The National Health Review for 2009 is out, and it comes with some intriguing statistics on the overall picture of who’s healthy – and who’s not – among adults in the U.S. When it comes to how education figures into health, it turns out that the more educated you are, the healthier you seem to be. The survey found that people with a college education were more physically active, and were less likely to have heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic health problems such as back pain, kidney and liver disease or migraine headaches

A new study shows that over 76 percent of health care workers use some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) when it comes to their own health care. CAM includes a wide range of therapies outside traditional medicine. For example, as reported by Newswise, health care workers use chiropractic treatment, massage and acupuncture for conditions that conventional medicine doesn’t address well. Other CAM usages include such things as Pilates, meditation, being in a vegetarian diet and taking certain herbs.

If you don’t think you can stand another minute of that aching back, and you hate the idea of resorting to begging your doctor for pain pills – or if you’re already on them – take note: according to the Washington Post, a much less invasive solution to back pain may be as easy as an appointment with a masseuse. A new study in patients with moderate to severe back pain has shown that people who got a massage instead of taking pain relievers reported less pain and better ability to go about their daily routines.