Getting the Facts on Natural and Alternative Healthcare

If you are looking to do a little more in-depth research into a particular treatment and/or product, there are a few good resources online where you can compare the results against the claims.

We have broken the information into three categories: the studies, health alerts and discussion groups. For instance, the US Government has a great site that list allows you to search a database (online) of scientific studies and their results, through the National Center for Biotechnology Information's site at the National Library of medicine. We have also grouped the World Health Organization links together as a subcategory of the Studies.

Studies and Searchable Databases Scientific of Natural Health care and product information.

• Canadian Interdisciplinary Network for CAM Research (IN-CAM)
• National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine US-based Government website
• National Center for Biotechnology Information (US) text-based search and retrieval system used at NCBI for the major databases, including PubMed, Nucleotide and Protein Sequences, Protein Structures, Complete Genomes, Taxonomy, and others.
• The Merck Manual of Medical Information--Home Edition Searchable by ailment and/or remedy.
• Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility: Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System - check the list of plants in your area to ensure that you are not mistaking a toxic plant for an herb.
• The World Health Organization Global InfoBase
• Holistic Health Research Foundation of Canada - a national registered charitable organization dedicated to funding research, public and health professional awareness in complementary and alternative health care

World Health Organization

• World Health Organization Traditional Medicines Site
• Herbal medicines - Assessment of safety and efficacy
• WHO monographs on selected medicinal plants Volume 3
• Regulatory Situation of Herbal Medicines: a worldwide review
• Traditional Practitioners as Primary Health Care Workers

Health Alerts

• Health Canada - Health Protection - Warnings/Advisories
• World Health Organization Health Alerts
• NIH (US) Clinical Alerts and Advisories

Discussion Groups and Mailing Lists

• NaturalHealthcare.ca's own discussion forum
• Yahoo Health Groups: Alternative_Medicine_Forum/
• GardenWeb Herbalism Forum

One of the most well-known studies of the efficacy of herbal remedies was the German Commission E, a German government appointed committee. The herbs that met certain standards and were granted Commission E Approved status are or will become legally available in Germany. The information that was derived from the Commission and translated into English is available as a book or on CD-ROM.

The Amazon reviews seem a bit low, however, with claims of missing important information on contraindications and drug interactions. There is also a critical review of the German Commission E by Jonathan Treasure, MNIMH, available at http://www.herbological.com.

• Book: The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines, by Mark Blumenthal, J. Klein, Robert Rister
• Book: Herbal Medicine: Expanded Commission E Monographs, by Mark Blumenthal, Blumenthal, Josef Brinckmann
• CD-ROM:
• The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines (CD-ROM), by Mark Blumenthal, Alicia Goldberg, Werner R. Busse