Please would you all take time to look at Sarah's posting re regulation of herbs that she posted yesterday. It is easy to think it is not really important, just more red tape.

Whilst it is a complex situation, it can be summed up for now, as the govt and anti complementary bashers coming very close to stopping the availabilty and practise of herbal medicine.

There will be large numbers of those who want to see herbal medicine banned who will reply to this consultation document. We need to be able to muster as many to write in about the benefits as possible.

The Herb Society will be issuing an official statement about it in the near future. In the meantime, PLEASE would you take time out to consider the situation and be as vocal as you can in passing this message on.

I really hope we see a large discussion on here.

Linda

H Linda

It's called Codex Alimentarius. I posted on this subject a while back, 5 months before implementation. However, it is disguised, that is what it is. Maybe people will listen now.

In an ideal world I should have serious questions over the licensing of herbalists.However,we live in a hostile world where Governments have a cosy relationship with pharmaceutical companies.

Any reader with doubts over the urgency and importance of the licensing/regulation issue must look at the website of the British Herbal Medicine Association and the link through to the October 2008 issue of Frankincense,the journal of the EHPA.

On another tangent I sincerely hope much thought is given to a precise legal definition of the term "herbalist".

Kevin

Hi Kevin

What legal definition would you give to the term 'herbalist'. It's a real issue isn't it. There are those (herbalists - and other therapists) who follow the reductionist view of modern allopathic medicine and wish to see 'complementary' therapies integrated into the nhs and thereby controlled by the doctors, and then there are those who feel the two different principles of medicine are too different to be integrated. I don't like the word 'complementary' as it fixed allopathic medicine in the primary position. Neither do I particularly like the word 'alternative'. Natural medicine such as herbalism etc are 'original' forms of medicine which have stood the test of time and were around long before modern medicine - which we tend to forget has only really developed until since the world wars.

I fit into the latter group. It is the reason I parted company with my reflexology association as they took the decision to follow a path of integration, which meant them taking steps to make reflexology acceptable to medics and began to dictate precise techniques, limit what conditions it could work on, increase the A&P (which was not necessarily a bad thing) but also included a lot of learning about drugs and medical treatments for specific conditions. I had previously been education & training co-ordinator for the association and found I could no longer follow the 'party' line. It's also the reason I stopped my training as a 'herbalist' as I could see the direction being taken.

I guess I've been a bit 'head in the sand' about all this and just getting on with my own thing because I distrust the 'system' because it is so controlled and so controlling. I have overnight been trying to think about how I would like things to be, and it's not easy to sort out. I have gotten used to paying for my own health as I choose herbalism, homeopathy or other therapies over the NHS. In theory you can get homeopathy or osteopathy on the NHS, but the practise is very different - and can only be given on approval of a doctor. I don't want a doctor making my choices. In the event of an emergency I would love to wake up in a bed and find a herbalist (or other appropriate therapist) there, not a doctor. Wouldn't that be wonderful. I do know there are lots of people who do not want drug-based medicine but can't afford the alternatives and find themselves being dragged back into the system - especially if they have children.

Anne

Hi Anne,
I seem to be taking forever to respond to your question,legal definition of a herbalist.

A succinct dictionary definition is "A person who cures diseases by means of medicinal plants".To the point but for legal purposes will it be sufficient?Bearing in mind that licensed/regulated herbalists will be the practitioners who can legally prescribe and dispense herbal remedies,other than OTC herbal products,on a one on one basis the term herbalist needs to be precisely defined with the training and qualifications leading to such licensing and regulation.

With regard to homoeopathy on the NHS one has to look no futher than the so-called homoeopathic hospitals,which are in fact out patient clinics.Last year funding was withdrawn from the Tunbridge Wells Hospital and it has now closed.How much longer will the other 4 hospitals survive?

Barbara Griggs in her book "Green Pharmacy"tells the story of the demise of the eclectic,homoeopathic and physiomedical[herbal]practitioners in early 20th century America.Basically in 1901 the AMA invited its rivals to join them in one Association where they could practice their speciality but all would be considered as "physicians'on an equal basis.As the author says "Beguiled by the welcome Little Red Riding Hood stepped confidently inside the cottage."

What happened next?In 1910 the Flexner Report on medical teaching institutions was published.It totally trashed the training hospitals and training colleges of the physiomedicalists and other practitioners and that was the end of them.No training facilities meant no new herbal and other practitioners and a medical monopoly that lasted for many years.Herbalists who wish to be part of the NHS should be careful what they wish for.

Kevin