Integrative and Culinary Medicine Resources

Dr. Leslie Smith shares her favorite resources to learn more about integrative and culinary medicine:

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, a division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  • Search for any topic of interest.
  • Most recent research is not always incorporated as quickly as other sites.
  • Overall very user friendly and reasonably comprehensive.
  • Free and open access.

Mayo Clinic

  • Search for any topic of interest.
  • Very friendly for patient browsing.
  • Free and open access.

Kaiser Permanente

  • Well organized list of many therapies grouped by category.
  • Options to listen to the page being read to you: helpful for vision impaired.
  • Free and open access.

Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database

  • Widely considered to be the most reliable and inclusive database currently available.
  • Information curated by expert scientists and updated continuously with latest research data.
  • Search functions include being able to identify herb-drug interactions, safety profiles based on pathology (is this therapy safe for you and your medical problems?), and looking for alternative or complementary therapies indicated by good evidence for a given medical problem (for example, what kinds of herbs can I take to help with GERD?).
  • Requires a subscription.