Complimentary and Alternative Medicine
Sometimes, when medical costs get too high, people turn to complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM). The trouble is, it’s not always easy to tell the difference between CAM and quackery, and lots of quacks do hide themselves behind the mantle of a traditional form of care. Finding a reliable source of information can be difficult. For those people who are interested in herbalism, the American Botanical Council has an English Language edition of The Cimplete German Commission E Monographs and a companion volume entitled Herbal Medicine. Commission E is the German equivalent of the United States Food and Drug Administration, and they’ve done a thorough review of a lot of herbal remedies in common use. The reports are objective – some work, others don’t. The monographs also report on appropriate doses and dosage forms. What’s important is that the Commission wasn’t carrying an ax for either side. Some natural product advocates reject anything that’s made by a pharmaceutical manufacturer, and some physicians reject anything that isn’t from a company traded in one of thr major stock exchanges.
If your library doesn’t have a copy, ask your librarian if it’s possible to get one on interlibrary loan. This is one source you can trust.