camclub February News

Posted by Amy Muddle on Thursday, February 2, 2012 · Leave a Comment 

February News

Campaign wants “political will and muscle” on herbals

The companies behind the recently launched Herbal Quality Campaign are warning that small UK herbal firms could be forced out of business because, they say, the government’s medicines agency — the MHRA — is failing to enforce the THMPD.

The campaign, now being coordinated by the British Herbal Medicines Association (BHMA), took its message to Westminster this week where it called on the Government to show “political will and muscle” on the issue.
The Herbal Quality Campaign (HQC) says that legislation “spearheaded by the UK to support responsible manufacturing of herbal products” now risks being “fatally undermined by an apparent inability to deliver its objectives”.
The HQC claims that that the MHRA is currently failing to prevent the sale of medicinal herbs as “cheap and poorly-regulated food supplements”. It wants ministers to ensure that the MHRA has an “active and realistic compliance plan in place to clearly identify and regulate herbal food supplements that actually have medicinal status”.

The Campaign was officially launched this week at a Parliamentary Seminar at the House of Commons (24 January) attended by manufacturers, MPs, health professionals and academics.

The managing director of one small UK herbals manufacturer told the meeting that his company had spent £250,000 getting its herbal medicines registered under the MHRA’s Traditional Herbal Registration (THR) scheme. Yet it now found itself in a situation where its products sat on the shelves alongside unlicensed products. He added: “We have the absurd situation where some consumers think that the unregistered products, which fail to include the safety information required under the THR scheme, are seen as better than the registered products because they because they neither list nor mention side effects or interaction.”

Dr Michael Dixon, chair of the NHS Alliance and a strong advocate of complementary medicine, said the current situation “is not just disappointing, but scandalous”. He continued: “Seventy per cent of patients say they would like to use natural products. We really should be arming patients with products that enable to them to take charge of their own health. But they also need to have reassurance about product quality.”

An academic from the University of Westminster also warned that an opportunity for herbal medicines to play an important part in the growing role for ‘self-care’ was threatened by a lack of clarity. He said: “There are lots of conditions for which patients are visiting their GPs where they aren’t able to offer effective drug treatments — but where there are very useful natural products available for self-care. But patients must be assured that the products they are using are what they say they are.”

Dr Dick Middleton, technical director of Schwabe Pharma UK, said that the poor quality of some unregistered herbal products damaged the whole herbals category. “The problems we have seen for example with black cohosh have stemmed from quality issues, not black cohosh issues”. He also warned that some companies have been placing ‘food supplement’ black cohosh products on the market containing 50 times the dose approved for THR registrations.
Middleton added: “Three to four months ago the MHRA might have conceivably been able to argue that they were unaware of the situation. They clearly understand it now.”

BHMA board member, Simon Mills, added: “We want to see the MHRA showing some political will and muscle on this issue, enforcing laws that it said itself it would police robustly.”

Paul Chenery, of Rutland Biodynamics, told the meeting that his company had “spent 10 years’ worth of its profits going down the THR route only to be told by the MHRA — the body driving the legislation — that they can’t enforce it because they are paralysed by EU legal rulings”.

But Chenery also said there was another side to the herbals debate. “There is a valid question about whether it is right to put herbals on the same regulatory footing as pharmaceuticals in the first place. And many people in this country believe that they have an ancient right of access to herbal remedies, so they are against what they see as restrictive regulation.”

ANH-Intl launches health claims “veto campaign”

Health campaign group Alliance for Health International (ANH-Intl) has launched a health claims “veto campaign”.

Last Friday, a short list of just 220 health claims was passed to the European Parliament for its scrutiny. If MEPs vote to give approval of the list only these 220 health claims will able to be used to indicate the beneficial value of commercial food and health food products – including supplements — across all 27 EU member states. Around 2,500 health claims that were controversially rejected by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), will be banned within 6 months.

Calling on MEPs, ANH-Intl’s executive and scientific director, Robert Verkerk PhD, said: “MEPs, like European citizens, rightly want to ensure that misleading information is removed from the marketplace. But the inappropriate standards of proof of benefit required by European authorities mean that thousands of health claims, including such obvious examples as the effects of eating prunes on digestive health, have been thrown out. Also, evaluation of health claims for some groups of nutrients, such as botanicals and probiotics, has yet to be completed, so it would be premature to turn the proposed shortlist of 220 into EU law.”

