Electronic Highways
Quackbusters: Reliable complementary and alternative medicine information
Complementary and alternative medicine, also known as CAM, encompasses a wide array of treatments and therapies, including dietary and herbal supplements, acupuncture, hypnosis, massage therapies, prayer and tai chi. Despite warnings from the medical community, CAM therapies are used by 36 percent of Americans, according to a 2002 U.S. government report. Moreover, a market report from the Nutrition Business Journal estimated the current CAM market in the U.S. at $39.5 billion dollars. As the market continues to grow, access to rigorous CAM research is essential for consumers.
An agency of the National Institutes of Health, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) researches CAM therapies with scientific rigor and thoroughness, and disseminates reliable consumer health information on CAM treatments and therapies, listings of CAM clinical trials and grant information for CAM research. The Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine offers many similar resources provided by NCCAM, focusing on evidence-based practice of CAM in the treatment of cancer.
Combating misinformation, fraud and quackery in health care, the nonprofit corporation Quackwatch provides several Web pages that identify questionable professional organizations, dubious claims made in best-selling books and unproven medical devices.
At the UB Libraries, researchers can search several databases for CAM research. The Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) is a unique bibliographic database produced by the Health Care Information Service of the British Library. AMED indexes more than 500 journals in CAM, chiropractic, osteopathy, palliative care, podiatry and rehabilitation. The Natural Standard via HUBNET, a peer-reviewed, evidence-based resource, compiles information on CAM treatments and therapies, and grades the evidence concerning their efficacy. The complementary medicine subset of the giant biomedical database, PubMed contains more than 597,000 articles related to CAM. To access this subset, click the "limits" tab and select “complementary medicine” under the "subsets" category.
On campus, the Health Science Library's History of the Health Sciences Collection houses several books on historical treatments and some interesting medical devices, such as the Compound Magneto-Electric Machine from the 19th century. Its manufacturer asserted that the machine cured a variety of ailments, like headaches, neuralgia and paralysis, with just a few jolts of electricity. If only there were late-night infomercials back then.
—Dean Hendrix, Health Sciences Library
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