Billions and billions

This news was released more than six months ago, but we only just discovered it, thanks to an alert reader in Ohio. Apparently these 2007 figures are the most recent available: Did you know that Americans spent more than $33.9 billion out-of-pocket for complementary and alternative medicine in 2007? According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, $22 billion of that was for products, classes, and materials, while $11.9 billion was for treatments by practitioners.