3.Encyclopedias of Alternative Medicine
While the Office for Alternative Medicine (OAM) lists seven broad categories of complementary and alternative medical practices, they also recognize 12 conceptually independent health care systems developed worldwide, falling into at least 27 major categories of practice, which involve over 200 methods. They divide their list yet another way into "major health care systems," such as Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and "modern systems," including chiropractic and homeopathy. The OAM continues to refine its classification of the systems of alternative medicine (Office of Alternative Medicine Clearing House, 1997).

Helping consumers and professionals alike classify our options is a popular topic in the literature. Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide (1995), provides a 1000-page volume, segmenting by both 43 types of therapies, as well as by health conditions to be treated. Similarly, Time Life, in its The Alternative Advisor (1997), offers explanations of 24 different alternative treatments. In Dr. Rosenfeld's Guide to Alternative Medicine, Isadore Rosenfeld (1996) provides the current medical justification of 26 alternative therapies. It Works For Me: Celebrity Stories of Alternative Health by Heidi Banks (1996) lets celebrities offer their personal case histories, with 18 different therapies.

There are more than 100 reported varieties of massage techniques alone. How can the consumer decide which one to use? In the encyclopedia-genre of literature, we spotted anywhere from 18 to 43 types of therapies from which the consumer could chose, not including the different methods used within each of those categories. While various encyclopedia-type works attempt to help organize information for the consumer, one may often be left wondering how to steer methodically toward the most suitable therapy.

Means of Addressing Consumer Concerns in Adapting Alternative Medicine Why is there still a disproportionately small percentage of consumers able to access the proliferating options available to them in alternative medicine? Examining the body of consumer literature may provide part of the answer. There appears to be lack of a unified message. While most books are consistent in providing a positive view of the genre of alternative medicine, there is still a great deal of diversity regarding "What is alternative medicine?" On the one hand, encyclopedias like The Alternative Medicine Advisor provide a detailed list of methodologies that risk confusing the uninitiated. On the other hand, individual healer-spokespeople risk promoting a single methodology as superior to other systems or methods of practice.

In order to insure effective growth of the alternative medicine industry in the U.S., the consumer needs to gain more confidence with an increasing knowledge of the genre itself. Consumers require a clear contextual framework to understand this new world of options available to them. The AJCM look forward to continuing to add to this body of knowledge, and to otherwise participating in further efforts at clarifying and implementing alternative medicine.

References
1.Baldwin, Fred. D. and Suzanne Mclnerney. Infomedicine: A Consumer's Guide to the Latest Medical Research. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1996.

2.Banks, Heidi. It Works for me! Celebrity Stories of Alternative Healing. Boston: Journey Editions, 1996.