In addition to releasing a campaign pack for MEPs, ANH-Intl is also urging citizens across the EU to urge their MEPs to vote against the list at the end of a three-month European Parliamentary scrutiny period.

Chief medical officer voices vitamin D concern

England’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, is concerned that young children and some adults aren’t getting the levels of vitamin D they need.
According to reports from the BBC, she is to ask medical professionals to review current guidelines, which recommend supplementing key groups, including under-fives.

Davies said: “We know a significant proportion of people in the UK probably have inadequate levels of vitamin D in their blood. Our experts are clear – low levels of vitamin D can increase the risk of poor bone health, including rickets in young children.”

The Guardian reports that the likelihood is the review will lead to an increase in the amounts of vitamin D pregnant women, older people and small children are advised to ingest.

Eight teas a day can lower blood pressure

New research shows that drinking eight cups of tea a day can lower blood pressure and could prevent heart disease.

The research, carried out by the University of Australia, is to be published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

During the trial volunteers with normal to high blood pressure were given three drinks a day containing 429 milligrams of the plant chemicals polyphenols – equivalent to eight cups of teas a day. A second group were given a tea-flavoured placebo. After six months, the blood pressure of the tea-drinking group had fallen significantly.

Lead researcher, professor Jonathan Hodgson, wrote: “Our study has demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge that long-term regular consumption of black tea can result in significantly lower blood pressures in individuals with normal to high-normal range blood pressures,” the team, led by Dr Jonathan Hodgson, wrote in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.”

CHC puts maximum levels right under MPs’ noses!

Consumers for Health Choice (CHC) has placed a full page advertisement in The House Magazine, the official ‘trade mag’ for MPs and members of the House of Lords.

The ad warns MPs that 21 million consumers in the UK could lose thousands of their favourite, and relied upon, supplements as a result of restrictive and scientifically arbitrary legislation from Brussels. Coinciding with this, the Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA) has sent a letter to the Prime Minister pointing out some examples of how European legislation is crippling growth and endangering jobs.

The ad, made possible by the support of HFMA member company Viridian Nutrition, appeared in the 12 January edition of the magazine, which also featured an exclusive interview the Prime Minister.

Commenting, CHC director Sue Croft, said: “The issue of maximum levels has been creeping steadily up the Commission’s agenda. It is under huge pressure from countries like France and Germany to set levels soon, and set them low. We need to start seeing action from those people who were elected into positions of power and responsibility. They can’t sit around on their hands any longer. This is not something on the horizon, it’s happening now.”

BANT accuses Which? of bias in critical report on nutritional therapists

The consumer group Which? has published a report accusing nutritional therapists of providing advice that “could seriously harm patients health”.

But the report’s findings, and its methodologies, have been sharply criticised by the leading professional body for nutritional therapists.

Which? sent undercover investigators posing as patients with a range of health problems to 15 consultations with nutritional therapists charging £50 to £80 per visit. Using criteria set by its expert panel — dietitian Catherine Collins, professor of pharmacology David Colquhoun and Dr Margaret McCartney, a GP — six of the visits were rated as ‘dangerous fails’, a further eight were rated as ‘fails’, and only one was deemed a ‘borderline pass’.

One researcher, posing as a breast cancer sufferer, was reportedly told by her therapist to delay radiotherapy treatment recommended by her oncologist saying they could rid the body of cancer through diet. The therapist advised her to follow a no-sugar diet for three to six months saying “cancer feeds off sugar. By cutting out sugar we have a better chance of the cancer going away”. Which?’s expert panel considered this highly irresponsible and incorrect advice.

Which? says that another of its researchers was told by a therapist that if the course of treatment they prescribed for his severe tiredness started to make him feel unwell, it showed the “treatment was working” and he shouldn’t contact his GP as they “wouldn’t understand what was happening”.

Which? accuses the therapists of relying on non-evidence-based testing to diagnose symptoms. And it says some therapists were recommending “unnecessary supplements” costing up to £70 a month.

Which? says it is particularly concerned that several of the therapists had diagnosed conditions. This, it claims, would them in breach of the code of practice operated by the British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT), of which 14 out of the 15 the therapists are members. The consumer group accuses BANT of failing to “police practitioners effectively”.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: 

“We found some shocking examples of irresponsible advice given by nutritional therapists. Our research shows that not only were they a waste of money, but some of their recommendations could seriously harm people’s health.

