FAQ
Dietary Supplements, Complementary or Alternative Medicines

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Before starting any supplement it is wise to speak with your doctor or pharmacist. Supplements may interact with medicine you are taking. Dietary supplements and herbal preparations are not subject to the same standards and laws as other medicines in the US, but the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other US Government agencies do study and produce information about them.

• - National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at http://nccam.nih.gov/ or phone (888) 644-6226
  
  
• - Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/
  
  
• - National Cancer Institute Complementary and Alternative Medicine page at http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/treatment/cam/
  
  
• - Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition:
  
  
  • - Overview of Dietary Supplements at http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/ds-oview.html
    
    
  • - More dietary supplement links at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/ds-oth.html
    
    
  • - Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Web site at http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/ or phone (888) INFO-FDA
    
    
• - FDA Guide to Dietary Supplements (Print Publication No. (FDA) 99-2323) from the FDA Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition, 200 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20204 USA

• - IBIDS (The International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements),produced by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements and the Food and Nutrition Information Center of the US Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library. IBIDS includes bibliographic citations and abstracts to published research from international scientific journals. At http://ods.od.nih.gov/databases/ibids.html
  
  
• - MEDLINE, produced by the National Library of Medicine, is searchable through PubMed. MEDLINE has bibliographic citations and abstracts to biomedical journal literature. At http://pubmed.gov/
  
  
• - MedlinePlus, produced by NLM, links to expert health information on the Web. MedlinePlus includes:
  
  
  • - Alternative Medicine at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/alternativemedicine.html
    
    
  • - Chiropractic at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/chiropractic.html
    
    
  • - Evaluating Health Information at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/evaluatinghealthinformation.html
    
    
  • - Herbal Medicine at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/herbalmedicine.html
    
    
• - CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects), produced by the NIH Office of Extramural Research. The database includes biomedical research projects funded by the NIH and six other US Government organizations. Universities, hospitals and other research institutions conduct the projects. At http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/
  
  
• - The Alternative Medicine HomePage from the University of Pittsburgh Falk Library of the Health Sciences at http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html
  
  

The American Dietetic Association

216 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60606-6995
(800) 366-1655 (recorded messages)
(900) 225-5267 (to talk to a registered dietitian)
http://www.eatright.org/

The American Botanical Council

PO Box 144345
Austin, TX 78714-4345
(512) 926-4900
(512) 926-4900 (FAX)
abc@herbalgram.org

Publication: The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicine edited by Mark Blumenthal. American Botanical Council, Austin, TX, 1998

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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/dietsup.html

Last updated: 17 May 2004
First published: 01 January 1999
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