Herbalists Should Be Tightly Regulated

Everything in society is controlled to make it safe, right? Wrong! Herbal medicine can be consumed freely without restriction even if it kills you. Try to buy opiates which can be taken for a lifetime without harm and all sorts of restrictions apply. Drug addicts die of illnesses such as aids and hepatitis.

Recent tests were done on an Australian who took Ayervedic medicines. His body had eight times the maximum safe level of lead in it. The mistake he made on a visit to India has ruined his life. Ayervedid herbs are normally contaminated with heavy metals. Whether this part of their "healing" function is not known. Imagine taking lead, arsenic and mercury, daily.

In Australia, Indian and Chinese herbs are monitored for dangerous levels of heavy metals. That's where it ends: the efficacy of the "medication" is not tested. You can buy such herbs on the Internet from countries where product quality is not regulated.

It is surely time for the herbal medicine market in Australia to be tightly regulated. Herbs should be vetted by a qualified physician before the herbalist dispenses them. Only then will sham treatments be stamped out.

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Americans Do Not Walk So Far

Americans do not take large strides in the world. I know what you are going to say here - How can this be true? Surely this is the country that leads the world. But wait! It just means that Americans take fewer strides. How can I put this? They walk less.

This only confirms what we all knew: Westerners, generally, do less exercise. A pedometer test was carried out comparing people from different countries. Australia is about average with 9,000 steps taken in a day. Americans do only 5,000. Australia could be the odd Western country out because of the size of this country and it is culturally accepted that long travel is normal. Maybe we apply this to walking as well as driving.

A mile is equivalent to 2,000 steps. As would be expected the health "experts" say we should walk 5 miles a day. The tests did show that American men walk more than women. This is a surprise considering all those claims about women doing all the housework. Single people walk more as well. With no one to fetch and carry this would be expected. But widowed people walk least of all. Perhaps they have given up.

What does all this means? Not much really. Findings indicate that countries rating high in the pedometer tests suffered less with obesity. A test wasn't really needed to figure that one out.

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Calls for Change in Pain Relief May Not Be Possible

When you go into hospital for an operation you either get a "feel good" pain clinician who believes that no one should be in pain when medications are available, or you get an "ethical" physician who gives pain relief when he/she deems it to be "right". The problem is moral judgement differs from person to person.

Another issue is - Can pain be a disease in itself? Some calculate the failure to treat pain in working days lost. The problem is, taking analgesics will reduce some pain from the flu, for example, but you are still too sick to work. Furthermore, taking high levels of analgesics can make for a euphoric state where one does not want to work. Looking at it in terms of days lost is questionable.

Specialists are also calling for pain relieving medications to be shipped in large amounts to poorer countries where medical treatment is not widely available. Considering the drug problem in virtually all countries this may not be a good thing to do. In Africa UN staff have to give some provisions to rebels in order to operate in particular regions. Would these controlling parties want analgesics? Common sense would indicate that they would.

Physicians who specialise in pain relief may be drawn to the profession because they have strong ethics in this area, but they need to look at the big picture. Some illnesses are just so bad that even strong doses of pain relievers have little effect. To fully remove the pain a high dose causing death would be needed. Long term use of such medications leads to resistance. I other words, pain is no longer reduced, and certainly for drug addicts there are no more highs. Distribution of analgesics need to be dealt with on a national basis. Change in this areas may seem necessary - it may not be possible.

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