ConsumerLab & NatMed Pro: Tools to Evaluate Dietary Supplements & More
Are you curious about the efficacy of dietary supplements, natural medicines, wellness products, and alternative therapies? Do you get patient questions about health and wellness products they see marketed on social media? Or are you curious about alternative therapies for conditions you treat?
Today we are sharing two resources for finding evidence-based information about these products: ConsumerLab.com & NatMed. Both resources are accessible through Lane Search. Find out more about their features below.
ConsumerLab.com
The mission of ConsumerLab.com is to assist healthcare professionals and consumers in finding the highest quality nutrition and healthcare products through independent evaluation and testing. ConsumerLab.com publishes the results of its tests in comprehensive Product Reviews of popular supplements for adults, children, and pets, as well as healthy foods and beverages. In addition to the products it selects to review, ConsumerLab.com enables companies of all sizes to have the quality of their products voluntarily tested for potential inclusion in its list of Approved Quality products and to bear the ConsumerLab Seal, known as the “CL Seal.” Since its inception in 1999, ConsumerLab.com has tested more than 7,000 products, representing over 1,000 different Brands and nearly every type of Popular Supplement.
The products covered include:
- Health & Nutrition Products including Herbal Products, Vitamins, Minerals, Pet Supplements
- Sports & Energy Products
- Functional Foods
- Healthy Foods & Beverages
- Health Protection Devices
- Personal Care Products
You can find product reviews by searching, browsing an alphabetical list, or filtering by topics like “Most Popular Products” or “For Pets.” You can also explore products by Health Conditions, a feature that helps health professionals and consumers learn which supplements and foods can help and which can be ineffective. The resource includes Recalls and Warnings citing current product recalls on dietary supplements, vitamins, food, and beverages. Product reviews include approved and topic picks by the brand as well as cost-per-dose information – features that keep the consumer in mind.
There is also a feature to submit questions to the ConsumerLab.com Team for inclusion in CL Answers, an updated blog of questions and answers about products and topics not covered elsewhere in the resource.
This consumer-focused resource is easy to browse and approachable for both healthcare professionals and consumers.
NatMed
NatMed (also known as Natural Medicine or NatMed Pro) is widely regarded as the most authoritative resource available on dietary supplements, natural medicines, and complementary, alternative, and integrative therapies among healthcare professionals.
NatMed approaches the subject of natural medicines from an unbiased and objective perspective, applying evidence-based information. Using NatMed, you have access to the most current and reliable information on natural medicines available anywhere. Every product in NatMed and its corresponding Effectiveness Ratings, Interaction Ratings, and Safety Ratings are supported by the highest quality scientific evidence, which is based upon the same high standards used to evaluate other therapies. NatMed does not promote using different standards of evidence for alternative therapies compared to conventional ones.
NatMed features include:
- CE/CME Courses, including interactive CE focusing on alternative therapies for mental health, Animal-assisted therapy, art therapy, guided imagery, hypnotherapy, light therapy, meditation, massage, mindfulness, music therapy
- Consumer education monographs
- Natural Medicines Brand Evidence-based Rating (NMBR)
- Patient handouts
- A free monthly e-Newsletter
NatMed includes a variety of checker tools for different clinical needs. These tools include:
- Interaction Checker: Add multiple natural medicines to see if there are any interactions between the products. Interactions are rated on a scale of major, moderate, and mild. New interactions are continuously reported.
- Effectiveness Checker: Enter the name of a disease or condition to find a list of commonly used natural medicines.
- Nutrient Depletion Checker: Retrieve names of nutrients that might be depleted by over-the-counter or prescription medications. Every issue regarding a depleted nutrient is rated based on clinical significance.
- Pregnancy and Lactation Checker: Search for a complementary practice, an herb, mineral, supplement, or vitamin, and what effects it may have on pregnancy and lactation.
- Adverse Effects Checker: Arranged both alphabetically or by category, retrieves results for a variety of medical conditions. A list of agents that may be related to these adverse effects and conditions will be listed.
Give these different Checkers a try and see what you will discover!
If you need help with either of these resources, please contact your liaison librarian for assistance.
