More and more Americans choose complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to treat their health problems, according to a survey by researchers with the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers asked more than 23,000 adults about their use and 9,400 adults about their children’s use of 36 non-vitamin or mineral CAM therapies, including herbal supplements, acupuncture, visits to chiropractors, massage therapy, mediation and even yoga. It is the first time when researchers looked at use of such medicine by children under age 18.

The survey found that about 38 percent of adults used some form of CAM in 2007, compared to 36 percent in 2002, the last time the government made such a survey. As for children, the survey found that about 12 percent used CAM for such reasons as back pain, colds, anxiety, stress and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Considering that, children are much healthier than adults, “12 percent usage can be seen as quite high” said study co-author Richard L. Nahin, PhD, MPH, acting director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine’s Division of Extramural Research.

Other findings of the survey include: children whose parents used CAM were five times more likely to use the therapies (24 percent) than children whose parents did not use them; the adults most likely to use CAM were women, those with advanced college degrees and those living in the West; fish oil, omega-3, or DHA topped the list of oral supplements used most often by adults, followed by glucosamine (for joint pain), echinacea, flaxseed oil/pills, ginseng, combination herbal products and ginkgo biloba; back pain was the most frequent cited reason for using CAM among adults (17 percent), followed by neck pain (6 percent), joint pain (5 percent) and arthritis (3.5 percent).

When it comes to methods to relieve pain other than pills, the survey found that about 13 percent of adults practiced deep breathing, 9 percent practiced meditation and 6 percent practiced yoga. Also, about 8 percent reported having therapeutic massages or seeing a chiropractor during the previous year.

This increase in the use of CAM is seen with skepticism by some researchers who believe that most of these treatments have not been scientifically validated and those that have been rigorously tested have overwhelmingly been found to be ineffective.

“They are either unproven or disproven. Acupuncture is a placebo. Homeopathy is one step above fraud. It goes on and on. The fact that they are so widely used is evidence for how gullible large segments of our society are,” Wallace Sampson, founding editor of Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, said.

Others went even further and said that some of these pills, considered by some “magical” were found to cause serious health problems, including cancer. So people should think twice when using such a therapy or when exposing their children to them at such a fragile age.