camclub September News

camclub September News

31/08/11
camclub

Top industry speakers confirmed for camexpo 2011

Momentum continues to build for camexpo 2011, with the announcement of a host of top names to headline this year’s free Keynote seminar line-up. Professor George Lewith, Dr Marilyn Glenville, Patrick Holford, Jan de Vries, Bharti Vyas, Dr Rob Verkerk, and leading clinical nutritionist Neil E. Leven, are just a few of the speakers confirmed to appear over 22-23 October in the show’s two, Nutri Centre sponsored, theatres at Earls Court, London.

Since training and development is key to the running of any successful business, camexpo’s free education programme, which seeks to include – and promote – as many different CAM modalities as possible, offers attending practitioners and healthcare professionals an unrivalled opportunity to 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.

This year’s Keynotes open with a session by Professor George Lewith, head of health research at the University of Southampton, giving an introduction to ‘The College of Medicine’, which was launched in October last year (10.30am Saturday 22 October). The college is the first organisation to attempt to bring doctors and other health professionals together with patients and scientists on an equal footing, and, in doing so, aims to raise acceptance of using integrated medicine to improve patient healthcare.

Integrated medicine, which advocates combining all appropriate therapies (both conventional and alternative) for the treatment and prevention of illness, has always been a hotly discussed topic at camexpo. This year is no different, with renowned naturopath Jan de Vries championing the importance of the natural health sector working together in his session on the role of the complementary practitioner today (12.45pm on Sunday 23 October).

“I think it is very important that ‘united forces’ such as CAM and complementary institutes, who are working together with the orthodox system can do a lot of good,” says de Vries. “After all both systems are there to help the human suffering and that should be absolutely central.”

Dr Marilyn Glenville, the UK’s leading nutritionist specialising in women’s health, is also keen to promote the integrative approach. Talking in a recent interview with Natural Products magazine’s editor Jim Manson, Glenville commented that practitioners must “educate” patients on all the options available to them so they “can make informed decisions” about their own healthcare.

“For many other areas like fertility, for example, we can offer an Integrated Medicine approach. So that women can have the best of both worlds – natural and conventional medicine. For me the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive and both can benefit from each other,” says Glenville.

Like de Vries, Glenville is a keen supporter of the show. She believes camexpo is a “must attend event for any CAM practitioner”.

“I am involved with camexpo because it is the only show in the UK dedicated to practitioners. It offers practitioners and students access to seminars given by well-known specialists with the added benefit of CPD points,” says Glenville. “The show is a one-stop event to be able to see suppliers and pick up useful information on new products, to meet the schools and colleges and to get information on how to grow your practice.”

A regular speaker at camexpo for the past six years, Glenville will be hosting two Keynotes for visitors to camexpo 2011 – ‘Natural solutions to the menopause’ at 1.45pm on Saturday 22 October and ‘Food allergies/intolerances: can they cause weight gain?’ at 2pm on Sunday 23 October.

Given its relevancy to practitioners, Dr Rob Verkerk, founder and director of the Alliance for Natural Health, will give an important legislation update in his session on ‘The art of nutritional and herbal practice in the minefield of European and UK regulation’ (12.40pm on Saturday 22 October). Focusing on the recent legislative changes affecting health food and herbal products, Verkerk will discuss the status of the latest laws, as well as the workarounds, and their implications for UK CAM practices and health store retailers.

Familiar faces at the show include Gill Tree, managing director of Essentials For Health; Kush Kumar, chair of the Complementary Therapists Association; and Jayney Goddard, president of The Complementary Medical Association. Whilst new speakers for 2011 include Margaret Coats, the CNHC’s new interim chief executive and registrar (from 1 September); Mary Atkinson, winner of camexpo’s Outstanding Achievement Award 2010; nutritional therapist Antony Haynes, head of technical services at Nutri-Link; and celebrity holistic therapist Bharti Vyas.

Vyas, who’ll be making her camexpo debut with a FHT-sponsored session on whether beauty treatments can truly be holistic (10.30am on Sunday 23 October), commented: “I am very much looking forward to exploring what it means to be a holistic therapist when faced with the pressures of modern therapies. With all the seminars on offer, camexpo is one of the highlights of the CAM calendar.”

