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Science & Evidence
Unlike in conventional medicine where there is a great deal of research and evidence required to approve a medication or endorse a treatment approach, in complementary and alternative medicine the research and evidence might be very scarce. Nevertheless at this point in time there now exists a wealth of information on several techniques and products. That's the good news. The bad news is that the evidence varies greatly depending on what research you look at, and much of it shows that many complementary and alternative techniques and products don't probably work and several others may be dangerous or scams. In addition there can be considerable variation from product to product.
I have tried to utilize my research and medical background to sort things out, which has consisted of ongoing review of the literature along with discussions with my collegues who share similar interests. My intent here is not to submit my own findings as there are some very good independent resources already available which will generally support my practices. The Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database at www.naturaldatabase.com is a primary source I currently use in my practice to get up to date evidence based information on supplements including their safety and dosing. There is a utility to check medications and supplements against each other for interactions. This is a subscription service. Drug Digest is a noncommercial free site at www.drugdigest.org. There is a free drug and supplement interaction checker (click on check interactions at the top), though it does not seem as comprehensive as the one at the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, it seems pretty good. The site also includes a fair review of most supplements including possible efficacy, side effects, and safety issues including contrindications (click drug library at the top). The interaction checker also includes an option for foods and alcohol. IQHealth is a free noncommercial site at www.subscriberx.com/iqhealth/druginfostart.html which has an interaction checker along with drug information including side effects, safety issues, and containdications for several supplements as well as prescription medications. ConsumerLab.com at www.consumerlab.com is another data base that I currently subscribe to which provides evidence based information on supplements as well as independent test results on the safety and quality of commercially available supplements. This site covers other complementary and alternative therapies as well. For a general overview www.nccam.nih.gov is the website for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. From that site you may search their extensive data base which seems to be especially good when it comes to supplements, presenting research based evidence along with dosing and safety precautions. There are several other resources on the web, some which are commercial and others which are public or university based. Life Extension at www.lef.org/protocols is a site that seems to provide a lot of useful information including on safety and dosing for most of the supplements covered here. On the site there are links to Life Extension Magazine articles which presents some of the cutting edge research on issues relevent to this site. The articles tend to support the use of supplements with basic research as well as clinical trials on humans. As the focus of the site is on "Life Extension" it is not as comprehensive or complete as the subscription databases that I use however. The research and evidence for Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), Bright Light Therapy (BLT), and Biofeedback is also covered in their respective sections. As with this website, sites refered to generally have "disclaimers" pointing out that they are for informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for advice from a physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. |
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