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. But the most commonly known are:

• acupuncture
• chiropractics
• homeopathy
• supplements

The Center broke down the costs even further:

• $22 billion was spent on products, classes and materials, bought out of pocket by the consumers.
• $14.8 billion of that $22 billion wsa spent on natural products, such as fish oil, glucosamine and echinacea
• $11.9 billion was spent on visiting CAM practitioners

According to the Center,

To put these figures in context, the $14.8 billion spent on nonvitamin, nonmineral, natural products is equivalent to approximately one-third of total out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs, and the $11.9 billion spent on CAM practitioner visits is equivalent to approximately one-quarter of total out-of-pocket spending on physician visits.

Information like this is essential. Knowing how much money, how popular and how useful various products are allows researchers to focus on ensuring Americans have access to safe products.

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Images: Zuma.com, istock.com

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33.9 Billion on CAM

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 acupuncture) could help relieve the nausea and vomiting.

According to an article from Health Behavior News Service, Wrist Acupuncture or Acupressure Prevents Nausea From Anesthesia, “The pericardium [membranes that surround the heart] (P6) point is in the wrist and its stimulation prevents nausea and vomiting.”

Using acupuncture or acupressure on this P6 point was reviewed in several studies that had looked at this. Researchers found:

The studies used 10 different methods of P6 stimulation, such as needle acupuncture, laser stimulation, transcutaneous (through the skin) nerve stimulation and acupressure wristbands. They used five different antiemetic drugs.

“Of the 40 trials included, the most common method of stimulation was wristband alone, in 17 studies,” [Anna] Lee [of the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care at The Chinese University of Hong Kong] said. “The wristbands used to prevent both postoperative nausea and vomiting are the same sold for seasickness, travel sickness, morning sickness and chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting.”

If nausea and vomiting can be controled in this way, the use of medications to do this could drop drastically.

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Image: Courtesy PhotoXpress.com

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Reducing Anesthesia Nausea

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 such surgery, adversely affecting quality of life as well as employability for certain occupations.

Nerve-sparing and other modified radical techniques that preserve certain structures without compromising disease control reduce the incidence of these problems but do not eliminate them entirely.

Unfortunately, available conventional methods of treatment for pain and dysfunction following neck surgery often have limited benefits, leaving much room for improvement.”

While Barrie Cassileth, PhD, Chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), said:

“Like any other treatment, acupuncture does not work for everyone, but it can be extraordinarily helpful for many.

It does not treat illness, but acupuncture can control a number of distressing symptoms, such as shortness of breath, anxiety and depression, chronic fatigue, pain, neuropathy, and osteoarthritis.”

Read more the MSKCC News.

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Acupuncture Against Pain of Head and Neck Cancer Surgery