An estimated 38 percent of U.S. adults and 12 percent of children use some type of complementary and alternative medicine, a new U.S. government survey finds.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) — is an umbrella term for a collection of wide-ranging medical and health care systems, practices and products that aren’t generally considered conventional medicine. It includes herbal supplements, homeopathy, herbal treatments, meditation (mind-body interventions), chiropractic treatment and acupuncture.

“If you are going to use CAM, you should always let your conventional [health care] provider know about it,” said survey co-author Richard L. Nahin, acting director of the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine’s division of extramural research.

This is a great pie in the sky notion but the truth is that most conventional doctors are sooooo brainwashed by pharmaceutical companies and often arrogant professors at medical schools who may be on the payroll of the pharmaceutical and medical device companies that if you tell them, they either know nothing about CAM, care nothing about CAM or are so prejudiced against CAM that it is impossible for a patient to talk intelligently with these providers and actually get useful information and guidance about CAM.

There are a small but increasing number of physicians who are integrating conventional and CAM medical care. Seek them out because it shows that they care enough to implement whatever will help you and that they still have independent minds - not white washed by the “mainstream” that has bankrupted health care in this country.

The survey found that the most popular alternative techniques are deep breathing exercises, meditation, chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation, massage and yoga. However, the survey is absurdly flawed because functional foods (e.g. eggs that have omega-3 fatty acids in them), organic and preservative free cosmetics, cleansers and the like need to be included as part of CAM because people use this as health tools.

In addition, the study did not include those who use vitamins routinely. If it had, the percentage of Americans using CAM would be much greater and the list of popular CAM therapies and products would have been much larger.

In the study, adults use CAM most often to treat pain, including back pain, neck pain or problems, joint pain, arthritis, and other musculoskeletal conditions. I think that again the study missed an important area - disease prevention, looking better and maintaining an acceptable quality of life.