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The blending of conventional medicine with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a promising new approach to health care. But it’s complicated, and requires that you and your doctor evaluate treatments carefully.

It’s one thing if you’re trying to get over a cold, but it’s a more serious matter if you’re trying to treat cancer or prevent heart disease. Either way, it’s important to do your research when it comes to therapies and treatments.

Below are some suggested government and organizational resources to get you started

ACS

The American Cancer Society’s overview of how to effectively use CAM therapies in conjunction with conventional medicine.

Visit Cancer.org

AHRQ

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality provides information on being an active health care consumer, health conditions, diseases, prevention, and understanding your body.

Visit AHRQ.gov

Arthritis.org

The use of dietary supplements with osteoarthritis.

Visit Arthritis.org

Bandolier

This independent publication by Oxford University scientists looks at Complementary and Alternative Therapies for both consumers and professionals. The site provides evidence about CAM therapies in particular, and includes sections such as “pain and analgesia,” “Why bogus therapies seem to work,” and “Safety concerns.” A knowledge library includes treatments, diagnosis, and more.

Visit Bandolier

Visit Bandolier’s Alternative Medication Page

CAM on PubMed

NCCAM and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) have created CAM on PubMed, a Web-access database which provides access to citations from the MEDLINE database and other journals. It provides links to many full-text articles, and to citations to journal articles related to a variety of CAM therapies and other approaches – including acupuncture, herbs, and traditional Oriental medicine.

Visit NCCAM’s CAM search

Visit NCCAM’s PubMed

ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov provides patients, family members, health care professionals, and members of the public access to information on clinical trials for a wide range of diseases and conditions. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), through its National Library of Medicine, has developed this site in collaboration with all NIH Institutes and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The site currently contains more than 6,200 clinical studies sponsored by NIH, other Federal agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry in over 69,000 locations worldwide.

Visit ClinicalTrials.gov

eCAM

An Oxford Press journal called Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM) publishes articles about research on CAM.

Visit eCAM

FDA

The Food and Drug Administration provides information about dietary supplements and their regulation.

Visit FDA Dietary Supplements FAQs

FDA's mission is to promote and protect the public health by helping safe and effective products reach the market in a timely way, and monitoring products for continued safety after they are in use. To report a general complaint or concern about food products, including dietary supplements, you may contact the consumer complaint coordinator at the FDA District Office nearest you.

To find the phone number of your district office, visit FDA.gov or check in the government listings in your phone book.

Toll-free: 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332)
Address: 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857-0001

Visit FDA.gov

FTC

Federal Trade Commission provides information on diet, health, and fitness, as well as dietary supplements for children, health claims on the Internet, miracle cures, and more.

Visit FTC.gov – Health Menu

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, call toll-free 1-877-FTC-HELP, or use the online complaint form found at www.ftc.gov.
Consumers who want to learn how to recognize fraudulent or unproved health care products and services can learn more at FTC.gov Cure All

Toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357)

Visit FTC.gov

HON

Health On the Net Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, accredited to United Nation’s Economic and Social Council. HON promotes useful and reliable online medical and health information.

Visit Health On the Net

Mayo Clinic

Search for CAM for articles about evaluating CAM sources, biofeedback, CAM cancer treatment, CAM allergy tests and treatments, meditation, and more.

Visit MayoClinic.com

MedlinePlus

NLM is the world's largest medical library. Services include MedlinePlus, which includes a medical encyclopedia, information on drugs, supplements and herbs, and information on 700 medical conditions.

Visit MedlinePlus

It covers the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and preclinical science – citations and abstracts from more than 4,600 journals published in the United States and more than 70 other countries. It's accessible through NLM's PubMed system at PubMed.gov

NLM also maintains DIRLINE, a database that contains locations and descriptive information about a variety of health organizations, including CAM associations and organizations.

Toll-free: 1-888-346-3656
E-mail: custserv@nlm.nih.gov
Fax: 301-402-1384
Address: 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894

Visit NLM.NIH.gov

MedWatch: the FDA safety information and adverse event reporting program

To report serious adverse events or illnesses related to FDA-regulated products, such as drugs, medical devices, medical foods, and dietary supplements, contact MedWatch:

Toll-free: 1-800-FDA-1088
Fax: 1-800-FDA-0178

Visit MedWatch

NCCAM

The U.S. government has gotten on board with the integration of CAM with conventional medicine. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is a small agency within the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and is dedicated to researching CAM healing practices in the same way that conventional medical topics are researched. NCCAM also trains CAM researchers, and provides CAM information to consumers and professionals.

Visit NCCAM.gov

NCCAM Clearinghouse

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Clearinghouse provides information about CAM and about NCCAM, but does not provide referrals to CAM practitioners.

Toll-free in the U.S.: 1-888-644-6226
International: 301-519-3153
TTY (for deaf or hard-of-hearing callers): 1-866-464-3615
E-mail: info@nccam.nih.gov
Address: NCCAM Clearinghouse, P.O.Box 7923, Gaithersburg, MD 20898-7923
Fax: 1-866-464-3616
Fax-on-Demand service: 1-888-644-6226

Visit NCCAM.NIH.gov

NCI

The National Cancer Institute provides CAM questions and answers related to cancer, as well as fact sheets about cancer prevention, and information about a study using American ginseng in patients with cancer-related fatigue.

Visit Cancer.gov CAM Q&A

NIH

The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) provides a Health Information tab including nutrient recommendations and fact sheets about supplements and information about treating Type 2 diabetes with dietary supplements.

The ODS mission is to explore the potential role of dietary supplements to improve health care, promotes the scientific study of dietary supplements through conducting and coordinating scientific research and compiling and disseminating research results. ODS provides all its public information through its Web site. One of its services is the International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) database.

Telephone: 301-435-2920
E-mail: ods@nih.gov
Fax: 301-480-1845
Address: 6100 Executive Blvd., Bethesda, MD 20892-7517

NOAH

New York Online Access to Health, researched by NOAH Contributing Editor Elizabeth Taylor, MLIS, New York Academy of Medicine.

Visit NOAH-health.org

USDA

Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Information Center.

Visit USDA’s Food and Nutrition Center

The new food pyramid, recommendations for healthy living.

Visit MyPyramid.gov

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

This site provides educational resources on complementary and integrative medicine – such as whether a therapy has been proven to be safe and effective in managing symptoms of cancer.

Visit MDAnderson.org

White House

White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, final report, March 2002 providing a series of recommendations – such as an increase in funding for research on CAM, a coordination of efforts between federal agencies, an increase in CAM services and a better coordination between CAM and conventional medicine.

Visit whccamp.hhs.gov

WholeHealthMD

This site provides the Healing Kitchen and Healing centers, reference library, expert opinions on CAM topics. The award-winning site provides research information on CAM as well as the clinical information about CAM.

Visit WholeHealthMD.com