Regulation

In Austria and Germany complementary and alternative medicine is mainly in the hands of doctors with MDs,^[6] and half or more of the American alternative practitioners are licensed MDs.^[169] In Germany herbs are tightly regulated: half are prescribed by doctors and covered by health insurance.^[170]

Some professions of complementary/traditional/alternative medicine, such as chiropractic medicine, have achieved full regulation in North America and other parts of the world^[171] and are regulated in a manner similar to that governing science-based medicine. In contrast, other approaches may be partially recognized and others have no regulation at all. Regulation and licensing of alternative medicine ranges widely from country to country, and state to state.^[171]

Government bodies in the USA and elsewhere have published information or guidance about alternative medicine. One of those is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration FDA, which mentions specifically homeopathic products, traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic products.^[11] A document which the FDA has issued for comment is headed Guidance for Industry: Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration, last updated on March 2, 2007. The document opens with three preliminary paragraphs which explain that in the document:

• "complementary and alternative medicine" CAM are being used to encompass a wide array of health care practices, products, and therapies which are distinct from those used in "conventional" or "allopathic" medicine.
• some forms of CAM, such as traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, have been practiced for centuries, and others, such as electrotherapy, are of more recent origin.
• in a publication of The Institute of Medicine it has been stated that more than one-third of American adults reported using some form of CAM and that visits to CAM providers each year exceed those to primary care physicians Institute of Medicine, Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States, pages 34–35, 2005.
• no mention in the document of a particular CAM therapy, practice or product should be taken as expressing FDA's support or endorsement of it or as an agency determination that a particular product is safe and effective.^[2]