A recent study shows that alternative health care, including Chiropractic, is on the upswing — Two-thirds of Americans have tried at least one alternative therapy, the most common being Chiropractic and massage therapy.

The study is a follow-up to Dr. David Eisenberg’s 1993 study on alternative medicine in the United States. In his initial study, Eisenberg found that 425 million visits were made to alternative health care practitioners in 1990 — exceeding the number of visits to traditional medical practitioners by 37 million.

These visits amounted to $13.7 billion in expenditures, of which, $10.3 billion was paid out-of-pocket.

In the most recent study, Eisenberg found the numbers continue to rise and that the use of at least one of 16 alternative therapies during the previous year increased from 33.8% in 1990 to 42.1% in 1997.

Visits to alternative health care practitioners jumped to 629 million in 1998, while visits to traditional medical practitioners dropped to 386 million. Expenditures for alternative health care i n c reased to $21.2 billion — $12.2 billion being paid out-of-pocket.

Chiropractic is at the forefront of these “alternative therapies,” and was rated “extremely effective”by those who had used Chiropractic.

The study also showed people choose alternative health care after a friend or family member’s recommendation (62%), when traditional therapies fail (28%), to complement a health routine (23%), to follow a doctor’s recommendation (22%) or from information they have read about the therapies (20%.)

SOURCE: Dynamic Chiropractic, July 24, 2000, Vol. 18, No. 16, pp. 1, 48; Journal of the American Medical Association, 1998; 280:1569-1575.