Proposed regulation of Medical Herbalists, Acupuncturists and TCM

[flovosspaa]

The proposed regulation of Medical Herbalists, Acupuncturists and Traditional Chinese Medicine [TCM] was briefly discussed in this thread back in April, though something of an aside to the main topic of the thread which was specifically about courses:

http://www.massageplanet.net/forum/...ion#post566637

I have therefore posted this in General Therapies, but can move it if anyone would like to suggest a better place. I also hope it doesn't duplicate any other current discussions.

I have no personal experience of Acupuncture or TCM, so my main interest here is in the Medical Herbalists, since I have often advocated herbal medicine in these forums and given the link to the National Institute of Medical Herbalists for people to find practitioners. I recently received a worried and worrying email from my own practitioner concerning the approaching deadline for decisions to be made on regulation of these therapies.

Further information can be found on the NIMH website:

http://www.nimh.org.uk/
[just click on the big green square on the page]

including a link to the Dept of Health’s consultation document, a lengthy and complicated tome!

A simplified version of this and suggested responses can be found on this further link also sent to me, which I understand is the website of one of the council members of the NMIH:

http://actnow.napiers.net/2009/10/ac...dicine-in.html

Another update of info is here:
http://www.hpc-uk.org/mediaandevents...dex.asp?id=282
Council decisions 7 October 2009

Bottom line is that WITHOUT regulation, which is actively sought by Medical Herbalists, there is the risk that in the future they will only be able to prescribe a tiny fraction of the herbs which are currently available and have been so for hundreds if not thousands of years. Aim is to protect the public from unqualified ... or inadequately qualified ... practitioners, as was discussed on the earlier HP thread [link above]. If herbalists are regulated, they will still be able to provide a wide range of herbal medicines. I have maintained good health for some years now by taking these in preference to prescribed medication from GPs, and would not at all care to have this choice taken away, to put it mildly!

Holistic

 

[webkinzlover525]

As you say Hol, a lot of therapies are being pushed towards regulation, some of which can do so a little more easily than others depending on how 'clear cut' the practices are. i.e. Reiki is practiced in so many ways that it's difficult for anybody to agree on regulations for it (though many have tried).

I imagine the same sort of fuzziness could apply to herbal remedies as, although there are commonly known remedies, there can also be differing opinions about other ones from what little I know of it anyway.

I guess the best thing anybody can do is to learn it for themselves, grow their own herbs and keep themselves healthy.

Obviously it's different for those wanting to do it as a career and especially if they want to integrate with mainstream healthcare. Let's hope that some suitable regulations can laid down that don't effect what can be offered and only work to keep out the untrained cowboys.

All Love and Reiki Hugs

 

[XxXChloeXxX ,paula.. :P]

I gather from some of the mail I have had on this very subject that not all herbalists are in favour of statutory regulation, many of whom have been trained to degree level in phytotherapy, and some members have left the NIMH due to their support of statutory regulation.

Questions we need to look at are does statutory regulation ensure public safety? Can government reassure us that they are able to act in a trustworthy and caring way?

There is a danger that herbal medicines will be made using modern highly mechanised processes -with the possible danger that multinational pharmaceutical companies will get in on the act being able to fund the new licensing laws.

One of the downsides is that state regulation could increase the cost to the herbalist having a knock on effect to their patients.

Does regulation improve a therapists status, and imply they are better in some way than those who fall outside of regulation? Are University courses the best training available? Do we want to see the traditional herbal knowledge going back thousands of years be dominated by a model of mainstream medicine and science. Surely this would not be progress.

These are all questions that need to be looked at. I would hate the baby to be thrown out with the bathwater.

Binah
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[purplesmiles19]

Since I started this thread, the NIMH have created a ‘microsite’ giving all the background to the regulation issue, which is on this link:

http://actnow.nimh.org.uk/2009/10/act-for-choice-of-herbal-medicine-in.html

and where it states that the deadline has been extended, because of the postal situation, to 16 November, for those who want to take the recommended action.

The big green button I referred to in my OP, on their main site:

http://www.nimh.org.uk/home

now links to a mass lobby of MPs, due to have taken place today. It had been to what is now on the new page in an expanded and more comprehensive version.

Regulation is also on:
http://www.herbsociety.org.uk/current-news.htm

and discussion here among their members:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/217936/thread/1254569092/last-1255350809/SAVE++OUR++HERBS


Binah, you made some interesting points and posed a number of questions. I wonder if you’d care to expand on some of the background here?

You mentioned phytotherapy with, if I read you correctly, a suggestion that perhaps phytotherapists were not in favour of regulation. Yet the same info and requests for support of regulation are on the CPP website:

http://www.phytotherapists.org/

BTW, I’ve moved the thread over to Natural Remedies, since this seems to be the main topic, despite the thread title.

Holistic

 

[Shauna]

Hi all

I am a medical herbalist and along with a few hundred other herbalists, we are against regulation. Regulation has nothing to do with making us 'safe' for the public, its about control! Lots of us have left NIMH and other herbalists are leaving their professional associations as they feel they are not being represented.
It looks as if regulation is not going ahead, because we are not considered to be effective by the government,drug companies etc.They all want 'evidenced based standardised extracts rubbish'.
However if herbalists want to destroy what they have left and keep haranging the governement to prove how dangerous our medicine is then they might regulate us. Talk about destroy you from within.Some of my colleagues are ex NIMH council members and they will tell you too about peoples agendas!
Point being ...medical herbalists are safe, herbal medicine is safe. Its the people's medicine.
Regulation...does it work for gp's?? and keep everyone safe.
Wrongly prescribed drugs and mixtures of drugs kill thousands a year and remember dodgy doctors like Dr Shipman, yes regulation really helped there.
It is appaling to hundreds of herbalists out there that NIMH are co-ercing people into supporting regulation with the threat of losing herbal medicine.
Come and see the other side www.theherbarium.wordpress.com where herbalists spell it all out for the people!

regards all

The Urban Herbalist

 

[Weedodenaiz]

I just sent my reply to the Dept of Health's consultation on acupuncture, herbalism & TCM.

I suggested that voluntary self-regulation was a better opinion than statutory regulation. I replied as a student of acupuncture. I consulted a herbal colleague on his views which was the same, before sending my reply.

Crossed fingers that common sense will prevail.

RP

 

[Whitna]

Well I hope the government sees sense on this subject and doesn't go down the statutory regulation route for TCM/Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine. The consultation process ends tomorrow

Here's a link to Martin Watts a Medical Herbalist (he also writes a lot of sound stuff about aromatherapy) with some very sound advice

http://www.aromamedical.com/articles/traditional-herbalists.htm

Let's hope that we still have the freedom of choices available to us that we have been used to.

Binah
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