Contents: Overview | Supplements - Generic & Proprietary

Overview:

Much of CAM is based on traditional Chinese medicine, a whole medical system that originated in China. It is based on the concept that disease results from disruption in the flow of qi and imbalance in the forces of yin and yang. Practices such as herbs, meditation, massage, and acupuncture seek to aid healing by restoring the yin-yang balance and the flow of qi., and is among the oldest healing practices in the world.

They include:

• Natural Products - Herbal medicines (also known as botanicals), vitamins, minerals, and other "natural products."
• Mind and Body Medicine - Meditation, Yoga, Acupuncture
• Manipulative and Body-Based Practices - Chiropractic, Massage
• Movement Therapies - Pilates
• Pressure Point, Energy flow - qi gong, Reiki

Some of alternative medicine can be explained with science and some cannot.

Science has made some progress; see Building the Evidence Base for Complementary and Alternative Medicine | (nccam.nih.gov)

Terms:

• Allopathy - Conventional medical treatment of disease symptoms that uses substances or techniques to oppose or suppress the symptoms.
• Ayurveda - A whole medical system that originated in India. It aims to integrate the body, mind, and spirit to prevent and treat disease. Therapies used include herbs, massage, and yoga.
• Chi or or qi or khi - In traditional Chinese thought, the vital force believed to be inherent in all things. Unimpeded circulation of chi and a balance of its negative and positive forms in the body are held to be essential to good health.
  See Tibetan Medicine
• Holistic Medicine - Relating to the the medical consideration of the complete person, physically and psychologically, in the treatment of a disease.
• Homeopathy - A system for treating disease based on the administration of minute doses of a drug that in massive amounts produces symptoms in healthy persons similar to those of the disease.
  The use of diluted remedies that have energetic rather than chemical properties. They are prescribed according to the axiom that "like cures like."
  The theory was advanced in the late eighteenth century by German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann.
  See Homeopathy: An Introduction | National Center for Complementary and ALternative Medecine (NCCAM)
  and For Everything Holistic including: Holistic Practitioners, Alternative Health products | eholistic.com

Terms:

• Allopathy - Conventional medical treatment of disease symptoms that uses substances or techniques to oppose or suppress the symptoms.
• Ayurveda - A whole medical system that originated in India. It aims to integrate the body, mind, and spirit to prevent and treat disease. Therapies used include herbs, massage, and yoga.
• Chi or or qi or khi - In traditional Chinese thought, the vital force believed to be inherent in all things. Unimpeded circulation of chi and a balance of its negative and positive forms in the body are held to be essential to good health.
  See Tibetan Medicine
• Holistic Medicine - Relating to the the medical consideration of the complete person, physically and psychologically, in the treatment of a disease.
• Homeopathy - A system for treating disease based on the administration of minute doses of a drug that in massive amounts produces symptoms in healthy persons similar to those of the disease.
  The use of diluted remedies that have energetic rather than chemical properties. They are prescribed according to the axiom that "like cures like."
  The theory was advanced in the late eighteenth century by German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann.
  See Homeopathy: An Introduction | National Center for Complementary and ALternative Medecine (NCCAM)
  and For Everything Holistic including: Holistic Practitioners, Alternative Health products | eHolistic.com

Links:
Home Remedies
What Is Complementary and Alternative Medicine? | National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Yahoo, Google

Alternative medicine includes a variety of medical and health care systems, practices, and products such as: Herbal Medicine (echinacea, Ginkgo, Ginseng, St. John's Wort, Glucosamine and chondroitin, ...), Acupuncture, Homeopathy, Chiropractic, Massage

Ginkgo:
The only trusted study that looked at ginkgo for memory enhancement was published in JAMA and concluded:

"When taken following the manufacturer's instructions, ginkgo provides no measurable benefit in memory or related cognitive function to adults with healthy cognitive function."

They also include Mind-Body Interventions such as: Meditation, prayer, mental healing, and therapies that use creative outlets such as art, music, or dance.

Alternative Therapies Asian techniques that include movement, meditation, and regulation of breathing such as: Yoga, Qi gong and Tai Chi may also be considered alternative medicine.

It is defined by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) as:

A group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine.¹ While some scientific evidence exists regarding some Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies, for most there are key questions that are yet to be answered through well-designed scientific studies--questions such as whether these therapies are safe and whether they work for the diseases or medical conditions for which they are used.

The list of what is considered to be CAM changes continually, as those therapies that are proven to be safe and effective become adopted into conventional health care and as new approaches to health care emerge.

¹ Conventional medicine is medicine as practiced by holders of M.D. (medical doctor) or D.O. (doctor of osteopathy) degrees and by their allied health professionals, such as physical therapists, psychologists, and registered nurses. Some conventional medical practitioners are also practitioners of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM).

• Macronutrients - carbohydrates, proteins, fiber, fats and cholesterol, water, as well as interactive tools.
• Phytonutrients - Planats - tea, lycopene, and phytoestrogens.
• Vitamins - .
• Minerals - .

However, a January 11, 2010 NY Times Article "Healthy Aging, With Nary a Supplement" says:
"Each year millions of people fall prey to false promises that this, that or the other formula or fortified food can protect their hearts, prevent cancer, improve memory, strengthen their bones, uncreak their joints, build their muscles, even enable them to burn extra calories without moving."

