Complementary medicine use on rise

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine in Melbourne surveyed 1067 adults and found that use of alternative medicine is now on a par with conventional medicine.

The survey found that two out of three people were using some form of alternative or complementary medicine and almost half those surveyed had visited an alternative practitioner in the last year.

However, less than half of those surveyed informed their doctor about their use of alternative medicine.

The survey also found that the estimated number of visits to alternative practitioners (69 million) equalled the number of visits to medical practitioners and the alternative medicine industry is now worth $4.13 billion a year in Australia.

“Complementary medicine use nationally in Australia appears to be considerably higher than estimated from previous Australian studies,” the study’s authors concluded.