camclub February Stories

Posted by Amy Muddle on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 · Leave a Comment 

February News Stories

Exhibition space expanded to capacity for camexpo 2011

Following significant increases in both visitor and exhibitor numbers at last year’s camexpo, the 2011 show will expand by 10% to fill the entire exhibition hall at Brompton Hall, Earls Court.

Organiser Diversified Business Communications UK has confirmed that camexpo – the UK’s only dedicated complementary healthcare event – will now use all available venue space to accommodate up to 20 additional exhibitors. This increase in floor space will also take projections for the total number of exhibitors to over 200 for the first time in the show’s 9-year history.

With nine months still to go and over 135 exhibitors confirmed, the show is already 65% sold out. While this is largely due to an enthusiastic return of many big name brands, including Revital, The Nutri Centre, Balens Insurance, BioCare and Lamberts Healthcare, a wealth of first time exhibitors will also be in attendance. These include Oracle School of Colour, Enjoy Better Health, The Zentist, Organic Silicium, and children’s supplement supplier Innocent Vitamins.

Recent show developments include the unveiling of camexpo’s first ever show video, which is now available to view online at www.camexpo.co.uk. Prospective visitors wishing to keep fully up-to-date with all the latest news and exhibitor information can become ‘friends’ with the show via its facebook account at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001522315531. Alternatively, twitter users can opt to receive regular updates from @camexpo.

For further information about camexpo 2011, taking place at Earls Court, London, on 22-23 October 2011, please visit www.camexpo.co.uk. Online visitor registration is scheduled to open at the end of May 2011.

For more information about exhibiting at camexpo, please contact Zoe Campbell at [email protected] or 01273 645119.

Half of TCM practitioners will lose herbs when deadline hits


A survey by the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine indicates that over half (53%) of its members will no longer be able to provide Chinese herbal medicine to their patients, and one fifth will have to close their clinics, when the European Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products comes into force on 1 May.

The figures relate to practitioners who responded to a questionnaire issued by the RCHM.
Without access to the necessary herbs, practitioners will be unable to treat patients and the RCHM fears the public will seek to illegally obtain medicine over the internet. It is estimated that 2.5 million people in the UK use Chinese medicine.

From 1 May, only health professionals regulated by the Government (through statutory regulation) will have access to the majority of herbal medicines. However, this form of regulation is not currently available to herbal practitioners in the UK.

“The Government must act quickly to introduce statutory regulation. This is the only way to protect the public and will mean that experienced and competent practitioners can continue to supply powerful herbs. Statutory regulation must be via the Health Professions Council, the only organisation already set up and structured for this purpose,” says Emma Farrant, secretary of the RCHM.

The RCHM is also highlighting the knock-on effect on suppliers. A number of leading British manufacturers and importers will be severely affected and some will lose 50% of their income.
Balance Healthcare Ltd in Kingham, Oxfordshire was established in 1985. It has 19 employees – some have given 23 years’ service. The company distributes Chinese and western herbal products, supplies its own-brand medicines and runs a dispensary. Its annual turnover will be reduced by 55%.

Avicenna, in Hove, was set up in 1987. The company makes bespoke medicines and specialises in developing creams for patients with skin conditions. Its medicines are used by clinics around the UK and in other countries, including university hospitals. The company fears it will lose a third of its turnover and may have to make some staff redundant.

Phytomed aims to secure THRs for 9 Kiwiherb products

New Zealand based herbals manufacturer Phytomed is aiming to have licences in place for nine of its Kiwiherb products by the April 30th THMPD deadline.

Phytomed already manufactures a wide range of liquid herbal extracts for complementary health practitioners in New Zealand and Australia to GMP standards.

Kiwiherb founder Phil Rasmussen says the company is fully committed to “staying in the game and increasing its presence on UK and Irish shelves”. In addition to the licenced products other Kiwiherb products will remain on the market as cosmetics, and plans are in place to launch new products from next year.

Although Kiwiherb sees the THMPD as a major hurdle to continuing UK and Irish market access, it remains enthusiastic about the long-term market potential for Kiwiherb in the UK and Europe.

