Should you consider making your New Year’s resolution to find a more eco-friendly treatment for your ailments?
The wisdom behind many complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) is often centuries old and these treatments were used to manage illness long before the pharmaceutical industry began in the 19th century.
Now, society has switched to large-scale reliance on ‘industrialised’ drugs and mainstream therapies, so CAM solutions have been pushed aside, marginalised, and even categorized as ‘quackery’.
Yet, if pharma is such a powerful health solution, we must ask, why is disease (dis-ease or inflammation), still so prevalent, and in some cases growing in impact? Also, do pharmaceutical options bring their own issues, like potential long-term internal and external toxicity?
It is questions like these which are stimulating more interest in re-visiting, recognising and validating some CAM options, including naturopathy to protect public health.
This is so far a subtle shift, towards seeing some complementary and alternative medicines as a stand-alone treatment option that warrants integration into mainstream use.
For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges that “Many countries recognise traditional medicine as a valuable source of healthcare and have taken steps to integrate practices, products and practitioners into their national systems” and in some situations offers care that is culturally acceptable, available, and affordable.”
WHO is therefore part of global research into ways to build on the fact that “Traditional medicine and traditional knowledge have contributed to breakthrough medical discoveries and there is a long history of herbal medicine being translated into effective treatments for health conditions.”
There is also a global People's Declaration for Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Healthcare, which calls for greater collaboration between traditional, complementary and biomedical practices, to achieve person-centered treatment, and a more holistic approach to health care.
This thinking is linked to a general awareness that processed and ultra-processed substances, including synthetic components used for medicines, do carry a degree of risk and have environmental impacts (more on this later).
Funding and research in the UK
One of the factors that has helped to strengthen the case for CAM options is increased study of their effectiveness, to better understand their validity. ?This is not hocus-pocus and the use of plants to cure all ailments but a scientifically measurable way of balancing and harmonising our physiology to make it less susceptible to harm.
However, this is still an area of medical science that is underfunded and open to unclear rationale on what constitutes unequivocal validity.
Meanwhile, much of the UK research into healthcare solutions comes from businesses like pharma companies.? In 2019, of the ￡5bn spent on pharmaceutical R&D performed in businesses, ￡3.8bn was from the businesses themselves, ￡1bn was from overseas and ￡12mn was from the UK government.
Incidentally, Homeopathy International (HINT) is part of a concerted effort to fund the Long-COVID Homeopathic Research Project, overseen by a homeopath and post-doctoral researcher, Dr Philippa Fibert. This is a glimmer of hope that complementary and alternative medicine options are being more widely supported and financed.
The definition of CAM and traditional medical fields
The NHS uses the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) definition for what separates complementary and alternative medicine.
That is, that complementary health care means “a non-mainstream practice is used together with conventional medicine”.? Whereas an alternative health care option means “a non-mainstream practice is used instead of conventional medicine”.
However, even the NHS admits there is overlap and a blurring of lines between those.
What CAM options have been integrated to date?
Some CAM solutions have already been adopted into mainstream treatment plans, backed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). For example, the Alexander technique (an alternative therapy that focuses on posture and movement) has been found to be of value in caring for those with Parkinson's disease. There is also enough evidence for NICE to validate using ginger and acupressure as a natural way to tackle morning sickness. Acupuncture that works to lessen some side effects of cancer treatment is also now sometimes integrated into standard care plans.
There are also CAM therapies that have gained acknowledgement for their management of back pain, for instance.
Naturopathy as a pharma alternative
In the US, naturopathy ranks alongside other examples of complementary and alternative treatments that can sometimes be a valid medical option. ?In fact, the NCCIH says naturopathy is “a medical system that has evolved from a combination of traditional practices and health care approaches”.
It goes on to say that “People visit naturopathic practitioners for various health-related purposes, including primary care, overall well-being, and treatment of illnesses.”
Also, a study into disruptive innovation in health care says: “Naturopathy is a distinct system of traditional and complementary medicine recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO), emerging as a model of primary care.”
That position sits far more strongly on US soil than in the UK.
Its recognition as a primary care option internationally is largely due to the ability of naturopathy to deliver a patient-centred approach. It also gains credibility from its focus on prevention and self-management of illness, as well as the way it harnesses natural substances that work in harmony with human biology.
The study referenced above concludes that naturopathy has “a durable presence in healthcare delivery depending on policymaker decisions.”
That’s highly significant - who is telling the UK public loudly and firmly, that the population may be a great deal healthier, and common diseases would be far less likely, if dis-ease was tackled from within?
The perfect example is the constant search for vaccinations and other medications to reduce the numbers of people suffering from flu. Yet, it is now well established that having sufficient levels of vitamin D – and generally eating to boost your immune system – can be an excellent protection against the flu virus.
