Americans spend more than $5.8 billion each year on dietary supplements without an ounce of proof that they work. Health officials argue that supplements claiming to lengthen life and ward of diseases are misleading.

Yet many mainstream physicians are becoming more and more interested in their powers and pushing them on patients

A new study shows that Baby Boomers use alternative medicine more than generations before or after them do. That's what researchers at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro recently found in a study of middle-aged adults.

The study found that although older adults often have poorer health, it is middle-aged adults who are most likely to turn to complementary and alternative medicine. They also found that race and ethnic backgrounds don't matter as much as age does in whether an individual used self-care methods

A plant used in traditional Chinese medicine is now part of new U.S. clinical trial to see if it could provide help in treating Alzheimer's patients.

The plant called Chinese club moss, which is already sold in health food stores in the U.S. as a nutritional supplement, is the focus of a University of North Carolina clinical trial. In China, the plant is used to treat cognitive disorders

A study by a research team at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Bethesda, MD, suggests that nearly 1.6 million people use complementary and alternative medicine to help themselves deal with insomnia or a sleeping disorder. Researchers also found that every one in six Americans finds it difficult to get down to sleep and that most of them use herbal medicines and relaxation exercises to combat the problem.

Dr. Nancy J. Pearson and her team analyzed information from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey to find out prevalence of sleeping disorder and that how often people suffering from it opt for alternative medicines