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Most used alternate therapy is prayer

ATLANTA - Alternative medicine - including yoga, meditation, herbs and the Atkins diet - appears to be growing in popularity in the United States, perhaps because of dissatisfaction with conventional care, the government said Thursday.

More than a third of American adults used such practices in 2002, according to the government survey of 31,000 people, the largest study on nonconventional medical approaches in the United States.

If prayer is included, about 62 percent of U.S. adults used some form of alternative medicine.

The results seem to indicate more people are turning to alternative medicine, though the 2002 survey could not be directly compared to previous studies because of differences in size and survey methods, health officials said.

The top alternative therapies included prayer (43 percent of adults), natural products (19 percent), meditation (8 percent) and diets such as Atkins, Ornish, or the Zone (4 percent).

WASHINGTON - Smoking, first linked to lung cancer in a groundbreaking report by the U.S. surgeon general 40 years ago, causes no fewer than 26 diseases, as well as severe complications in pregnancy, the government said Thursday.

A report by Surgeon General Richard Carmona blames smoking for nine diseases that previous reports had stopped short of saying it causes.

They are: cancers of the stomach, uterine cervix, pancreas and kidney; acute myeloid leukemia; pneumonia; abdominal aortic aneurysm; cataracts; and periodontitis.

"It damages nearly every cell in your body," Carmona said in unveiling the report, 28th in a series extending back to a historic condemnation of smoking by then-Surgeon General Luther Terry in 1964.

Diseases said by previous surgeon general's reports to be caused by smoking include cancer of the bladder, esophagus, larynx, lung, mouth and throat. Smoking also has been linked to chronic lung disease, chronic heart and cardiovascular disease as well as reproductive problems.

Overall, 22.5 percent of adults smoked in 2002, the CDC said. The recorded peak was 42.6 percent in 1966.

WASHINGTON - A revised food pyramid coming from the government to guide Americans' eating habits should recommend more fish and fiber and fewer refined grains such as white bread, federal advisers decided Thursday.

The advisers, who were instructed by the Agriculture Department to shift the focus of the guidelines from maintaining a healthy diet to losing weight, also recommended that people exercise more and watch less television.

With about two-thirds of American adults overweight or obese, the committee was looking hard at ways in which people could control their weight. The panel favored better portion control, noting that people eat more when they have large portions, and said restaurants should offer reasonable portion sizes.

The committee also said dieters should concentrate on counting calories, as opposed to carbohydrates or fats. Burning more calories than the dieter takes in is more important than where the calories came from, the panel said. The committee also said people can push up the calorie burn by being more physically active.

The USDA said the suggested amount of salmon and other fish containing heart-protecting omega-3 fatty acids should be doubled to two servings a week of 6 ounces to 8 ounces each.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee was to have completed its recommendations this week. But the panel will need another meeting to finish.