Mayo Clinic resources

The Mayo Clinic is one of the world's foremost medical education and research organisations.

The clinic produces an evidence-based guide to complementary and alternative medicines.  It notes that this is often a difficult area, where many doctors have little training, and where patients can be misled by overstated internet claims, or not know about the risks of drug interactions.

However more than 40% of adults report using complementary approaches, and  it is therefore important for doctors and patients alike to understand the risk and benefits, evidence and gaps, when using these modalities. These may include whole medical systems, like Traditional Chinese Medicine, mind-body approaches, biological approaches such as dietary supplements and body manipulation (from osteopathy to massage).

You can view a useful summary for patients of many CAM approaches here
and read more here about the Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine (second edition).

The material is a window on the knowledge and experience of Mayo Clinic covering subjects from cancer, diabetes and heart disease to nutrition, exercise and pregnancy.

These resources complement and overlap with our in-depth look at self-care options for twelve chronic conditions in our own self care library.