Complementary therapies are currently one of the most discussed and debated health care topics. From television newscasts to popular magazines to health professionals to consumers to government groups, interest in complementary therapies in the United States has grown exponentially. In a recent national survey in the United States, Eisenberg and colleagues found that 42% of those surveyed used one or more complementary therapies (Eisenberg et al., 1998). This was an almost 10% increase in use from the 1990 survey conducted by the same researcher (Eisenberg et al., 1993). What is most remarkable is that the majority of Americans paid for these services out of their own pocket. According to the 1997 survey, over 22 billion dollars were spent on these therapies.

Complementary therapies are not new. Many of the therapies have been used for centuries. Ancients such as Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle make reference to the effectiveness of a number of therapies that are now dubbed as being complementary (Snyder & Lindquist, 1998). Practices in Ayruvedic medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the health systems of indigenous cultures have been validated over millennia. Yet our current Western system of care is slow to accept the long history of anecdotal evidence as proof for the effectiveness of many therapies. In nursing, Florence Nightingale describes the use of a number of complementary therapies, such as music, in the holistic care of patients (Nightingale, 1860/1969). However, the development of surgical procedures, modern pharmacological therapies, and sophisticated diagnostic technology has resulted in the veritable demise of complementary therapies in Western medical/health care in the 20th century.

Complementary therapies have been more popular in Europe than in the United States (Pelletier, 2000). Herbs are an integral part of German health care; much of the research on herbal preparations has been conducted in Germany. Across the world, therapies Americans label as complementary or alternative are the main mode of health care. One estimation is that 70-90% of persons world-wide use complementary therapies as a routine part of their health care (Kreitzer & Jensen, 2000.)