NIH Launches Web Resource on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

From the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) press release

A new online resource, designed to give health care providers easy access to evidence-based information on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), was unveiled today by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health.

With this new resource, providers will have the tools necessary to learn about the various CAM practices and products and be better able to discuss the safety and effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine with their patients….

…NCCAM developed a resource that provides reliable, objective, and evidenced-based information on CAM, including:

• links to relevant clinical practice guidelines
• safety and effectiveness information
• links to systematic reviews
• summaries of research studies
• scientific literature searches
• programs for continuing education credit
• patient fact sheets
• NCCAM’s Time to Talk tool kit on communicating about CAM.

Americans annually spend nearly $34 billion out-of-pocket on CAM products and practices. Surveys show that nearly 40 percent of American adults and 12 percent of American children use some form of CAM. Other surveys show that patients do not regularly discuss these practices with their health care providers. In fact, a recent study of Americans aged 50 and older found that overall two-thirds of respondents had not discussed CAM with their health care provider.

“NCCAM is charged to study and provide evidence-based information on the safety and efficacy of CAM health practices that are readily available and already used by a great number of people,” said Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., director of NCCAM. “As a physician, I understand the need to have easily accessible and accurate information on all health practices. This Web resource is a way for NCCAM to share this valuable information with all providers.”

To use this resource, please visit nccam.nih.gov/health/providers/.

NCCAM’s Time to Talk campaign encourages patients to tell their providers about CAM use and providers to ask about it by offering tools and resources—such as wallet cards, posters, and tip sheets—all of which are available for free at nccam.nih.gov/timetotalk/.

The mission of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is to define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) interventions and their roles in improving health and health care. For additional information, call NCCAM’s Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226, or visit the NCCAM Web site at nccam.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—The Nation’s Medical Research Agency—includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

Additional Resources

Natural & Alternative Treatments
Contains detailed information on almost 200 different conditions and the conventional and natural treatments used to treat them, over 300 herbs and supplements, plus drug-herb and drug-supplement interactions for more than 90 drug categories.

Drugs and Supplements (sponsored by the Mayo Clinic)

Somewhat lengthy drug and over-the-counter medicationinformation with these sections: description, before using, proper use, precautions and side effects. From Micromedex, a trusted source of healthcare information for health professionals.  

Herb and supplement information includes information on uses based on scientific evidence as well as safety and potential interactions with drugs, herbs, and supplements. From Natural Standard, an independent group of researchers and clinicians

Drugs, Supplements, and Herbal Information (from a MedlinePlus page)

Prescription and over-the-counter medication information contains answers to many general questions including topics as what a drug is used for, precautions, side effects, dietary instructions, and overdoses. From the American Society of Health System Pharmacists

Herb and supplement information includes information on uses based on scientific evidence as well as safety and potential interactions with drugs, herbs, and supplements. From Natural Standard, an independent group of researchers and clinicians.

Related Articles

• Let’s do some real science for a change! The NCCAM Strategic Plan 2011-2015 (scienceblogs.com)
• Herbal Medicines: ‘Natural’ Doesn’t Always Mean Safe, Says Royal Pharmaceutical Society (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Health-Care Providers Are Prescribing Nontraditional Medicine (Medical News Today, 10 May 2011)
• Integrative medicine, spirituality improves outcomes in urban adolescents with asthma (eurekalert.org)
• Audio File About the NCCAM Health Care Provider  Portal (NCAAM) 
• Study Questions Giving Babies Botanical Supplements, Teas (jflahiff.wordpress.com)

Tea Tree Oil – Facts from the US National Institute of Health (NIH)

Tea tree oil plantation, harvesting equipment (a Ford tractor pulling a loader wagon), Coraki, New South Wales, Australia.

 

 

Tea Tree oil facts from herbs at a glance

Excerpts from the Tea Tree Oil article

This fact sheet provides basic information about tea tree oil—common names, uses, potential side effects, and resources for more information. Tea tree oil comes from the leaves of the tea tree, and has been used medicinally for centuries by the aboriginal people of Australia.

What Tea Tree Oil Is Used For

• Tea tree oil is often used externally as an antibacterial or antifungal treatment.
• Tea tree oil is used for a number of conditions including acne, athlete’s foot, nail fungus, wounds, and infections.
• Other applications for tea tree oil include use for lice, oral candidiasis (thrush), cold sores, dandruff, and skin lesions

What the Science Says

• A 2004 NCCAM-funded review examined the ability of tea tree oil to kill bacteria and found that in vitro (in a test tube) studies may provide some preliminary evidence for the use of tea tree oil as an adjunctive (additional) treatment for wounds involving difficult-to-treat bacterial infections such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). However, large, well-designed clinical trials on tea tree oil are lacking, and it remains unclear whether tea tree oil is effective against these emerging resistant strains of bacteria in people.
• Some smaller-scale clinical studies have had positive results for treating athlete’s foot, nail fungus, dandruff, and acne, but more large-scale, well-designed clinical studies are needed.

Side Effects and Cautions

• Tea tree oil contains varying amounts of 1,8-cineole, a skin irritant. Products with high amounts of this compound may cause skin irritation or contact dermatitis, an allergic reaction, in some individuals. Oxidized tea tree oil (oil that has been exposed to air) may trigger allergies more than fresh tea tree oil.

 

 

 

Related Articles

• Well: Remedies: Tea Tree Oil for Acne (well.blogs.nytimes.com)

Do Scientists Understand the Public?

Do Scientists Understand the Public?

