Let’s play Jeopardy!
Answer: 33.9 billion on CAM.
{cue the Jeopardy! music}

Question: How much did Americans spend on complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM) in 12 months?
On top of the trillions of dollars (with a “tr”) spent annually on health care in the United States, Americans are spending almost 34 billion – with a “b” – on alternative treatments.
According to the NIH/National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, about 38% of Americans use some sort of CAM to either stay healthy or help manage or treat illness or symptoms of illness. CAM covers a wide variety of practices, too numerous to mention. …read more

Undergoing surgery is difficult enough, between worrying about the actual procedure, worrying about what the surgeon may find or do, and of course, worrying about pain after the surgery. And, for many people (up to 80%), comes worry about being nauseous and vomiting after surgery. This nausea and vomiting doesn’t affect everyone, but it’s not an unusual complication after surgery and it’s due to the anesthetic.
Acupressure, similar to acupuncture but using pressure points instead of needles, has been found to be successful in helping many people relieve pain and other discomforts, so researchers wanted to see if they (acupressure and …read more

We all know acupuncture as an old medical procedure that originated in China — a practice of inserting thin needles into specific body points to improve health and well-being.
Now, new data from a randomized, controlled trial found that acupuncture provided significant reductions in pain, dysfunction, and dry mouth in head and neck cancer patients after radical neck dissection.
According to David Pfister, MD, Chief of the Head and Neck Medical Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) — who led the study and who presented the results at the ASCO Annual Meeting:
“Chronic pain and shoulder mobility problems are common after …read more