NBTY Europe unveils £20m factory and HQ investment
Posted on31 January 2011. Tags: GNC, Holland & Barrett, NBTY, NBTY Europe

NBTY Europe — owner of Holland & Barrett, Julian Graves, GNC, Nature’s Way (Ireland) and De Tuinen (Netherlands) — has unveiled two new buildings in Nuneaton and Burton-on-Trent representing a combined corporate investment of more than £20 million.

Last week’s official opening ceremonies saw Marcus Jones, MP for Nuneaton, and Andrew Griffiths, MP for Burton & Uttoxeter unveil the latest developments in their respective constituencies alongside NBTY Europe’s Group Legal Director Roger Craddock.

Samuel Ryder House is the new £6 million headquarters and store support centre in Eliot Park, Barling Way, Nuneaton. Home to more than 160 employees and the central operations for all NBTY Europe brands. The building is named after the famous golfer and founder of Holland & Barrett who set up the company from a market garden in the 1920s.

Burton 2 is a new 130,000 square foot processing and packing plant in Burton- on-Trent’s Centrum 100 development, Sixth Avenue. Developed at a cost of more than £14 million to complement an existing warehouse and distribution depot (Burton 1) on the same site. New equipment includes a bespoke chocolate coating plant, which the company says will help fuel new product development, while new fruit and nut production lines will be capable of producing more than one million bagged products every week.

This new infrastructure forms part of a central hub, which supports more than 1,000 health food stores across Europe and has created more than 160 new jobs over both locations. These comprise 80 new employees in Burton 2, over 50 in Samuel Ryder House with the remainder being additional supply chain positions in Burton 1.

Roger Craddock said the investment reflected strong growth in the business, commenting: “During 2010, NBTY Europe posted sales in excess of £400 million and opened more than 80 new stores, strong growth we are pleased and proud of — especially given the current challenging economic climate. This new investment in buildings, equipment and infrastructure underpins our commitment to providing customers with the highest quality products at excellent value.”
“Over the next 12 months, we are well placed to continue growth across all our brands within the group, as well as growing core and emerging categories. Last year, Holland & Barrett grew its Natural Beauty category 16 per cent year on year, with the sports nutrition category reporting growth of 14 per cent.

2010 saw Holland & Barrett reach the milestone of 600 stores, with new ‘concept models’ proving a success. Plans for 2011 include a roll out of concept store models through both the Julian Graves and GNC brands as well as expansion into new categories.

Government targets alternative pet remedies
Posted on07 January 2011. Tags: pets, remedies, Veterinary Medicines Directorate

The Government has launched a clampdown on alternative pet remedies, which it believes could be putting pets at risk.

Defra ministers have asked the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) to tighten up rules for registered vets to prevent ‘unauthorised products’ — including homeopathic remedies, animal food supplements and herbal preparations — being used to treat serious diseases.

In a statement, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate’s (VMD) director of operations, John FitzGerald, said:

“Some of these products are claiming to be effective and safe when no scientific evidence has been presented to us to show they are.

“Animal owners have a right to know if a product does what it claims. The products claim to treat diseases which can cause serious welfare problems and in some circumstances kill animals if not properly treated. So in some cases owners are giving remedies to their pets which don’t treat the problem.”

The VMD will now be contacting manufacturers asking that they demonstrate their products are safe and provide the benefits which they claim to. If manufacturers are unable to do this they will be told to re-brand the products to make it clear they are not medicinal.
The British Veterinary Association says it welcomes the move. Its president, Harvey Locke, said: “Some of these unauthorised products may at the least be ineffective and at worst could cause harm because serious life-threatening diseases may go undiagnosed. We would urge animal owners always to check with their veterinary surgeon before giving any remedy or supplement to their pet.”

Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize Winner, Takes Homeopathy Seriously

Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French virologist who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering the AIDS virus, has surprised the scientific community with his strong support for homeopathic medicine.

