Lin M C, Nahin R, Gershwin M E, Longhurst J C, Wu K K
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Methesda, MD 20892-7956, USA.
Circulation. 2001 Apr 24;103(16):2038-41. doi: 10.1161/01.cir.103.16.2038.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine recently cosponsored a workshop on the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in cardiovascular, lung, and blood research. In view of the increasing use of CAM by the general public, it is imperative to promote credible research by the established biomedical community. The goal of this workshop was to enhance the exchange of information and ideas between alternative medicine practitioners and scientists in cardiovascular, lung, and blood research and to foster collaborative research among these researchers. The workshop focused on 5 areas of research, including a historical and cultural perspective of CAM, methodological issues in clinical trials, herbal medicine, chelation therapy, mind/body (meditation) therapy, and acupuncture. CAM has become widely used without rigorously proven efficacy and safety. To protect the public, it was recommended that the fundamental mechanistic research for these CAM approaches be vigorously pursued and that any large-scale clinical trial be carefully executed to avoid any waste of resources and any unnecessary risk. It was felt that standardization of botanical products and procedure-based CAM intervention, such as acupuncture and meditation, is essential for meaningful basic and clinical research. Although botanical products properly consumed are perceived as generally safe, potential herb-drug interactions are a major safety concern. Clearly, many challenges need to be addressed by the scientific community before the public can be assured of the proper use of CAM.
美国国立心肺血液研究所和美国国立补充与替代医学中心最近共同主办了一次关于补充与替代医学（CAM）在心血管、肺部和血液研究中的应用的研讨会。鉴于普通公众对补充与替代医学的使用日益增加，由既定的生物医学界推动可靠的研究势在必行。本次研讨会的目标是加强替代医学从业者与心血管、肺部和血液研究领域科学家之间的信息和思想交流，并促进这些研究人员之间的合作研究。研讨会聚焦于五个研究领域，包括补充与替代医学从历史和文化角度的审视、临床试验中的方法学问题、草药医学、螯合疗法、身心（冥想）疗法以及针灸。补充与替代医学在未经严格证实其疗效和安全性的情况下已被广泛使用。为保护公众，建议大力开展针对这些补充与替代医学方法的基础机制研究，并谨慎开展任何大规模临床试验，以避免资源浪费和任何不必要的风险。人们认为，植物产品以及基于程序的补充与替代医学干预措施（如针灸和冥想）的标准化对于有意义的基础和临床研究至关重要。尽管正确使用植物产品通常被认为是安全的，但潜在的草药 - 药物相互作用是一个主要的安全问题。显然，在公众能够放心正确使用补充与替代医学之前，科学界需要应对许多挑战。