“This is largely a self-regulated industry where anyone can set up and practice as a nutritional therapist, meaning there is no real protection for consumers. Which? wants the government to take action to stop nutritional therapists putting people’s health at risk.”

However, in a statement, BANT says that the Which? report “contains a number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies” and suggests that both report and the experts enlisted by Which? are “biased”. The association also insists that “it is completely outside the BANT Code of Practice to advise a client to withhold any treatment for cancer for any period of time in order to follow a nutritional approach”.

BANT’s PR manager, Jayne Nelson, told Natural Products that “while the Association has guidelines, not all our members are signed up to them, and we can’t force them to do so.” Nelson said she was surprised to hear that Which? had thought it appropriate to use “secret recordings and fictitious conditions”. She said that Which? had refused to name the practitioners, who might have challenged Which?’s accounts of the consultations, and refused BANT’s requests to be able to listen to the full recordings. “We were given copy of the transcripts and, quite frankly, these made bizarre reading due to the incompleteness of the texts.”

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) has acknowledged that “undeniably, some of the advice given by the nutritional therapists targeted by the Which? investigation gives serious cause for concern”, in particular ‘red flag’ symptoms which a trained professional ought to recognise as indicating the possibility of a serious underlying medical condition. It also says that professional codes of practice need to be clear and properly policed, with practitioners who flout their professional body’s code facing “severe sanction”. However, the campaign group accuses Which? of bias in the way it selected its expert panel and of being ” laughably transparent in its desire to hang nutritional therapists out to dry”.

Which? says it is taking its findings to the government and demanding “proper regulation” in the sector.

The Complementary Medical Association is launching 5 amazing new business development courses for complementary medical and natural health professionals this February. Jayney Goddard, President of The Complementary Medical Association says:

“Here at The Complementary Medical Association, we are passionate about helping practitioners and training schools succeed in a challenging environment. The challenges come from the current, very difficult, financial situation that we’re in – and also from the attacks on complementary medicine – which are driven by a few well funded, well mobilised groups.

I firmly believe that complementary medicine and natural healthcare plays a vital role in the health and wellbeing of society – and it’s imperative that people can choose how they look after themselves. In order for people to be able to have this freedom of choice, they need to be able to access talented practitioners of all disciplines.

The harsh reality though, is that if practitioners are not successful – from a business perspective – they won’t be able to help people.

I’m well aware that ‘business’ and natural healthcare are not necessarily good bed fellows – and in all my years in complementary medicine I’ve never yet met anyone who has come into the professional ‘for the money!’. However, it is time for natural healthcare professionals to step up – grasp the nettle – and realise that it is time to build a successful business – and MAKE PROFIT - so that you can help more people.

By being successful, i.e. making more profit that you can use to grow your business, promote your practice – and the discipline you practise, you are giving people the freedom to choose how they look after themselves – and this makes a dramatically positive contribution to society – I firmly believe talented practitioners make the world a better place!”

The Complementary Medical Association has finalised the date and venue for 5 NEW “Developing Your Professional Practice” Series of Workshops. Also – back by overwhelming demand – one last chance to catch “Expert Public Talks to Build YOUR Business and Get More Clients”.”

6 Ways To Build YOUR Practice (and Make More Profit) from Your Natural Healthcare Business This Year;

NEW 1 Becoming an Expert Broadcaster on TV, Radio, YouTube and Your Own Website: Take advantage of the growing media interest in complementary medicine and natural healthcare: Learn How to Present Professionally On TV, Radio, and in online media such as YouTube etc. (Remember there were 2 separate production companies looking for practitioners who can present ‘on camera’ – in our last CMA Journal alone!). And get listed on our register of Media-Ready Practitioners!

Full information and Booking Site Here

NEW 2 Press and PR That Gets Results - Write Articles and Use PR to Promote Your Practice Effectively; PLUS How to Write Professional Press Releases – and Get Them In the Hands of Over 1,000 Health Journalists and 10s of thousands of Internet Content Providers Today! Become the established expert in your field – the person journalists always go to first for comment.

Full information and Booking Site Here

NEW 3 Website Design That Gets Results – AND Search Engine Optimisation: Make your website work as hard as it can to achieve your targets right now; you’ll not only learn how to design your website for Maximum Effectiveness, but also how to make it Appear as High As Possible in Search Engine Rankings (Search Engine Optimisation). We’ll even show you how to put up your own cost free website in less than an hour – if you can ‘cut and paste’ you can work this site! Needless to say – we teach all this in a jargon-less, geek-free manner.