In a remarkable interview published in Science magazine of December 24, 2010, (1) Professor Luc Montagnier, has expressed support for the often maligned and misunderstood medical specialty of homeopathic medicine. Although homeopathy has persisted for 200+ years throughout the world and has been the leading alternative treatment method used by physicians in Europe, (2) most conventional physicians and scientists have expressed skepticism about its efficacy due to the extremely small doses of medicines used.

Most clinical research conducted on homeopathic medicines that has been published in peer-review journals have shown positive clinical results,(3, 4) especially in the treatment of respiratory allergies (5, 6), influenza, (7) fibromyalgia, (8, 9) rheumatoid arthritis, (10) childhood diarrhea, (11) post-surgical abdominal surgery recovery, (12) attention deficit disorder, (13) and reduction in the side effects of conventional cancer treatments. (14) In addition to clinical trials, several hundred basic science studies have confirmed the biological activity of homeopathic medicines. One type of basic science trials, called in vitro studies, found 67 experiments (1/3 of them replications) and nearly 3/4 of all replications were positive. (15, 16)
In addition to the wide variety of basic science evidence and clinical research, further evidence for homeopathy resides in the fact that they gained widespread popularity in the U.S. and Europe during the 19th century due to the impressive results people experienced in the treatment of epidemics that raged during that time, including cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, scarlet fever, and influenza.

Montagnier, who is also founder and president of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, asserted, “I can’t say that homeopathy is right in everything. What I can say now is that the high dilutions (used in homeopathy) are right. High dilutions of something are not nothing. They are water structures which mimic the original molecules.”

Here, Montagnier is making reference to his experimental research that confirms one of the controversial features of homeopathic medicine that uses doses of substances that undergo sequential dilution with vigorous shaking in-between each dilution. Although it is common for modern-day scientists to assume that none of the original molecules remain in solution, Montagnier’s research (and other of many of his colleagues) has verified that electromagnetic signals of the original medicine remains in the water and has dramatic biological effects.

Montagnier has just taken a new position at Jiaotong University in Shanghai, China (this university is often referred to as “China’s MIT”), where he will work in a new institute bearing his name. This work focuses on a new scientific movement at the crossroads of physics, biology, and medicine: the phenomenon of electromagnetic waves produced by DNA in water. He and his team will study both the theoretical basis and the possible applications in medicine.

Montagnier’s new research is investigating the electromagnetic waves that he says emanate from the highly diluted DNA of various pathogens. Montagnier asserts, “What we have found is that DNA produces structural changes in water, which persist at very high dilutions, and which lead to resonant electromagnetic signals that we can measure. Not all DNA produces signals that we can detect with our device. The high-intensity signals come from bacterial and viral DNA.”

Montagnier affirms that these new observations will lead to novel treatments for many common chronic diseases, including but not limited to autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

Montagnier first wrote about his findings in 2009, (17) and then, in mid-2010, he spoke at a prestigious meeting of fellow Nobelists where he expressed interest in homeopathy and the implications of this system of medicine. (18)

French retirement laws do not allow Montagnier, who is 78 years of age, to work at a public institute, thereby limiting access to research funding. Montagnier acknowledges that getting research funds from Big Pharma and certain other conventional research funding agencies is unlikely due to the atmosphere of antagonism to homeopathy and natural treatment options.

Support from Another Nobel Prize winner

Montagnier’s new research evokes memories one of the most sensational stories in French science, often referred to as the ‘Benveniste affair.’ A highly respected immunologist Dr. Jacques Benveniste., who died in 2004, conducted a study which was replicated in three other university laboratories and that was published in Nature (19). Benveniste and other researchers used extremely diluted doses of substances that created an effect on a type of white blood cell called basophils.

Although Benveniste’s work was supposedly debunked, (20) Montagnier considers Benveniste a “modern Galileo” who was far ahead of his day and time and who was attacked for investigating a medical and scientific subject that orthodoxy had mistakenly overlooked and even demonized.

In addition to Benveniste and Montagnier is the weighty opinion of Brian Josephson, Ph.D., who, like Montagnier, is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist.

Source: The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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