£130m boom in alternative medicines

Busy Britons are spending £130 million a year on complementary medicines - because they haven't got time to go to the doctor.

Faith in herbal and homeopathic remedies and aromatherapy oils has sparked a 60 per cent boom in five years, and the industry will increase another 45 per cent to reach £188 million by 2008, say market analysts Mintel.

Herbal medicines are by far the most popular, accounting for almost 60 per cent of sales. Of those surveyed by Mintel, 80 per cent of people said they had to be really ill to go to a doctor, while 56 per cent said they simply waited for their illnesses to go away.