Hoping to provide relief to asthma sufferers -- more than 12 million in the United States alone -- a new research center at UC Davis will explore nontraditional treatments for asthma and allergies. The Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research in Asthma and Allergy has been funded through a four-year, cooperative agreement between UC Davis and the National Institutes of Health. "Recent surveys have shown that more than one-third of the health expenses in the United States go toward nontraditional treatments, ranging from acupuncture to nutritional and herbal supplements," says Robert Hackman, executive director of the new center and an authority on alternative medicine and nutrition. Center co-directors are Dr. Eric Gershwin, a world-renowned authority on asthma and allergy and a professor of internal medicine, and Judith Stern, an international expert in and professor of nutrition and internal medicine. The center will conduct surveys to determine what alternative treatments are being used successfully and coordinate research with health practitioners and campus scientists to determine why those therapies may be effective.