effective . Herbs and supplements will come to the forefront here as long as the vested interests don ’ t hold sway .
What are the biggest issues facing natural medicine today ? It is all about the goal of becoming acknowledged as a legitimate form of medical care , especially in preventative and lifestyle medicine . We need to help journalists and politicians understand us better because they are key people who can influence our progress , or not . Our value to the community is hugely underestimated by these groups of people .
Also , we have no coverage from health funds at present and all attempts to change this appear to have failed . This is a travesty of natural justice which is unfair both to practitioners and patients . And yet we haven ' t been able to influence this . It is a clear signal that our contribution to healthcare in Australia is deemed to be insignificant by politicians .
This loss of health fund cover is even more relevant now , as with the recent inflation shock our medicines and overheads are more expensive and this must be passed on to our patients , who are already struggling with the rising cost of living .
Also some rare but significant safety issues are emerging , such as herb-induced liver damage and fatal allergic reactions to herbs . We need to be able to manage these risks in a responsible way without losing access to key herbs .
“ SOME OF THE ADVICE FROM AUTHORITATIVE BODIES , FOR SAY PREVENTION OF CANCER OR DEMENTIA , READS LIKE IT IS STRAIGHT OUT OF A NATURAL THERAPY TEXTBOOK . THIS , TOGETHER WITH NEW RESEARCH ON USES OF HERBS AND SUPPLEMENTS , WILL HELP MAKE US EVEN MORE CLINICALLY EFFECTIVE .”
How do you suggest that these issues be addressed ? This requires the input of people wiser than me . But here are a few ideas . We firstly need to get more positive stories in the media , perhaps championed by a Michael Mosley type of media personality . Lobbying politicians at all levels is a must , and it needs to be done comprehensively and consistently . And some way we need to have the media carry more stories on all the positive clinical trials , rather than focusing on the few negative ones , as they do . Journalists drink the drug company Kool-Aid ( see my recent Grumpy Old Herbalist videos ), but they treat our studies with indifference or scepticism . Why is that ?
We can also all help to convey the good news about natural medicine via social media ; I am working hard on this aspect myself .
Are there any other comments you ’ d like to make ? The strong interest in medicinal cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms shows that a good story can completely change thinking . These examples also challenge the prejudice that medicinal plants are just an expensive placebo . We should be singing off the same songsheet for other highly effective herbal remedies .
But there is also more to this phenomenon . There is a host of highly active plants that we currently cannot use , such as Rauwolfia , Iboga and Mitragyna . I believe future research will show just how valuable and superior these plants are compared to synthetic drugs . We need to set up some mechanism so we can access these plants to use in our clinics .
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