Blood type diet

NOW we’re getting somewhere! I’m excited! -Ryan
WHO to Promote Alternative Medicine
Thu May 16, 3:35 PM ET
By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer
GENEVA (AP) - In response to a rapid increase in the use of alternative
medicine over the last decade, the World Health Organization has created
the first global strategy for traditional medicine.
The U.N. health agency aims to bring traditional, or alternative,
therapies out of the shadows by intensifying research into their
effectiveness and safety, by promoting their proper use and regulation
and by helping countries integrate them into their health care services.
The strategy, launched Thursday at the annual meeting of the WHO’s
governing body, is also designed to ensure traditional remedies aren’t
hijacked and patented by big business and that medicinal plants are not

wiped out by overharvesting.
Traditional medicine called complementary or alternative medicine in
countries where conventional Western, or modern, medicine dominates
includes remedies, such as ginger root or shark cartilage, and diverse
practices, such as acupuncture, yoga, shiatsu massage and aromatherapy.
Traditional medicine has been used for millennia in parts of the
developing world and remains widespread there. In Africa, 80 percent of
the population use traditional therapies, WHO said.
In Europe and North America, where more than half of people have been
treated with alternative medicine at some time during their lives, use
has doubled in the last decade, the agency added.
Like conventional drugs, alternative treatments must be used correctly,
and as with conventional medications, tragedies have occurred. However,
unlike with Western medicine, consumers are mostly deciding for
themselves what they use.
“There seems to be a growing gap between what you might call the
‘uncritical enthusiasts’ and the ‘uninformed skeptics,’” said Dr.
Jonathan Quick, director of WHO’s essential drugs and medicines policy
unit. “The enthusiasts rave that all of these methods work and don’t
want to recognize that herbal remedies that are used the wrong way can
kill.”
“On the other hand you’ve got the uninformed skeptics who don’t believe
that there’s any evidence for any of these and would prefer that they
not be around,” Quick said.
The reality is somewhere in the middle, he said.
There is now an urgent need to establish through rigorous scientific
testing what works and what doesn’t, said Forkel Falkenberg, a professor
of international health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
“This is a very important step for modern science, to engage in
understanding the complexity of complementary medicine,” Falkenberg
said. “One cannot any more marginalize this area. One needs to bring it
into the light to understand what to do with it, how to take away the
unsafe practices.”
He said the WHO’s decision to create a strategy for alternative medicine
is a clear signal that the field is now being taken seriously.
Studies have shown success in treating conditions ranging from malaria
and HIV (news - web sites) to high blood pressure and lower back pain.
The WHO intends to help countries trying to evaluate therapies by
providing guidance on how to conduct the studies.
It will also provide countries with expert advice on setting up consumer
education programs to help people select the right therapies for the
right conditions and remind people that just because something is
natural, it doesn’t mean it’s safe.
The health agency will soon publish reports on more than 100 medicinal
plants, outlining what they are supposed to be used for, how certain it
is that they work and what questions remain.
It also plans to advise nations on how to ensure the quality of
traditional medicine products and practices. That involves regulation of
drugs and proper training and licensing of healers, WHO said.
More than 70 countries already regulate herbal medicines, said Dr.
Xiaroui Zhang, WHO’s coordinator for traditional medicine.
“Only through regulation can we try to ensure the quality, safety and
efficacy,” of traditional remedies, she said.
In the Western world, Canada has gone farthest down that path. Seventy
percent of people in that country have used alternative medicine and one
third of the population uses it on a regular basis, said Dr. Jean
Lariviere, a senior medical adviser in Canada’s health department.
Regulations are expected to be sent to Parliament there by the end of
the year, he said.

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