FAQ: Dietary Supplements, Complementary or Alternative Medicines

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

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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.

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NLM MedlinePlus consumer health topic pages:

• Alternative Medicine
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/alternativemedicine.html
  
  
• Acupuncture
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/acupuncture.html
  
  
• Cancer Alternative Therapy
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/canceralternativetherapy.html
  
  
• Chiropractic
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/chiropractic.html
  
  
• Dietary Supplements
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/dietarysupplements.html
  
  
• Herbal Medicine
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/herbalmedicine.html
  
  
• Minerals
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/minerals.html
  
  
• Vitamins
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/vitamins.html
  
  
• All Herbs and Supplements database
  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/herb_All.html
  
  

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
  
  

• Fact Sheets about Dietary Supplements
  http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/Health_Information/Information_About_Individual_Dietary_Supplements.aspx
  
  
• Health Information page
  http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/Health_Information/Health_Information.aspx
  
  
• International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) Database
  http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/Health_Information/IBIDS.aspx
  
  

• Food and Nutrition Information Center (NAL) DietarySupplements 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)
  http://www.nutrition.gov/
  
  

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Last reviewed: 12 January 2009
Last updated: 12 January 2009
First published: 01 January 1999
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