Studies show that the number of Americans willing to try alternative treatments continues to increase. A 2007 survey by the federal government found that more than one-third of adults and nearly 12 percent of children in the United States used alternative therapies, including acupuncture and herbal supplements.
Many mainstream physicians continue to be skeptical of acupuncture, saying their efficacy has not been proven and their successes may be nothing more than variations of the placebo effect. But increasing numbers of institutions, including Johns Hopkins Hospital and the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center, have established integrative medicine units that bring together conventional and alternative approaches to care.
Health insurers are also beginning to recognize and pay for some alternative therapies, including acupuncture and herbal remedies, although Medicaid and Medicare do not cover them.
"It's not as evidence-based, which is why doctors are somewhat averse to the practice,'' said Shnider, who is affiliated with Cardiology Associates. "But if [they] didn't work, why would we still be doing them thousands of years later?"
Source: washingdonpost.com(By Lori Aratani Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 9,2009)
