Alternative Treatments: Get Informed - Who Uses Alternative Therapies

Written by National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

For More Information

NCCAM Clearinghouse

Toll-free in the U.S.: 1-888-644-6226

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International: 301-519-3153
TTY (for deaf and hard-of-hearing callers): 1-866-464-3615
E-mail: info@nccam.nih.gov
Web site: www.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

The NCCAM Clearinghouse provides information about CAM and about NCCAM.

NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS)

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

The ODS, whose 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, at http://ods.od.nih.gov/databases/ibids.html.

CAM on PubMed

Web site: www.nlm.nih.gov/nccam/camonpubmed.html

CAM on PubMed, a database accessible via the Internet, was developed jointly by NCCAM and the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It contains bibliographic citations to articles in scientifically based, peer-reviewed journals on CAM. These citations are a subset of the NLM's PubMed system that contains over 12 million journal citations from the MEDLINE database and additional life science journals important to health researchers, practitioners, and consumers. CAM on PubMed displays links to publisher Web sites; some sites offer the full text of articles.

ClinicalTrials.gov

Web site: http://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.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Web site: www.fda.gov
Toll-free: 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332)
Address: 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857-0001

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

Web site: www.fda.gov/medwatch/report/consumer/consumer.htm Toll-free: 1-800-FDA-1088 Fax: 1-800-FDA-0178

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. Visit www.fda.gov/opacom/backgrounders/complain.html to find the telephone number of your district office or check in the government listings in your phone book.