Department of Medicine, McMaster University, St. Joseph's Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2010 Sep;7(3):391-5. doi: 10.1093/ecam/nen059. Epub 2008 Sep 4.
Canada is experiencing a growing interest in the use of alternative therapies and products particularly natural health products (NHP). In 1997, Canadians spent around C$ 2 billion on NHP. In an attempt to catch with this popularity of NHP use, Canadian researchers and administrators from academia, industry and government jointly established the Natural Health Product Research Society of Canada (NHPRS). Since its formation, NHPRS has been organizing an annual meeting which brings together world renowned researchers and experts in the area of NHP research. For 2008, the annual NHPRS meeting took place in Toronto from the 26th to 29th of March with a focus on 'Science Across Borders: Global Natural Health Products Research'. The scientific program was spread into three days of plenary lectures and oral presentations. The different sessions containing these talks were on: ethnobotany around the world; chemical analysis of NHP; product standards and quality control; ethnomedicine; novel analytical approaches; systemic research, nutrisciences and molecular medicine; and drug development from NHP. The meeting proved to be a great success in terms of the speakers that were invited and based on the data that was presented which highlighted recent research taking place in the field of NHP not only in Canada but from many parts of the world.
加拿大越来越关注替代疗法和产品的使用，特别是天然保健品（NHP）。1997 年，加拿大人在 NHP 上的花费约为 20 亿加元。为了顺应 NHP 使用的这种流行趋势，加拿大学术界、工业界和政府的研究人员和管理人员共同成立了加拿大天然保健品研究协会（NHPRS）。自成立以来，NHPRS 一直在组织年会，汇集了天然保健品研究领域的世界知名研究人员和专家。2008 年，NHPRS 年会于 3 月 26 日至 29 日在多伦多举行，重点关注“跨越国界的科学：全球天然保健品研究”。科学计划分为三天的全体演讲和口头报告。这些演讲包含在以下不同的会议中：世界各地的民族植物学；NHP 的化学分析；产品标准和质量控制；民族医学；新的分析方法；系统研究、营养科学和分子医学；以及 NHP 的药物开发。就邀请的演讲者和提出的突出 NHP 领域正在进行的最新研究的相关数据而言，此次会议取得了巨大的成功，这些研究不仅在加拿大，而且在世界许多地方都有开展。
