ABSTRACT
The use of herbal and alternative medicines has increased
in the last two decades in the United States, and is now the
subject of clinical and basic science investigations sup-
ported by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements
Research and the National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine. The Dietary Supplements
Health Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994 enables manu-
facturers to market these approaches without proving
efficacy or safety. The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has limited resources for policing claims and relies
on adverse effects reporting to monitor safety. This
method has significant drawbacks in terms of scientifi-
cally examining the causative relationship of a particular
herbal or alternative approach to a reported side effect.
