Complementary and Integrative Medicine: Emerging Therapies for Diabetes, Part 1: Preface

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In this time of shifting paradigms in health care, it is no longer news that Americans are using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). In an era in which one out of every three people has employed an herbal, massage, manipulative, or biological therapy and in which some insurance companies are reimbursing for guided imagery, mind-body groups, and acupuncture, complementary therapies have taken a place of greater prominence on the health care landscape.1,2 As health care professionals in the era of increasing consumer reliance on the Internet, it is often challenging to stay abreast of therapies our patients may explore or employ. There is much in health and healing that we do not yet understand. As the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Website notes, “The list of practices that are considered CAM changes continually as CAM practices and therapies that are proven safe and effective become accepted as ‘mainstream’ healthcare practices.”3 The NIH funds multiple centers for CAM research. Its Office of Dietary Supplements funds several centers for research on dietary supplements. (Table 1). In addition, NCCAM spent $68.7 million last year on research into five major domains of CAM: biological therapies, manipulative and body-based therapies, alternate systems of healing, mind-body medicine, and energy medicine (Table 2). Because of the wealth of emerging information about the various CAM therapies, we have spread this From Research to Practice section over two issues of Diabetes Spectrum . Our goals …