NOW Foods’ nutrition education manager Neil E. Levin will also be adding camexpo speaker duties to his – already impressive – résumé. A board-certified clinical nutritionist, professional member of the International & American Associations of Clinical Nutritionists, and the current corporate secretary/program chair (past president) of the American Nutrition Association, Levin is an illustrious ‘big name’ addition to this year’s line-up. His session on ‘The virtues of Vitamin D: it’s time we saw the light’, at 10.30am on Sunday 23 October, will explore Vitamin D’s role “in immunity, blood sugar management, cardiovascular health, brain and mood”.

According to Levin, over the years Vitamin D has either been “overlooked” or under prescribed “due to fears of toxicity”.

“Preventing potential overdoses overlooked now obvious deficiencies,” says Levin. “The international medical community now recognises numerous additional benefits for vitamin D beyond bone health, suggesting higher levels than previously thought prudent.”

Due to the anticipated popularity of these free Keynotes, camexpo’s organiser, Diversified Business Communications UK, are urging attendees to arrive at the venue as close to show opening as possible (10am on both days); as seminar seating is limited and allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Another speaker expecting capacity crowds this year is leading nutritionist Patrick Holford, whose session on ‘The Feel Good Factor’ (3pm on Saturday 22 October) is set to prove popular with practitioners looking for a natural alternative “to antidepressants or other prescription drugs” for their clients.

“camexpo is a fantastic event where anyone interested in complementary and alternative therapies can learn a great deal from the huge variety of speakers, seminars and workshops on offer,” says Holford.

camexpo’s training and education programme, includes 37 informative free demos from a selection of hand-picked exhibitors in the show’s Demo Theatre and on the CAM stage LIVE, plus 48 Taster Workshops, sponsored by Balens, designed to offer bite-size introductions to a multitude of new therapies and techniques (sessions are £17.50 each incl VAT and can be booked in advance).

CAM delegation given brush-off at emergency ASA meeting

A joint delegation from the Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH-Intl) and the Complementary Medicine Association (CMA) says it was given the brush-off when it met with the Advertising Standards Authority last week (Friday July 29).

The emergency meeting had been called by the two bodies to discuss the ASA’s recent clampdown on CAM advertising and health claims on practitioner websites. The CMA says that many of its members have received “threatening” letter from the ASA leading to some concluding that they will have to close their practices.

But at the meeting, the ANH-Intl/CMA delegation says its concerns were “brushed off” by the ASA representatives who told them “You don’t need to worry. This is what we do. We deal with advertising complaints in all areas from roofing to guttering. We can’t be experts in everything, but we work to standards across all areas.”

When the delegation questioned the ASA on its competency in the area of health and practitioner-patient interactions, its team reportedly gave “defensive” answers and failed to demonstrate that scientifically qualified staff had been involved in its investigations and rulings on CAM practitioners.
ANH-Intl’s Dr Robert Verkerk said after the meeting: “Evaluating the extremely complex processes that occur when practitioners and patients interact is not something that we think can be done by a non-scientist. Human metabolism is complex enough, yet you have another dimension of complexity when you’re looking at the practitioner–patient relationship.”

Commenting on what he called the “non-transparent procedure used by the ASA”, Verkerk added: “I was astounded to find that the ASA appeared to have no comprehensive and transparent system of evaluation. It evaluates complaints in isolation, using only the evidence given to them by the advertiser. The ASA also told us that no practitioners had given evidence in response to a complaint, whereas both ANH-Intl and the CMA are aware of evidence having been submitted.”

CMA president, Jayney Goddard, said: “We have asked our members how they feel when they get a letter from the ASA and many feel threatened and intimidated, with some being concerned that they may be sent to jail if they don’t comply. It’s not surprising that some practitioners feel they have no option but to shut down their practice.”

The two groups representing CAM liken the ASA’s approach — which they describe as being “in conjunction with that of the anti-CAM skeptic group, the Nightingale Collaboration” — to be akin to a “witch-hunt” against CAM practitioners.

“If the basis of adjudications was transparent and took into account the full gamut of evidence, we would not be so concerned,” added Jayney Goddard, “but what we have here is an independent watchdog that appears incompetent to evaluate the field of CAM. Not only that, but the ASA is now dealing with a greatly increased level of complaints from the over-zealous, CAM-skeptic Nightingale Collaboration. Practitioner–patient relationships can’t, unfortunately, be evaluated in the same way as roofs and guttering.”

National diet survey exposes children’s poor eating habits

A new government survey shows that while adults are eating close to the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables, many children’s diets are low in fruit and veg and contain too much saturated fat.

