--- title: Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year on Complementary Medicine description: Americans spend a substantial amount of money on complementary care and alternative medicine, like yoga, homeopathy and acupuncture canonical: https://time.com/4377345/americans-complementary-medicine/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-22T04:01:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:45:24.365Z article:section: Health og:title: Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year on Complementary Medicine og:description: Americans spend a substantial amount of money on complementary care and alternative medicine, like yoga, homeopathy and acupuncture og:url: https://time.com/4377345/americans-complementary-medicine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7e1db21cbec97fe/6987789df887dcfd52e89607/health-weight-exercise-yoga-mat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TIME.com stock photos Weight Loss Health Exercise Yoga Mat og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year on Complementary Medicine twitter:description: Americans spend a substantial amount of money on complementary care and alternative medicine, like yoga, homeopathy and acupuncture twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7e1db21cbec97fe/6987789df887dcfd52e89607/health-weight-exercise-yoga-mat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year on Complementary Medicine > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 22, 2016 4:01 AM UTC  Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 22, 2016 4:01 AM UTC A new federal report reveals that Americans spend about $30 billion a year on complementary health approaches, from ginkgo biloba to yoga. Complementary medical approaches are alternative types of healing outside the realm of Western medicine, and they’re fairly popular in the U.S. An estimated 60 million Americans spend money on them each year, and 4.1 million children have used some type of complementary medicine, the report reveals. In all, the out-of-pocket costs for these types of therapies total $30.2 billion. The study doesn’t break down what types of complementary health approaches are the most popular, but people reported using [acupuncture](http://time.com/3966005/acupuncture-anxiety-stress/?iid=sr-link3), Ayurveda, [homeopathy](http://time.com/3741212/homeopathy-not-effective/?iid=sr-link1), naturopathy, chelation therapy, natural product supplements, special diets, massage, mind-body therapies, hypnosis, energy healing and more. Families with incomes under $25,000 spent an average of $435 each year on complementary health, and families with incomes of $100,000 or more spent about $590\. Complementary medicine still makes up only a small portion of U.S. health care spending—around 1%—but the study authors note that the out-of-pocket costs to Americans are substantial. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4377345/americans-complementary-medicine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4377345/americans-complementary-medicine/"},"headline":"Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year on Complementary Medicine","datePublished":"2016-06-22T04:01:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:45:24.365Z","description":"People in the U.S. spend a substantial amount on complementary care","url":"https://time.com/4377345/americans-complementary-medicine/","keywords":["medicine","Alternative Medicine","CDC","yoga","Americans","acupuncture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7e1db21cbec97fe/6987789df887dcfd52e89607/health-weight-exercise-yoga-mat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta7e1db21cbec97fe/6987789df887dcfd52e89607/health-weight-exercise-yoga-mat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME.com stock photos Weight Loss Health Exercise Yoga Mat","caption":"TIME.com stock photos Weight Loss Health Exercise Yoga Mat","creditText":"Elizabeth Renstrom for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4377345/americans-complementary-medicine/","name":"Americans Spend $30 Billion a Year on Complementary Medicine"}}]}] ```