Which, supposedly, is why the Government dispensed free vitamin D supplies to vulnerable people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What’s holding back more naturopathy adaptation and adoption?
It’s worth looping back to the fact the NHS relies on the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) for its definition. The US established the forerunner of this organisation back in 1998 as, it “augmented national interest and research into various forms of healing, a trend persisting today.”
It appears that the UK could be lagging behind then, in evidencing and then promoting CAM solutions, which should form part of obtaining a client’s informed consent, a duty of care for all health professionals.
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Also, there is evidence that discouragement to ‘experiment’ and a degree of scepticism about non-mainstream options in the UK serve as barriers to more CAM focus, by both practitioners and the public.
Therefore, perhaps the best way to describe the mainstream shift to considering CAM options more closely in the UK is that we have moved from open hostility to a more grudging acceptance. What is needed is greater open endorsement that some alternative therapies and medicines could replace (and improve on) the widely used version, particularly as a preventative medicine.
This will hopefully serve to encourage open-minded individuals to research and accept that complementary and alternative medicine is not only something of great merit to enhance industrialised health care products, but in some cases replace them.
Weighing up naturopathy v pharma
There are clear signs that naturopathy is gaining ground due to a degree of push-back about some solutions ‘sold’ to the public from the pharmaceutical industry and standard healthcare providers.
A vivid example is the awareness of the link between dependency and deaths arising from reliance on opioid medications, with far less promotion of alternative treatments for pain relief. Ironically, long term use of opioids can also create greater pain sensitivity.
Then there is an ever-present specter of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs).
Researchers at one British university studied the “rising tide in adverse drug reactions”. They reported a significant increase in hospital admissions due to medicine-related harm, often linked to polypharmacy (prescribing multiple medicines simultaneously).
Overprescribing has increased substantially in the past 25 years, something even the NHS acknowledges. They issued a report that showed 10% of prescriptions (approximately 110 million) were unnecessary medications.
Even more shocking is the fact NICE reports that around 3% of children admitted to hospital are suffering from adverse drug reactions.
This is not simply an issue that threatens lives and general health, but also leads to a loss of faith in medical care in the UK. It also increases health care costs, not least as ADRs can mimic disease, which means unnecessary investigations are carried out.
There are common conditions that could be prevented or improved by better diet and regular exercise, which appear to be ‘packaged’ as symptoms of a condition that only pharmaceutical products can treat, such as type 2 diabetes.
This is leading to increasing scrutiny of the industry, such as this documentary “Selling Sickness”: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Disease Branding”. It discusses a harmful drug authorised for sale based on what the documentary makers believe is flawed thinking about a ‘new’ health condition that had been identified by a pharma company working with its own doctors.
This is all part of growing disquiet about the influence pharma has over public health policy. ?Also, it is troubling how these companies are driven by “vying to find the next miracle treatment that will help it succeed against the competition” potentially putting shareholders not patients at the top of their priorities.
This documentary - How much power do drug companies have? – brings that issue into sharp focus.
Pharma and environmental harm
You can add to that mix, global concern about the pharmaceutical industry’s sustainability, emission of greenhouse gases and slow shift towards ‘green chemistry’ (that relies less on potentially toxic substances).
Pharm in the Environment is a campaign that draws together non-governmental organisations, European projects, and authorities of EU Member States. It says that “Pharmaceutical pollution is a worldwide threat to humans and the environment.”
This same body reports that “More than 770 pharmaceuticals and their metabolites have been found in the environment worldwide” including in water systems and the soil.
This suggests that by placing our faith so comprehensively in an industrial solution to all medical ills, we risk generating a whole new raft of health concerns, for both us and our planet.
According to the EU funded Health Care Without Harm body: “The discharge of pharmaceuticals into the environment has been linked to the development of AMR (Antimicrobial resistance), which kills an estimated 1.27 million people every year.”
Is it time to step up work to find (or rediscover) greener – less harmful – healthcare solutions?
Can nutrition be a viable alternative to certain drug regimes?
The answer to that is complex and entirely dependent on the health condition, your own physiology and status, and a myriad of other things. Going headlong into treating existing illnesses solely with nutritional changes and other CAM options would be unwise.
The important thing to recognise is that this is no longer a theoretical question. CAM medicines and naturopathy in particular deserve a higher ranking in mainstream medicine in the UK.
This is especially true of public health campaigns to prevent illness and reduce medical risks. We could well see better health outcomes, at the same time as avoiding over-prescription and over-use of products created by the profits-focused pharmaceutical industry.? for this to happen policymakers and funders in the UK need to get on board.
Sources:
Beat Stress,Pain & Fatigue Practitioner, Creator & Lead Author of The Stress Maze, Wellbeing Coach & Healing Facilitator via virtual connect.
10 个月Well said Andrew Wren and thank you so much for sharing all that research.