In my opinion, all natural health products including traditional Chinese herbal medicines should all be regulated because of the possible side effects that they may have. Children, pregnant, breast feeding women and elderly with serious illness may be particularly affected by products side effects. The ideal system for regulating the natural health products, in my opinion, is a system that considers the safety and the efficacy of the product and evaluate the product of the possibility of side effects before the product can be licenced or approved for marketing.
Natural products include a large and diverse group of substances from a variety of sources. They are produced by marine organisms, bacteria, fungi, and plants. The term includes complex extracts from these producers, and isolated compounds derived from these extracts. Natural health products are defined as, vitamins minerals, herbal remedies, traditional medicines, probiotics and other products like amino acids and essential fatty acids.
Being natural doesn’t mean that the product should be considered a safe product. These products are designed to affect the body and could cause side effects. Natural health
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The natural health product regulations in Canada, require the product to have a product license and site licence and the product must be reviewed for safety, efficacy and quality. The regulations require any site where natural health products are manufactured, imported, labeled, packaged and distributed to have a site license, and the imported products must come from sites that meet the Canadian good manufacturing practices. The product will also undergo a pre-marketing review to evaluate the safety, efficacy and the quality of the product. Products that meet the required criteria will be approved for marketing and issued a natural product number or homeopathic medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is becoming a more and more accepted form of complementary medicine in the UK. It is thought that about one million adults in Britain have had acupuncture and that a million herbal prescriptions are written every year. Even as little as ten years ago, TCM was still thought of as a border treatment and one would have been hard pressed to find a practitioner outside of London. Since then, complementary or alternative medicine has been flourishing, and Chinese medical centers have been opening on streets all around the country. “The Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine (RCHM), the self-regulating body which embodies practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine, has seen its membership grow by on average 30% per year to about 350 members at present” (Chinese Cures for British Ills, n.d.).
Most of the food we eat grows naturally. Either from trees, soil, plants, amongst others. This is what we call “natural” food. But isn't all food natural? You would think so, as they come naturally from the ground or anything else. But if we look at science today, used for many years now, it is used things i...
Natural products include dietary supplements and probiotics. Dietary supplements can be anything from multivitamins to supplemental herbs. Probiotics are live bacteria that are found in the digestive tract (National Center, 2011, para.6). H...
The major use for herbal medicines is for the promotion of health and for therapy for chronic conditions, instead of being used for life-threatening conditions; except in the event of say advanced cancer or new infectious diseases when conventional medicine practices no longer are working an individual may use traditional remedies. While traditional medicines are often mistaken that because they are natural that they are safe, non-toxic, which is not always the case. In cases when an individual is taking herbs with prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, or other herbs that may cause some adverse side affects. As a flourishing commercial enterprise, it doesn’t matter why an individual uses traditional medicines, it provides important health care services for individuals that have access physically or finantually to allopathic
“About 150 million people in the US use dietary supplements; about 79% use it on a daily bases, and 10% taking 5 or more per day” (Ranjani 478). Dietary supplements range from sports performance products, weight loss products, to a variety of herbal remedies. These supplements are used widely to help maintain or improve the health of the human body. While buying these products many assume that they are regulated and are safe for human consumption, however it may not be the case. “Supplements face no FDA requirements for premarket testing. Supplements can be placed on the market at the will of the makers and then remain legal for sale” (Quinones 32). Dietary supplements should be regulated like prescription drugs because it’s a safety hazard, can become addictive, and may lead to dangerous health problems.
Same may believe that all the supplements are effective however not all of them are ineffective Taking too much supplements can possibly cause side effects. It is true that Supplements that have more than one herbal ingredient which can be dangerous, Supplements that sold to treat illness and Avoid supplements that claim to improve sexual ability .It is not a must to take these supplements, people who take these supplements save time and instantly they damage their health It is said by Pieter Cohen, Cambridge health alliance gave some steps to use safe supplements .The perfect way to use supplements safely is to be aware of supplements you don't need. Use supplements only if you have trusted information that the ingredient(s) will useful to you. Accurate information can be found at the National Institute of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Select supplements with onl...
Additionally as interest in Chinese medicine raises in the west due to increasing desire to positive effects of non-western medicine worldwide and incorporate them into FDA approved medical treatments, understanding the foundations of it becomes important from a practical point of view. Because of this I think it is warranted to overview some of the basic history, ideological foundations and diagnostic techniques that shaped this interesting part of Chinese culture and provide my response to what I think it says about china as a whole(although I will not go into major detail about treatment themselves, such as herbology).
Regulation is an important tool used by our government entities that strongly impacts public health. It can be used to enforce new policies and initiatives in order to control risks or dangers to the public and can encourage improved behaviors within the population. There are legal foundations supporting and permitting the use of regulations in our government, and there are recognized times regulation can be justified.
One of the reasons that there is so much confusion is the lack of involvement by Federal Food and Drug Administrations in herbal remedies. The Dietary Supplement Health Education Act of 1994 put herbal remedies into the category of dietary supplements. This means that these herbal remedies are not subjected to the same sort of testing that over-the-counter or prescription medications are (USFDA). Michael Mc Guffin, the president of the American Herbal Producers Association has said that testing of these products is unnecessary because, “ these products are tested by years and years of use”.
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a treatment or cure that is given additionally along with doctor’s care. There are many different CAMs such as acupuncture, hypnosis, yoga, massage and herbal therapy. They are very popular in Asia, especially among Chinese communities. However, the use of CAM is very limited in the health care system of many Western countries, including Canada, due to several reasons. In my point of view, it should be formally recognized and provided as a part of mainstream health care system. Firstly, people nowadays would prefer complementary and alternative medicine rather than conventional medicine. Secondly, the altitude of healthcare professionals has changed a lot, most of young physicians are now considering the use of CAMs into their practice. Finally, the government needs to regulate some of the CAM treatments so in order to promote the use of CAMs and create a better healthcare system.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994". December 1, 1995.
Health care laws and regulations influence the delivery of health care services in the United States. Health regulation and regulations agencies develop and enforce laws to protect and improve the access to affordable health care for all Americans. Regulatory agencies affect health care organizations, health care providers, drug and pharmaceutical companies, and health care research.
Natural foods are described as whole foods that are grown in gardens, and are unprocessed and unrefined. The downside of natural foods is that they have a shorter shelf life then processed foods. These foods are authentically flavorful, have vibrant colors, and rich textures. "Moreover, they are full of the micronutrient vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and fiber. Typically, they require longer preparation times. In contrast, they receive very little media advertising, and are not well funded with government...
Schoenbeck, Joan, and Teresa G. Odle. "Traditional Chinese Medicine." The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. Ed. Jacqueline L. Longe. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 2033-2038. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Traditional herbal medicine comes from many different areas of the world (Indian, Chinese, African, Western, Native American herbs, Ayurvedic and other indigenous medicines) and in most all of them they are still b...