United States National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health

FAQ: Dietary Supplements, Complementary or Alternative Medicines

Question: Where can I find information about taking natural products, dietary supplements, medicinal plants or other complementary or alternative medicines?
Answer:

You can find information about these products and medicines from government information sources listed below.

Note: Before starting any supplement, ask your doctor or pharmacist for information. Natural products and dietary supplements may interact with medicine you are taking.


NLM MedlinePlus consumer health topic pages:




Complementary and Alternative Medicine


NLM CAM on PubMed is a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) subset of the MEDLINE/PubMed database.

National Cancer Institute (NCI) Complementary and Alternative Medicine page
http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/treatment/cam

NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
http://nccam.nih.gov/ or phone (888)644-6226


Dietary Supplements


NLM Dietary Supplements Labels Database
Specialized Information Services Division
http://dietarysupplements.nlm.nih.gov/dietary

NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS)
http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov


Food and Nutrition Information Center (NAL) Dietary Supplements page
http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=1&tax_subject=274

FDA Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition Dietary Supplements Overview
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/supplmnt.html

Nutrition.gov information on human nutrition from the National Agriculture Library (NAL)

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

Last reviewed: 25 August 2008
Last updated: 25 August 2008
First published: 01 January 1999
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