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

 
Time To Talk About CAM:
Health Care Providers and Patients Need To Ask and Tell
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has launched Time to Talk, an educational campaign to encourage patients — particularly those age 50 or older — and their health care providers to openly discuss the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM ). CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine, such as herbal supplements, meditation, naturopathy, and acupuncture.
According …read more