Gary Y asked: Quacks fly in all directions as alternative medicine regulation fails: As panic and confusion spread among the practitioners of alternative medicine, Martin Robbins calls for the industry’s products and practices to be brought under mainstream medical regulations
Why is there a need for an alternative medicine regulator in the first place? This question has never been answered satisfactorily. Either a product is a medicine, in which case it should be allowed to make health claims and be regulated as a medicine by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), or it is not, in which case it shouldn’t be allowed to make health claims and should be regulated in the same way as, say, a packet of Tic-Tacs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/apr/16/quacks-alternative-medicine-regulation
Comments?
‘Know The Cause’, I’d rather you answer the question please. I want intelligent feedback.
Mr E: I guess you are not across the Simon Singh/British Chiropractic Association issue. The problem there is that chiropractor members of the self regulating organisation have been making bogus claims in their marketing about being able to heal childhood diseases, like asthma. This is a good example of a requirement for proper regulation. Thanks to Simon and others, one out of four chiropractors are now under investigation in the UK.
Aristo, thanks for the answer, but clearly alt med is unable to regulate itself in terms of its lack of efficacy, RCTs, safety, bogus claims and products, etc. So who should be policing all these things? So far the consumer only have the skeptics on their side.
Lightning: I think you are trying to make individual cases to muddy the waters. Surely if alt med in general is making health claims, then in the public’s interest they should be governed by the same general regulation as mainstream medicine, which also makes health claims? And I’m sure osteopaths, if they meet the proper criteria could be represented in the regulatory authority.
Fallacies and self contradictions aside, thanks for the detailed answer.
But you lost at me at ‘reductionist’ You are now entering woo territory.
And the sexism was uncalled for, btw.
Rhianna, It must be remembered that not all herbals will be effective, many conventional drugs are put through testing, only a handful make it. Good point.
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