The Quack watch team have got a lot to answer for. Additionally, here in Australia if you were to read a mono-diet of mainstream news, you could be forgiven for believing that herbs and supplements are humanity's greatest health threat.

Back in 2003, here is Aussie land, dramatic events unfolded following the observation of aggravated side effects in Travacalm, an anti-motion sickness PHARMACEUTICAL drug made by a Sydney manufacturer Pan Pharmaceuticals. The Therapeutics Goods Administration of Australia went into action by issuing the the largest product recall in Australian history. Other than Travacalm, no pharmaceutical made my Pan was recalled. HOWEVER, believe it or not, over 1500 natural supplement lines including vitamins, minerals and herbs were swept off the health food shelves. The TGA urged consumers to stop taking all natural health supplements, whilst reminding the public that pharmaceutical drugs were unaffected. Many pharmacies and health food stores were forced into bankruptcy.

After Pan had been shut down, the Australian media lined up to engage in vitamin and herb bashing, hoping to create negative perceptions of the complementary medicine industry. In the media comments such as 'snake oil salesmen' and 'quackery' abounded. All this hoo ha about herbal and vitamin supplements because one PHARMACEUTICAL drug (Travacalm) caused some aggravated effects.

While a pharmaceutical drug might not be recalled until numerous deaths have occurred, a naturopathic substance will face a ban if it is suspected of causing one allergic reaction !!! And most frustratingly in this case a naturopathic substance had not even been suspected of causing any allergic reactions !!! Ahh the injustice !!

For the drug industry, the ideal outcome would be a strict regulatory regime mandating that herbs and vitamins can only be sold in ineffectual dosages at astronomical prices, with expensive compliance requirements that only giant corporations can afford.

Codex alimentarius is the name for an international set of food standards that are administered under the auspices of the World Health Org. For many years, the drug industry has been working behind the scenes at Codex to bring in a tough set of rules. This has recently culminated in a set of draconian international supplement rules that are intended to become effective by 2010. Vitamins and herbs will be regulated as drugs, dosages exceeding levels naturally found in food will be prohibited, and multi-million dollar testing regimes will send prices skyrocketing.

The chairman of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Food has gone on record saying something to the effect that 'nutrition has no place in medicine'. Bloody idiot, what else can one say !! His views are echoed by by Codex that states that nutrients may not be used to 'prevent, treat or cure any disease or condition.'

We as consumers cannot afford to be complacent or we may eventually find that the supplements that we take for granted may suddenly disappear from the shelves.

Food for thought.

Cheers and night night from Rachie