Full information and Booking Site Here

NEW 4 Business Building e-Newsletters + Social Networking to get More Clients: You’ll learn how to set up and use the new forms of Social Media (YouTube: Twitter; Google+: Facebook; etc) and how to set up an easy to use, infinitely variable e-Newsletter inexpensively and QUICKLY! This approach to business building is not to be missed and it’s a great way of building your client base.

Full information and Booking Site Here

NEW 5 How To Make Your ‘Advertising’ (Brochures, Posters, etc) Work To Help You Grow Your Practice: This full-day “Master Class” run by multi-award-winning advertising expert, Dave Hawkins, is totally geared towards natural healthcare practitioners - and follows on from the interest in this topic at our “Developing Your Professional Practice” Workshops. Walk in with your current advertising and marketing literature – and by the end of the day – walk out with your NEW professional, Effective Campaign in Your Hand!

Full information and Booking Site Here

LIMITED OPPORTUNITY 6 (This is the ONLY time this workshop will run in the next 6 months)

“Expert Public Talks to Build YOUR Practice and Get More Clients - The Easy Way!”

Totally Updated and Back By Overwhelming Demand!

This incredibly popular full day workshop provides you with a fully researched and referenced talk that you can go out and give right away - to any audience PLUS: Jayney Goddard will teach you all her public speaking skills - so that you are fully confident and totally secure in your public speaking abilities. We even give you poster and flyer artwork - designed by Dave Hawkins to promote your talks and get the results you want.

Full information and Booking Site Here

Contact details:

For information about any of these workshops please call The Complementary Medical Association on 0845 129 8434 or email [email protected]

New speakers and sponsors announced for camexpo 2012!

camexpo – the UK’s only dedicated professional CAM show – will celebrate its tenth anniversary event this Autumn with two new big name industry sponsors. Today’s announcement by the show’s organiser, Diversified Business Communications UK, sees Revital – the UK’s largest independent health product retailer – and The Complementary Therapist Association (CThA) confirmed as brand sponsors of the Keynote Theatre and Demo Theatre respectively.

Taking place at Earls Court, London, on 20-21 October 2012, camexpo will also see the return of specialist insurance brokers Balens as the show’s Taster Workshop sponsor.

“2012 is such a big year for camexpo,” says event manager Zoe Campbell. “It’s fantastic to be able to celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary in such illustrious company! It’s a testament to the continuing success of the show that key players – like Revital, the CThA, and Balens – recognise the importance of the show to the CAM industry and want to demonstrate their support by getting involved in such a significant way.”

Other big announcements for 2012 include the first new additions to the show’s Keynote seminar line-up. Renowned for offering the hottest topics and the newest techniques from some of the biggest and brightest names in the industry, this year’s Keynotes will feature sessions from Dr Marilyn Glenville – the UK’s leading nutritionist specialising in women’s health; Nutri-Link’s head of technical services Antony Haynes; Expectancy’s educational director Denise Tiran; and Jayney Goddard – president of the Complementary Medical Association (CMA). Plus, visiting CAM practitioners will also have opportunity to enjoy a hotly anticipated session from camexpo 2011’s Outstanding Achievement Award winners Meghan Mari and Rachel Fairweather, directors and co-founders of the Jing Institute of Advanced Massage Training, who’ll be making their debut on the Keynote stage.

With over 200 leading CAM companies, colleges and associations set to exhibit – including big industry names like The Nutri Centre, BioCare, A.Vogel, Rio Trading, Probiotics International, Jing Institute, Inspire Massage, Pure Massage, Springfield Neutraceuticals, and Bonusan – camexpo provides the best opportunity of the year for thousands of CAM practitioners and healthcare professionals to meet with their suppliers direct, research the best new products and services for their clients, benefit from special ‘show only’ promotions, and be kept up-to-date with all the latest research and developments by some of the biggest and brightest names in the natural healthcare industry.

camexpo will return to Earls Court, London, on 20-21 October 2012. For further information and to view the show’s 2011 video, please visit www.camexpo.co.uk. Alternatively, why not keep-up-to-date with the latest news via the show’s facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001522315531) or twitter account (@camexpo).

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