A recent survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control found that the most likely users of alternative therapy for weight loss are women. Their socio backgrounds were that of high education. They also had been hospitalized in the past year, and were former smokers. The leading ills people try to cure according to the survey are back, neck, and headaches; colds; insomnia; stomach problems; anxiety; and depression, due to their weight gain. The survey also found that other, less popular ills people use alternative therapy for include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and symptoms of menopause, asthma, diabetes and cancer.
Fifty five percent of people that use alternative therapy for weight loss tend to combine the therapy with conventional medicine. Thirteen percent have tried alternative therapy because they think conventional medicine is too expensive. Twenty-eight percent of the peopled in the study believed that conventional medicine does not help their health problems. Outside of conventional medical treatments, the survey found that prayer is the most popular way sick people seek help with forty-two percent saying that they pray for their own health and twenty-four percent saying they pray for others.
Many people agree that this survey argues the need for more research to figure out which of these therapies work and which don’t, which are safe and which are not, and what effect access to these therapies will economically have on people. Other people argue that this survey and alternative therapies for weight loss, in general, are a waste of money because there is no evidence that any of these treatments work and a growing amount of evidence that they can cause harm. An example of this point, the Food and Drug Administration statement on the use of ephedrine. This over the counter popular herbal weight-loss product was taken off the market in late 2003 because it presents an unreasonable risk of illness or injury.
While most of the alternative therapies in the Center for Disease Control’s survey are being used for the treatment of ills other than obesity and the promotion of weight loss, they all are being used to promote health and well being in general. When people do turn to alternative therapies for the promotion of weight loss, they usually turn to things like herbal teas and medications, hypnosis, acupuncture, or thought field therapy (TFT). While many people claim these treatments are effective in promoting weight loss, many times they have been shown to be harmful to the person’s health. Also, most of these alternative therapies lack strong studies to support their claims of promoting weight loss so at this point it is hard to say which are effective and which are not.