Science and political journalist Chris Mooney recently spoke at NCCAM’s Integrative Medicine Research Lecture.***

He shared his perspective on how scientists engage the public and thoughts on how to improve mutual understanding. The Integrative Medicine Research Lecture series provides overviews of the current state of research and practice involving complementary and alternative medicine practices and approaches, and explores perspectives on the emerging discipline of integrative medicine.
http://nccam.nih.gov/research/consultservice/lecture.htm?nav=upd

 

***The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCAAM)  Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series provides overviews of the current state of research and practice involving complementary and alternative medicine practices and approaches, and explores perspectives on the emerging discipline of integrative medicine.

Lectures are held at 10:00 a.m. in the NIH Clinical Research Center (Building 10) and are open to the public. Lectures are videocast at videocast.nih.gov.

Herbs at a Glance: A Quick Guide to Herbal Supplements

 

 

Herbs at a glance: a quick guide to herbal supplements is a 100 page indexed PDF document which gives the basics on the most common herbs in dietary supplements – historical uses, what they are used for now, scientific evidence on effectiveness, and potential side effects.

It is published by the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCAAM).
The NCAAM Web site includes links to information under titles as

• Health Topics A-Z with Evidence-based information on treatments and conditions
• Information for Consumers with numerous fact sheets to help you decide if complementary/alternative medicine is right for you. (Don’t forget to consult with your health care providers! These fact sheets can be great discussion starters)
• A good introductory page on What is Complementary and Alternative Medicine?
• News and Events
• Ways to get updates bv email, newsfeed (RSS), Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube

A few related Web sites

• Complementary and Alternative Medicine (MedlinePlus)has links to overviews, specific conditions, tutorials, videos, research, and more
• Herbal Medicine (MedlinePlus) has links to overviews, specific conditions, research, and more
• Complementary Medicine (NetWellness) has links to general information,treatment, and Ask-An-Expert answered questions. One can ask a question at this site, and receive a reply within a few days.
• Alternative Medicine (NIH) contains links to information at US government sites
• Drug Information Portal (NIH) provides a wealth of information for consumers and professionals.
• US Office of Dietary Supplements contains fact sheets, news items, decision making guidance, consumer protection information, nutrient recommendations, and more

and a related news item…

From the December 16, 2010 Health Day news item U.S. Spending Millions to See if Herbs Truly Work

THURSDAY, Dec. 16 (HealthDay News) — People have been using herbal supplements for centuries to cure all manner of ills and improve their health. But for all the folk wisdom promoting the use of such plants as St. John’s wort and black cohosh, much about their effect on human health remains unknown.

But the federal government is spending millions of dollars to support research dedicated to separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to herbal supplements.

“A lot of these products are widely used by the consumer, and we don’t have evidence one way or the other whether they are safe and effective,” said Marguerite Klein, director of the Botanical Research Centers Program at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. “We have a long way to go. It’s a big job.”

In August, the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Office of Dietary Supplements awarded about $37 million in grants to five interdisciplinary and collaborative dietary supplement centers across the nation. The grants were part of a decade-long initiative that so far has awarded more than $250 million toward research to look into the safety and efficacy of health products made from the stems, seeds, leaves, bark and flowers of plants.

Reliance on botanical supplements faded in the mid-20th century as doctors began to rely more and more on scientifically tested pharmaceutical drugs to treat their patients, said William Obermeyer, vice president of research for ConsumerLab.com, which tests supplement brands for quality.

But today, herbal remedies and supplements are coming back in a big way. People in the United States spent more than $5 billion on herbal and botanical dietary supplements in 2009, up 22 percent from a decade before, according to the American Botanical Council, a nonprofit research and education organization.

The increase has prompted some concern from doctors and health researchers. There are worries regarding the purity and consistency of supplements, which are not regulated as strictly as pharmaceutical drugs.

“One out of four of the dietary supplements we’ve quality-tested over the last 11 years failed,” Obermeyer said. The failure rate increases to 55 percent, he said, when considering botanical products alone.

Some products contain less than the promoted amount of the supplement in question — such as a 400-milligram capsule of echinacea containing just 250 milligrams of the herb. Other products are tainted by pesticides or heavy metals.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned supplement makers on Dec. 15 that any company marketing tainted products could face criminal prosecution. The agency was specifically targeting products to promote weight loss, enhance sexual prowess or aid in body building, which it said were “masquerading as dietary supplements” and in some cases were laced with the same active ingredients as approved drugs or were close copies of those drugs or contained synthetic synthetic steroids that don’t qualify as dietary ingredients.

But even when someone takes a valid herbal supplement, it may not be as effective when taken as a pill or capsule rather than used in the manner of a folk remedy. For example, an herb normally ground into paste as part of a ceremony might lose its effectiveness if prepared using modern manufacturing methods, Obermeyer said.

“You move away from the traditional use out of convenience, and you may not have the same effect,” he said.

Researchers also are concerned that there just isn’t a lot of evidence to support the health benefits said to be gained from herbal supplements. People may be misusing them, which can lead to poor health and potential interactions with prescription drugs.

“Consumers often are taking them without telling their doctor, or taking them in lieu of going to the doctor,” Klein said……

 

 

Tai Chi and Qi Gong for Health and Well Being: Video Now Available

From the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)

This 12 minute video is an educational tool that features tai chi and qi gong as activities to enhance wellness. You can also download this video to your computer or portable media player.

Segments include introduction, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and cool down

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is the Federal Government’s lead agency for scientific research on the diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine.

The NCCAM Web site includes research-based information on treatments and conditions for both health care professionals and the rest of us.