W.H.O. taking on folk medicine: U.N. arm to keep track of alternative health practices

Houston Chronicle ^ | May 16, 2002 | DONALD G. McNEIL Jr

[Buffalo Bob]

GENEVA, Switzerland -- Assigning itself a Herculean task, the World Health Organization took the first step on Thursday toward becoming the global watchdog over unconventional medicine.

The organization, a branch of the United Nations, has long focused on Western medicine but is looking closely at non-Western treatments, because at least 80 percent of the people in the world's poorest countries use them. Few of those countries can regulate their folk healers or share their plant lore -- which may be a miracle cure or a poison.

The group takes on the mission as such treatments grow ever more popular in the West -- and as the danger of some folk remedies increases the numbers potentially at risk.

Remedies can be fatal. For example, the Chinese ma huang herb, which contains ephedrine and helps breathing problems, caused heart attacks and strokes among some Americans using it as a hunger-relieving diet aid. Kavakava, a Pacific Island anxiety-relieving tea, has poisoned the livers of those drinking a concentrated form. Ginkgo biloba, which stimulates circulation, also stimulates bleeding during surgery.

"We must act quickly to evaluate safety, efficacy, quality and standardization," said Dr. Ebrahim Samba, the WHO's regional director for Africa. Not only do patients need protecting, Samba said, but some native medicinal plants with potentially lucrative new applications might, too.

For example, artemisinin, a compound in a wormwood plant that has been used as a fever remedy in China for 2,000 years, has recently become the world's most effective new anti-malaria drug. Sutherlandia frutescens, a South African herbal tonic called unwele in Zulu and cancerbush in English, is being tested on AIDS patients to see if it helps them gain weight.

As defined by the WHO, folk medicine -- sometimes called traditional and alternative/complementary medicine -- includes everything from chiropractic care and fad diets in New York City to porcupine quill injections in South Africa, shamanistic trances in Siberia, Indian ayurveda, Arabic unani medicine and faith-healing with handfuls of chicken guts in the Philippines.

On Thursday, the Western-trained doctors who run the health organization acknowledged that they were making a very modest beginning, on a budget of $500,000, less than one-twentieth of 1 percent of the organization's $1.1 billion annual budget.

"We're not pushing to be the global anything -- this isn't the black helicopters," said Dr. Jonathan D. Quick, the organization's director of essential medicines, making a joking reference to the conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by a secret U.N. army that patrols the skies at night in black helicopters. "There's no WHO policy that says, `You should regulate herbal medicine this way.' We're just trying to get information out there."

But because it is the leading international health agency, its small initiatives tend to grow in importance. A modest effort to identify suppliers of cheap drug cocktails for AIDS and recommend dosages, for instance, has led to substantial gains against the disease in Africa.

The group's ultimate goal is to catalog all folk remedies, making sure the plants are saved in botanical gardens and the products patented country by country. It also envisions writing common codes of ethics and training for folk healers.

But for the moment, Quick's team is simply surveying the way different countries train their practitioners and control their medicines. It is compiling the existing studies and has published papers on 100 of the roughly 5,000 medicinal plants that experts believe are in use across the world.

Every study is expensive. Private ones now under way on ginkgo and St. John's wort, which is used to treat depression, are costing $16 million and $5 million respectively, said Torkel Falkenberg of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who is an author of the agency's strategy. Dr. Ossy Kasilo, the agency's specialist in African remedies, said its first task was "to just undertake an inventory, then do research on what works and what doesn't." He added: "We're definitely not ready to come up with a list now."

In China, where 95 percent of hospitals have folk medicine wards, folk medicine is advanced, by Western standards. But the practice is most prevalent in Africa, where at least 80 percent of people use it -- sometimes because it is the only alternative.

Quick of the WHO said that the field tended to divide into two poles, "uninformed skeptics who don't believe in anything, and uncritical enthusiasts who don't care about data."

"We want to convince the skeptics that some things work, and make the enthusiasts more cautious because it can kill them."

[Libertarianize the GOP]

Bump Lists

[editor-surveyor]

Looks like the AMA is about to get their way: - All cures will be out-lawed! - We will be at the mercy of the AMA shammen.

