June/July 2001

Alternative Answers Online: For You and Your Patients

Washington - Do you have patients who come across new health information on the Internet and then ask you about it? Now, a new online resource will give you quick and easy access to complementary and alternative (CAM) health-care information, including an extensive database of medical journal articles.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Library of Medicine recently launched a new Internet database that lets you access more than 200,000 medical journal articles on CAM. The database includes information on hundreds of herbs, supplements, treatments and techniques. The articles deal with topics that range from homeopathy to hypnosis, chelation therapy to chiropractic.

The new CAM database is part of WebMD (www.webmd.com), a free system that gives the public access to 11 million citations from medical journal articles.

Between 1990 and 1997, the number of Americans using an alternative therapy rose from about 33% to more than 42%, according to a 1998 survey in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And according to a 1998 study, 75 of the nation's 125 medical schools were offering courses that cover topics like acupuncture, herbal medicine or therapeutic massage.

Source: HealthScoutNews

Industry News from:
Chiropractic News from: