History Herb Medicine
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HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE PRESENT DAY EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA LESSON 5 Lesson 5 Present Day Europe and North America BRITAIN After the WWII, herbal use, practice and study had a fairly good public following in most of Europe and Britain. There was a time of infighting and conflicts over philosophy, but for the most part herbal medicines could be obtained, and practitioners could be found for those who sought them. The British herbalists started a British Herbal Union Register of Consultant Herbalists in 1960. Members had to take a basic course in Herbology, some clinical training and pass a qualifying exam. The membership slowly tightened its qualifications until a four-year course - much by correspondence, was the basic entrance. The years between 1946 and the early 1970s were increasingly bleak in Britain for herbalists, but at least they did not have any problems from government or the medical associations. WONDER DRUGS The era of wonder drugs from the pharmaceutical industry was upon the Western world and little attention was paid to herbalists in Britain. The pharmaceutical companies were busy spinning out the new synthetic chemical drugs. One German company seemed to strike gold, producing a perfect sedative to calm down people in their now-busy lifestyles. This sedative had no side effects and was often given to women. Being safe during pregnancy, it was considered beneficial for keeping a woman calm Fig 5.1 Synthetic while carrying the baby. The drug was called thalidomide. Wonder Drugs Wild Rose College of Natural Healing 1 Terry Willard Cl.H PhD. ©2017 HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE PRESENT DAY EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA LESSON 5 Thalidomide was vigorously marketed throughout Europe, Britain and North America as the perfect safe sedative. In the early to mid-60’s, the alarming news arrived of its side effects -- gross physical deformities (most common was the absence of, or vestigially-developed, limbs). It was withdrawn from sale in Britain and most other country in 1964. This made it very plain that testing and restrictions of drugs was needed. The British Ministry of Health started drafting a new Medicine Bill in 1964. RESTRICTION OF OTC This new bill was meant to restrict the sale of any over-the-counter (OTC) drug. Up to this point in time, herbal products had seen no restriction in their sale except for poisonous drugs. This initiative sent a wave of fear through the herbal community in Britain. It was particularly upsetting for Frank Potter, a director of Potter’s (the biggest botanical distributor in Britain). Upon reading the proposed bill, he felt their successful business might come to a dramatic halt. The Ministry was to set up a board of pharmacists to evaluate all drugs on the grounds of safety and efficacy. This seemed like making a goat the gardener, as the herbalists felt they would be wiped out by the pharmacists not supporting or, agreeing to, the herbalists’ “old, outdated system”. SAFE AGAIN In the face of these events, there was enough reason for UK herbalists to Fig. 5.2 British Herbal leave petty conflicts behind and join as one voice and go to the Pharmacopoeia government. The Ministry agreed that it would protect Herbalists as stated in 1548 by Statute of King Henry VIII. Though botanical products would also have to undergo proof of safety and efficacy, they could use the evidence of historical facts. They were further told that they could use botanicals found in a standard monograph reference book. This sounded good, but what standardized reference book could they use? They finally decided to produce their own and thus set up a committee for compiling the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia. The pharmacopoeia came out in stages with 115 herbs in 1976, with a final version in 1981 updated and expanded in 1990 and 2002. NOT AGAIN When the bill came out from the Ministry, it was not what the herbalists were hoping for. They were only to sell herbs in their shops. They could not make house calls. They could only prescribe herbs to people they saw in person - even if the person was extremely ill and bedridden. They could only use crude powdered herbs. No tinctures, tablets, capsules, creams, etc. Fig. 5.3 British Herbal The number of herbs they could use was dramatically curtailed. It didn’t Compendium 2002 look very good. The British Herbal Medical Association's lobbying swung into action. The flood of mail to all MPs was so overwhelming that the government backed Wild Rose College of Natural Healing 2 Terry Willard Cl.H PhD. ©2017 HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE PRESENT DAY EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA LESSON 5 down and in April of 1978 herbalists were able to celebrate and maintain their rights to practice freely. WHAT ABOUT MANUFACTURING? The next blow to herbalists came from the manufacturing industry. The government decided that botanical medicines could only be sold in pharmacies, thus putting many health food stores and herbal dispensaries out of business. The rules were going to be the same for herbal manufacturing as for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Many companies and stores went out of business. Some amalgamated into larger companies and many spent $100,000 to $500,000 tooling up for the inspections. The public demanded more access to the products, so herbalists got them back in the health food stores and the industry moved up a notch in quality of manufacturing. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL HERBALISTS Since the late 1960’s and early 70’s the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH) has been the leading body of practitioners in the United Kingdom. It had a small training course run by Fred Fletcher-Hyde at his clinic in Leicester. It was a four-year course of weekend seminars, taught mostly by Fred and his sons Arthur and John. Most of the tutorial courses were done by mail. The dropout rate was huge, with 12 graduating from 80 starting. The NIMH had 100 members, but only 50 were really practicing. Then a new breed of students interested in alternative medicine started to show up out of the universities in the 70’s. The likes of Simon Mills, Michael McIntrye, Andrew Chevallier and Kristin Jeffs, all became Fig 5.3 Simon Mills president of the NIMH in their day. Fred Fletcher-Hyde realized that a more rigorous program was needed before the government demanded it. So, a Dutchman named Hein Zeylstra opened the new school in Tunbridge Wells with 42 students under a new name, The School of Herbal Medicine. In the early 80’s, alternative medicine was moving forward in England with approximately 10 million people going to alternative practitioners on a regular basis. The Prince of Wales was the guest of honour at a 1983 dinner for NIMH and stated that it was high time to take account ‘long-neglected complementary methods of medicine’. This got the British Medical Association (BMA) launching an investigation themselves. Of course, their investigation team were Fig 5.4 composed entirely of medical doctors and the report was very negative. It Fred Fletcher- highlighted among other things, the poor training that herbalists and others Hyde in the alternative movement had. This spawned a large number of institutes teaching bogus courses that had impressive looking certificates. You could get a degree in Herbal medicine for 1,500 pounds over two long Wild Rose College of Natural Healing 3 Terry Willard Cl.H PhD. ©2017 HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE PRESENT DAY EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA LESSON 5 weekends. The director of this institute said there was no need to waste four years of your life ... we can get you a certificate very easily. PRODUCTS IN BRITAIN On the product front, all herbal products had to pass the new pharmaceutical manufacturing rules by 1990. Preparing for this deadline killed more small companies, but the ones that survived were solid, well- run companies. The government set up newer stricter rules in 1985 for safety and efficacy of botanicals for licensing ‘natural’ medicine. The rules were set up, however, so that not one product would be able to pass regardless of the millions spent trying to meet the rules for each product. The public response again came to the rescue and the government backed down. The only new restriction was that licensing would be on a herb-by- herb basis, but only for self-limiting conditions such as rheumatic pain, coughs, colds and so on. There had to be a bibliographic reference proving traditional use. More serious problems like high blood pressure, cardiac problems, liver and kidney disorders had to be handled by professionals, not by OTC. BATTLES OVER CHEMICAL DETAILS There were several small scuffles over the next few years. One related to the pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA) in comfrey that was finally overcome. The biggest problem was the lack of seats in the training school. It was only able to take 100 students per year. A new institute was needed. It was decided, for financial reasons, to join a university and on May 6th 1994 a new school in Middlesex was established as the first four-year, European University degree-giving program in Herbal Medicine. The future of herbal medicine was looking the best it had since the days of Skelton and Coffin. Then the other shoe dropped. In anticipation of a single market economy for the EC, Britain was asked to get their pharmaceutical market in line with the rest of Europe. This of course did not include Herbal practitioners. Phytotherapy was mostly the practice of medical doctors and Naturopaths in the rest of Europe. Herbalists would have to become MDs if they wanted to practice Fig 5.5 Comfrey in the UK.