August 12, 1999 – In 1998, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States government’s principal medical research agency, established the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to fund research into the effectiveness of alternative approaches and complementary health. This time, it is the National Cancer Institute (also funded by the NIH), the mecca of cancer research in the United States, which created the Office on Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) to coordinate research on cancer and alternatives.
The importance of this news is not to be underestimated because not so long ago the National Cancer Institute (NCI) still maintained a very skeptical position on the alternatives.
OCCAM has already undertaken two studies, one on the “Gonzalez protocol”, a diet based on fruits and nuts for people with pancreatic cancer, and another on the effectiveness of shark cartilage against cancer of the breast. stage IIIA and IIIB lung.
OCCAM has also issued an invitation for exceptional case stories to be submitted to it. The objective of this research is to independently assess the cases and determine whether the alternatives used actually had any effects.
In addition to these OCCAM studies, NCCAM is about to undertake a study on the effectiveness of Ginkgo biloba in the prevention of senile dementia and cognitive degeneration.
HealthPassport.net
From Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, July 1999
