National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health was founded in 1998 and is the federal government’s lead agency for scientific research on complementary and alterna- tive medicine, or CAM. The agency describes the different approaches to health care that are outside the realm of conventional medicine as either complemen- tary or alternative. Conventional medicine is health care that is practiced by M.D.s or D.O.s and allied health professionals, such as registered nurses, physi- cal therapists, and psychologists. The NCCAM differentiates between com- plementary and alternative medicine in that complementary medicine is used together with conventional medicine. An example of a complementary therapy is using aromatherapy to help lessen a patient’s discomfort following surgery or while undergoing cancer therapies. Alternative medicine is used in place of con- ventional medicine. An example of an alternative therapy is using a special diet or medication to treat cancer instead of undergoing the surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy that has been recommended by a conventional doctor. The list of what is considered to be CAM changes continually, as the therapies that are proven to be safe and effective become adopted into conventional health care and as new approaches to health care emerge. The agency conducts ongoing research in many areas of complementary and alternative medicine.