Life is such an ugly thing anyway, who needs it?

[RnMomof7]

If it isnt paid for by grants from the taxpayers..it must be suspect...$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[RJCogburn]

Looks like the AMA is about to get their way: - All cures will be out-lawed! - We will be at the mercy of the AMA shammen.

Well, you sure lost me. What in the world are you talking about??

[dead]

Who owns your body?

You?

If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Or the government?

The voters in this country should not be expected to decide which medicines are safe and effective.
-- Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey

[firewalk]

theWorld Health Organization took the first step on Thursday toward becoming the global watchdog over unconventional medicine. The organization, a branch of the United Nations...

BTTT

[E.G.C.]

Well, it may not sound like the Black Helicopter to Dr. Quick but it sure looks like it.

Obviously, these people do not know how to handle well the concept of some people looking to alternative medicine as a source for healing. They see that it's working and producing results and so what they seek to do is regulate.

Why try to regulate something that you know is curing people's medical problems? It only makes you out to be part of the problem.
Regards.

[RnMomof7]

Life is such an ugly thing anyway, who needs it?

ME ! Over here!

[maestro]

ROTFLOL

THIS ACTION WILL DESTROY THE DEMOCRAT'S (Hitlery's), FEMINIST, "NEW-AGE" and WORLD'S PAGAN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS.

(Our U.S. Constitution 'is' decreed, "Dead" and "Void".)

(The "New-Order-World-of Harry-Potter is NOW under the control of U.N. Psychiatric Care! [belief systems])

Maranatha!!!

Comments?

[William Terrell]

Well, you sure lost me. What in the world are you talking about??

When dealing with central regulators, you have to be more cynical. For instance:

The group's ultimate goal is to catalog all folk remedies, making sure the plants are saved in botanical gardens and the products patented country by country. It also envisions writing common codes of ethics and training for folk healers.

"Patented" means regulation according to the patent, which means reserving distribution and use by some with restrictions to others. "Common codes of ethics" means legislation, which means punishment for those who go against the legislation, and once the regulations are in place, they can be easily made more narrow and restrictive. "Training for folk healers" means licensing and punishment for those who refuse to get licenses, and once the licensing procedure is in place, the procedures can easily be made more norrow and restrictive, and expensive.

All the above will ultimately be controlled by whom? Why, those with clout and money, of course. And who would you suppose that would be?

[RnMomof7]

(The "New-Order-World-of Harry-Potter is NOW under the control of U.N. Psychiatric Care! [belief systems])

I worked mental health for 15 years..(addictions). I attended many many "new age " hocus pocus workshops funded with grant monies..

[185JHP]

Tks for the ping. Self-aggrandizment, thy initils are AMA.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

These people can't keep track of what I grow in my (moveable) pots.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Do tell - elaborate?

[philman_36]

...the conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by a secret U.N. army that patrols the skies at night in black helicopters.
I thought that was strictly an American thing. I had no idea the theory was related to the UN. Oh well, learn something every day.
The UN can't even patrol it's own members much less patrol the skies.

[Landru]

"Life is such an ugly thing anyway, who needs it?"

Easy there, e-s.
Not all's lost; look here...

"Remedies can be fatal. For example, the Chinese ma huang herb, which contains ephedrine and helps breathing problems, caused heart attacks and strokes among some Americans using..."

Whadda ya think those Chinese are up to there with this *herb* anyway, huh?
Hint: The Chinese possess half the world's population.

...a *great* give-a-way at the next Democratic National Convention?

;^)

[RnMomof7]

Well I loved the one where we were treated to information on spirit possession and shamans

[LibWhacker]

I've always wondered if it is literally true that Moses lived 900 years, as I've often heard. If so, it may very well have been because of some primitive "folk medicine" he had access to.

This work is important, imho, but I don't want to see the FDA, or WHOever, slap controls on anything that is actually found to be efficacious, as I'm 100% positive they will try to do. Thx for the ping.

[headsonpikes]

I feel safer already, knowing that the U.N. is gathering data.

The U.N. is the hope of the world. </sarc<