The study found 33 percent of whites, 31.8 of Asian Americans, 20.1
percent of African Americans and 16.9 percent use alternative health
therapies.
“So
far, we know little about how the difference in CAM use has influenced
racial and ethnic disparities in health and mortality,” Su said.
“Research is urgently needed to understand the effectiveness, side
effects and interactions of CAM therapies with conventional medicine.”
But
as some health experts have pointed out, all that is green is not
always good or beneficial. In fact some herbal remedies can actually be
harmful, they say. Herbs can be beneficial or harmful, and the problem
is many people don’t know the difference. Another particular
difficulty is that some herbs can actually can cause serious
interactions with traditional medications.
So
those in the know suggest, to be safe rather than sorry, demands
letting physicians know what traditional and non-traditional methods are
being used in healing in order to help control the possible harm and
still provide the very best help.