"Unfortunately, sound evidence for the benefits of most such products is sorely lacking; in some cases the best scientific evidence has shown no benefit, and in a few cases has even shown harm. Human chemistry is far more complex than visionaries thought just two decades ago, when reputable scientists pushed for fortifying foods with substances they believed would prevent cancer and heart disease."

"Supplements of antioxidants failed to protect against disease the way a diet rich in fruits and vegetables seems to. Rather than isolated nutrients, combinations of them, along with other perhaps unidentified substances in foods, are now thought to confer the observed health benefits."

Benefits have been shown in a "Medeterranean diet", But the Mediterranean diet does not come in a pill or potion. You have to eat the foods to reap the rewards.

Bach Bach Flower remedies (Rescue Pearls) to remove stress. They gently restore the balance between mind and body by casting out negative emotions such as fear, worry, hatred and indecision.

Vitamins:
In an October, 2013 Forbes article by Steven Salzberg "The Top Five Vitamins You Should Not Take" he says,
  Close to half of the population in the U.S. takes vitamins, with multi-vitamins being the most popular.
  If you don't have a serious vitamin deficiency, taking supplemental vitamins doesn't provide any benefit, in almost all cases that have been studied. What's even more surprising is this: routinely taking mega-doses of vitamins might actually harm you.
the top 5 vitamins that you should not take (unless your doctor recommends it):

1. Vitamin C
   Vitamin C doesn't prevent or cure colds.
   Although Vitamin C is generally safe, megadoses of 2000 mg or more can increase the risk of kidney stones.
2. Vitamin A and beta carotene.
   Smokers who took vitamin A were more likely to get lung cancer than those who didn't.
   Vitamin A plays an important role in vision, but too much vitamin A can be toxic, causing multiple serious side effects.
3. Vitamin E.
   A study found that the risk of prostrate cancer increased for men taking vitamin E.
   Evidence suggests that regular use of high-dose vitamin E may increase the risk of death from all causes by a small amount.
4. Vitamin B6.
   People almost never get too much vitamin B6 from food. But taking high levels of vitamin B6 from supplements for a year or longer can cause severe nerve damage, leading people to lose control of their bodily movements.
5. Multi-vitamins.
   The overall risk of death increased with long-term use of multivitamins, vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc, and copper.

See:
More on Supplements here
Herbs and Supplements at MedlinePlus at the National Library of Medicine at the NIH.
About Herbs, Botanicals & Other Products at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Common Herbs and Supplements at DrugDigest.org
Supplement Dictionary at HerbalRemedies.com
Dr. Perricone's 10 Superfoods at Oprah.com

DHEA Supplements

Proprietary Diet Supplements:
There are several products marketed thru multi-level sales structures (sometimes called pyramid marketing) where independent entrepreneurs sell to their friends and family and recruit friends to be part of their sales network.
hey frequently use affinity groups (Religious or Ethnic communities) to gain trust.
Noni and Ambrotose are popular ones which are questionable.

Others which I haven't investigated are:
mangosteen juices, Goji, XanGo, Zrii (Amalaki juice), Açaí berry products (Mona·Viemonavie & Amazon Thunder) and Himalayan Salt Lamps.

The main product websites usually make claims like "they support/maintain your immune system", but have disclaimers like "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."

The sales people and other "unofficial" web sites have a lot of word of mouth testimonials as to their effect on general health, cures for cancer, arthritis, and other diseases, and refer to studies and other research by various Ph.D's or M.D.s, but there are no clinical or scientific studies published in the normal medical journals or in the US medical database, PubMed.
These benefit claims are generally considered "Pseudoscience".

They are also good at creating a network of seemingly independent web sites that link to each other promoting the products and thus moving them up in google hit lists.

See:
The truth about exotic juices!

It become popular since Dr. Perricone listed it as one of his 10 Superfoods on Oprah show in Oct. 2007.

ORAC, short for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (antioxidant), is a test tube analysis that measures the total antioxidant power of foods and other chemical substances. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) researchers in healthy eating at Tufts University have found that in order to provide meaningful antioxidant health benefits in a nutritional supplement you need at least 2400 to 3000 ORAC in your daily diet. The diet of an average human being, provides 1000 units ORAC daily.
ORAC per gram of fruit (varies a lot depending on study):

Açaí        167 490 (2nd number is for freeze dried)
Prune        86  58
Pomegranate 106  33
Blueberries      24
Cranberry    95  18
Strawberries     15

Amazon Thunder is a pure acai berry product.
$40 / 32 oz. bottle

See:
AmazonThunder.com
Amazon Thunder Review at acai.vg
U. Florida study on Açai to fight cancer.

Mona·Viemonavie mona-vie: MonaVie is a blend of 19 fruits, including Açai, apricot, aronia, acerola, purple grape, passion fruit, camu camu, banana, lychee fruit, hashi pear, kiwi, pomegranate, prume, wolfberry, pear, bilberry, cranberry, blueberry, white grape.. They say it also contains g;ucosamine for healthy joint function.
However they don't say how much Açai it contains.
It's $40/25 oz. bottle = $160/month