The survey also identifies deficiencies in mineral and some vitamin intakes
The findings of the latest National Diet and Nutrition Surveys (NDNS) have prompted the Department of Health to warn that poor eating habits among children “risk storing up a number of potential problems for later life, such as heart disease and some cancers”.

The Children’s Food Campaign seized on the survey’s findings to attack Coalition plans to invite big food brands to take part in the NHS Change4lLife initiative. Its co-ordinator, Kawther Hashem, told The Guardian: “It is ridiculous for government to argue that companies like Mars, McDonald’s, PepsiCo and Pizza Hut should write the government’s health policies. They have no interest in young people eating more fruit and vegetables. They make their profits peddling sweets, fizzy drinks and processed foods.”

The NDNS survey, which looked at the food consumption and nutrient intakes of 2126 participants using a four-day food diary, found that:
• adults aged 19-64 on average consumed 4.2 portions of fruit and veg a day (with older adults averaging 4.4 portions — but just 30 per cent of adults and 37% of older adults achieved the full 5-a-day recommendation
• The consumption of oily fish was well below the recommended one portion per week in all age groups.

• Intakes of saturated were higher than officially recommended in all age groups
• Mean intake of vitamins (except vitamin D) were at, or above, Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI)
• Mean intakes of minerals from food sources were below the Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI) for some age groups, in particular children aged 11 to 18 years and a substantial proportion of this age group, particularly girls, had intakes below the Lower Reference Nutrient Intake (LRNI)
• A quarter of adults aged 19 to 64 years, and more than a third of adults aged 65 years and over, reported taking at least one dietary supplement during the four-day recording period.

Commenting on the survey findings, the executive director of the HFMA, Graham Keen, said: “This new survey by the Department of Health confirms what we have been saying all along, that basic guidelines, such as consuming adequate levels of fruit and vegetables every day, are being ignored by the majority of the population. However, it also confirms that there is widespread use of supplementation for providing key nutritional support, with 25% of the people taking at least one supplement each day.

“People need to take nutrition more seriously and the best nutritional solution for most is to eat as healthy a diet as possible, combined with the adoption of other health-related lifestyle changes. Vitamin and mineral supplements cannot undo unhealthy living, but combined with good lifestyle choices, can play an important role in promoting overall health and wellbeing.”

“In an ideal world, our diet would provide us with all the vitamins and minerals that our body needs. But this survey is yet another one which shows that a significant proportion of the UK population simply isn’t achieving nutritional sufficiency through diet alone. This is where food supplements show their true value.”

BHMA welcomes “new era” for herbal medicines

The British Herbal Medicine Association (BHMA) says that the advantages of the new system of Traditional Herbal Registrations (THRs) will become increasingly evident after an “initial period of readjustment”.

The BHMA makes the comment in the introduction to a new booklet published to mark the “timely achievement” of the first 100 THRs granted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (by April 2011) under the requirements of the European Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD).

The BHMA, which has strongly has supported the THMPD from its inception, states that the new herbals regime heralds a “new era” for herbal medicine and one that will “lead to higher standards and a more satisfactory retail market”. The Association also says that the THR scheme will give the public greater confidence in herbal products and enable “responsible suppliers to compete on a level playing field”.

The BHMA acknowledges that the THR scheme got off to a slow start, and that the total number of herbals substances found in THR products remains low, but it says that applications currently being processed by the MHRA ought to lead a doubling of the current number of THRs granted.

• The First 100 Traditional Herbal Registrations in the United Kingdom is published by the BHMA at £2.50. For more information visit www.bhma.info

Put heritage message at heart of organic campaign says entrepreneur

The founder of organic baby food brand Ella’s Kitchen, Paul Lindley, says industry should put a “heritage message” at the heart of future organic campaigns.

In his Saturday Essay piece for The Grocer, Lindley (pictured with daughter Ella) claims that the organic sector is still failing to communicate its benefits effectively. The result, he says, is that overall market penetration is stuck 2% — and falling.

Lindley writes: The problem is that ‘Brand Organic’ fails to convert occasional purchasers into regular ones. In fact, it doesn’t yet really exist.”

The organic baby food entrepreneur also challenges the thinking behind the current ‘Why I Love Organic’ consumer campaign which he says labours under too many messages. But he insists advertising can work for organic “if the message is consistent and understandable: ask Yeo Valley”.

Lindley believes that organic food and farming’s heritage is its strongest selling point. He writes: “Organic is mainly about heritage it’s the way we’ve farmed for centuries. It’s sustainable for the land, livestock and people, and we tinker with its natural balance at our peril. Is that so hard to understand?