therapies in 1997 and the number of visits to non-traditional providers of medicine and healing increased by 50 percent from 1990 to 1997, according to a survey done by David Eisenberg and colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston. They polled 2,055 adults in 1997 and compared the findings with a similar survey done in 1990. "The market for alternative medicine is vast and growing," Eisenberg said. "This trend must be guided by scientific inquiry, clinical judgment, regulatory authority and shared decision-making." The report was published in this week‘s Journal of the American Medical Association and discussed at a briefing in Washington. The journal contained several articles on alternative therapies, giving mixed views. Among the reports:

- Doctors in Italy and China reported that the an ancient practice of burning herbs to stimulate acupuncture points is effective in causing foetal movement and correcting breech positions before birth

- The Obesity Research Centre at St. Luke‘s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York found that a herbal compound, Garcinia cambogia, widely used for weight loss, does not work.

- Researchers from the University of Western Sydney in Australia found that Chinese herbal medicine treatments reduced the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, a condition that causes recurrent abdominal pain and irregularity.

- Spinal manipulation does not appear to help patients with tension-type headaches, according to doctors at Odense University in Denmark.

Eisenberg‘s overview survey reported that U.S. alternative medicine visits increased from an estimated 427 million in 1990 to 629 million in 1997. By comparison visits to all U.S. primary care physicians in 1997 totalled 386 million. The survey included relaxation techniques, herbal medicine, massage, chiropractic, spiritual healing, megavitamins, self-help, imagery, energy healing, homeopathy, hypnosis, biofeedback and acupuncture. The report said that in both the 1990 and 1997 surveys, alternative medicine was used most frequently for chronic conditions, including back and neck problems, anxiety, arthritis and headaches