by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

A government survey recently revealed that 38 percent of adults and 12 percent of children used complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) in the U.S. in 2007.  But how did they define CAM? What is conventional medicine?  And why do people use CAM, anyway?

These and more answered by your favorite family doctor :).  OK, second best, I’ll give you my opinions.

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

You’ve seen plenty of products that advertise they’re “FDA-approved.”  What does that really mean?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants you to know that all advertising is not as it seems.  Many products that say “FDA-approved” aren’t. Some are not even in the jurisdiction of the FDA to approve.  They couldn’t approve them if they wanted to.  Others can be “approved” before the FDA really knows much about them.  What about food and drugs?  The words are in the title of the agency so the FDA must approve them.

Well, not really.

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