Here’s one of those Friday afternoon press releases, hoping no one will notice. I’m having a little trouble parsing out whether this effort promotes CAM or is truly meant to inform physicians in a manner so as to protect their patients from unscupulous providers:

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
For Immediate Release: Friday, June 6, 2008

CONTACT: NCCAM Press Office, 301-496-7790,

TIME TO TALK ABOUT CAM:
Health Care Providers and Patients Need To Ask and Tell

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has launched Time to Talk, an educational campaign to encourage patients — particularly those age 50 or older — and their health care providers to openly discuss the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine, such as herbal supplements, meditation, naturopathy, and acupuncture.

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