CHICAGO — The choice between $75 prescription sleeping pills or a $5 herbal alternative is a no-brainer for Cathy and Bernard Birleffi, whose insurance costs have skyrocketed along with the nation's financial woes.

The Calistoga, Calif., couple seem to reflect a trend. With many Americans putting off routine doctor visits and self-medicating to save money, use of alternative treatments is on the rise — even though evidence is often lacking on their safety and effectiveness.

Climbing sales of herbal medicines have paralleled the tanking economy, according to an Associated Press review of recent data from market-watchers and retailers.

One prominent example: Whole Foods Market Inc. says its stores nationwide have seen an increase in sales of nutritional supplements and herbal products in the past several weeks. That's "noteworthy" given the retail industry's financial slump, said Whole Foods spokesman Jeremiah C. McElwee.

While winter is usually a busy time for herbal medicine sales because it's the season for colds and flu, "more people are value shopping" now because of the economy, McElwee said.

Cathy Birleffi says she's among them.

"The doctors are so much higher (in cost), the insurance isn't paying as much," Birleffi said.. Her husband, a retired dispatcher, has high blood pressure and seizures. Recent changes in their health coverage resulted in $1,300 in monthly premiums, double what they used to be.

Until they tried herbal alternatives, including valerian for insomnia, "every time I turned around, it was $50 here, $75 there" for prescriptions, Birleffi said.

High costs of conventional health care and worries about the economy also led Kristen Kemp, 34, of Montclair, N.J., to alternatives.

Prescriptions are $20 each under the family's insurance plan so Kemp said she's been giving her kids tea with honey for sore throats and various Chinese herbs for colds and stomachaches.

Among data reflecting the trend:

• For the three months that ended Dec. 28, nationwide retail sales of vitamins and supplements totaled nearly $639 million, up almost 10 percent from the same period in 2007. That includes a nearly 6 percent increase in sales of herbal supplements alone, according to Information Resources Inc., a Chicago-based market research firm. Its numbers do not include Wal-Mart or club stores.

• Nationwide herbal and botanical supplement sales totaled $4.8 billion in 2007, when the recession began, up 4.3 percent over 2006. That was a marginally higher increase compared with the previous year, according to Jason Phillips of the Nutrition Business Journal, an industry-tracking publication. Sales of animal oil supplements — mostly fish oils — were up 29 percent from 2006. While that was a decline from the previous year, both categories continued to show strong growth in a faltering economy.