National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

 

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

(NCCAM)

This site provides a broad range of healing philosophies (schools of thought), approaches, and therapies that mainstream Western (conventional) medicine does not commonly use, accept, study, or make available. NCCAM was established at the National Institutes of Health by Congress in 1998 to stimulate, develop and support research on complementary and alternative medicine, and to provide the American public reliable information about the safety and effectiveness of these practices. The number of Americans using alternative therapy rose from about 33 percent in 1990 to more than 42 percent in 1997. The most used therapies were: herbal medicine, massage, megavitamins, self-help groups, folk remedies, energy healing, and homeopathy. Extensive educational and research materials are available at this site.