If you say a prayer for your health before going to bed each night, you're not alone.

		On the Internet To read more about the NIH study, visit the Web site nccam.nih.gov.

In a recent federal survey of more than 30,000 Americans, the use of prayer for self-healing out-stripped alternative medical therapies such as acupuncture, yoga and massage.

The report by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health is the nation's largest, most comprehensive survey on the use of these therapies. Forty-three percent of Americans said they prayed for health.

Overall, 62 percent of Americans said they had used some form of complementary medicine within the past year. (That figure dropped to 36 percent when prayer was eliminated from the list.) Seventy-four percent had used it sometime in their lives.

More than half said they used alternative therapies in conjunction with conventional medicine.

Study author Richard L. Nahin of the center said the $3.5 million study proved that once Americans begin to use complementary medicine, they continue to use it.

The survey, conducted door-to-door to reach out to minority and low-income households, defined complementary and alternative medicine as a group of diverse medical and health-care systems, therapies and products that are not considered to be part of conventional medicine.

After prayer for self-healing, top therapies included praying for others, use of natural products, deep breathing and participation in prayer groups. "People tend to use [complementary and alternative medicine] through the self-care approach," Nahin said, "whether it's going down to the health food store and buying a supplement or taking a course in meditation."

Sven Hosford, publisher of the regional health and spirituality magazine Point of Light, questioned the inclusion of prayer at all in an alternative medicine study.

"If more than 90 percent of Americans believe in God or some form of higher intelligence and a large percentage go to church, how is prayer considered alternative?"

Dr. Ron Glick, medical director of the Center for Complementary Medicine at UPMC Shadyside, also was puzzled.

"They're painting with a pretty broad brush. If someone is involved in spiritual healing, that comes under complementary therapy. I'm not sure I would lump going to church or synagogue in the same category."

Prayer as it relates to health was included in Harvard researcher Dr. David Eisenberg's ground-breaking study on the widespread use of complementary practices in 1993.

And while not all forms of prayer would be considered complementary, it has to be considered when people use it for health reasons, Nahin said.

Some Americans use prayer instead of conventional medical care, an area that the federal government wants to look at more closely, he said.

Kathleen Krebs, clinical manager of the Integrated Medicine Clinic at the Allegheny General Hospital, said it is refreshing to be able to use prayer openly with patients for healing.

She has just completed her own 100-patient survey of spirituality and health. "The spiritual dimension is a big component of health here," she said.

"We frequently note the relationship of strong spiritual beliefs with coping skills for those dealing with acute or chronic illness."

In other findings in the survey, pain was the No. 1 reason to seek complementary care. This was followed by head colds, neck pain, joint pain, arthritis and anxiety/depression.

Americans are seeking natural cures in health food stores, with purchases of herbal antiviral echinacea leading the pack at 40 percent. They also bought ginseng, ginkgo biloba (often used for memory), garlic supplements and glucosamine (often used for joint pain).

Government researchers were concerned about the percentage of the population who used alternative therapies as a cheap substitute (13 percent) for conventional medicine, Nahin said. "We'd like to do more research to find out why those people are."

He said the study would help guide the future federal research agenda and might even influence insurance company reimbursement. (Most complementary therapies are not now reimbursed by insurance.) "Third-party payers do look at consumer demand. This might change coverage."

Hosford, the local magazine publisher, was surprised that yoga and chiropractic did not rank higher in the survey, given their popularity in Western Pennsylvania. Nationally, 7.5 percent of respondents said they had used chiropractic and 5.1 percent yoga.

"One thing that was heartening," he said, "was to see that most people used it in conjunction with traditional medical care. This survey shows that the truth is that most people are using these modalities in a 'complementary' way."

At the Shadyside center, chiropractic is the most commonly requested therapy, with acupuncture and massage close behind.

Glick was concerned, however, about the 28 percent in the survey who said they had given up on conventional medicine.

"We do a great job with acute medical conditions. For chronic conditions, such as pain, we don't have as much we can do. Conventional medicine needs to gear up more for treating chronic conditions as the population ages."