Welcome to the website for The Other Medicine. I was delighted to be asked to present the programme, as alternative and complementary therapies are a fascinating subject - complex, controversial and yet with the potential to make a major difference in people's lives. Indeed, about a quarter of the adult population of the UK use some form of complementary treatment each year.

Too often, the debate around the subject is portrayed as the 'alternative' against the 'mainstream'. As we explore in the series, the real position is a lot more complex - there are major differences of opinion within the alternative medicine movement, while, more and more, the medical establishment are coming to see value in many of the treatments that have previously been summarily dismissed.

The website here on Open2.net gives you background to some of the issues, and offers hints on getting the best from Complementary and Alternative treatments. And if you're interested in making careers in CAM, there's advice for you, too.

I hope you enjoy the series and the website. I've certainly learned a lot from making it, and it was wonderful to be working again with the Open University. Before working in TV and Radio, I was a staff tutor for the OU in Northern Ireland, so in a way making this series has been like coming home!

Anna