Um, no.

Like medicines regulation has down and up sides. Government has its own agenda – and the power to impose it: that there concern is health is simplistic if not naive.

The benefits need to be demonstrated or at least argued for. Saying government regulation will be good is an article of faith (where’s the science or evidence?).

“Despite the advances made in conventional medicines, many people live their lives in constant pain and discomfort, and are willing, or desperate, to give anything a try.” Very true. And many have found relief through ‘alternative medicine’. What’s more as many of these successes are after the conventional (usually government subsidised) medicine has failed, each of these can be seen as demonstrating the superiority of the ‘alternative’. It seems that swallowing the unknown may be done for good reason.

Herbs make changes at the physiological level. Of course. So does food.

This article seems confused. It argues for government but doesn’t accept the current regulation (the placing of herbs in the category regulated as food). If the current regulation by government is flawed, why is it a good idea to have more of it? This article doesn’t even seem to be aware of this, let alone attempt to address it.

The problem with the proposed statutory regulation is that it would endanger the public. It is a form of pseudo-regulation that would give a government stamp of approval to people who are often no better than quacks while doing little or nothing to protect the public.

There is still time to vote against these proposals (the consultation ends on November 2nd) and you’ll find plenty of material at http://dcscience.net.

In Canada, at least, it is moving in that direction. Sadly, the powerful lobby groups backed by food giants such as Monsanto and pharmaceutical giants link Pfizer are the ones putting the most political pressure on the government to make it happen. And this is the danger: The proposed legislation essentially makes it illegal to grow and use traditional remedies if you are not a licensed producer, yet many remedies like stinging nettles grow wild in peoples’ back yards. If there is one sector of the Canadian economy that can still be considered to have a lot of cottage industry in it, it’s the herbal remedy industry.

For many, it is a way of life. Telling them they can’t make tea (for example) and sell it at the local market is an infringement on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (in the U.S. there are similar amendments to the constitution). But legislation is not made for moral reasons, as any first year law student can tell you. So the question on how to regulate is a thorny one, especially when there is not a level playing field in the political arena for making the decision.

The decision to regulate (and how to regulate) has less to do with good science, as it has to do with which lobby groups get to have the most influence in the final bills.

Yes it’s a real medicine. Let’s remeber that reflexotherapy and massage as well as
homeopathy became an official part of traditional medicine. I think it just takes some time for official medicine to acquire other possible methods and succeed with that/ Also I do believe, that if doctor doctors, he/she SHOULD show the interest to all possible ways for treatment and cure.

In my humble opinion if you believe an effect is real enough to do you good, you must also believe it could do you harm. The potential benefits of a drug with its known side effects.

I want a course of DHMS by correspondence so please give the deails about this coure
presentyl I am working as a doctor (opd)IBAM/RMP.

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I guess this whole thing really just feels like an agenda. I don’t see anything good coming out of this at all. First, I don’t see that anyone is going to fund the clinical testing for herbal supplements. So what we are going to end up with is a “war on drugs”. How are they going to enforce this propoal? How are they going to give Dr’s the information that they need. The public is eventually going to realize that the “purified” pills you are talking about all come at a very real price, whether by side effects or even death. Modern medicine has done some pretty amazing things. but nature is perfectly compatible with us when used intelligently. There just isn’t the money behind nature to get herbal products tested clinically for the market. What they should do is regulate for purity, period.