Herbs have been used for thousands of years to successfully treat and alleviate common ailments and diseases. The plants and herbs on our planet have many amazing uses and their natural potency is still used today with great success. I rely on evening primrose and other Omega GLA capsules to keep me healthy, and I also take vitamins and mineral supplements. I don’t want to have to use steroid creams and drugs to control my health, and I know I’m a lot healthier when I’m taking echinacea, vitamin E, zinc, borage, fish oils and calcium to name just a few.
Can you imagine a world where these are not available? It could happen sooner than you think. An EU directive is threatening to impose a law meaning these natural herbal medicines will be governed by the same strict testing rules as drugs. This is madness – they are not drugs and should not be treated as such.
The rules will mean most, if not all herbal supplement manufacturers will go out of business, their products will have to go through the same rigorous tests as pharmeceutical drugs, costing £80,0000 – £120,0000 per herb. Some of these herbs are growing in my garden. I pick them, dry them and use them myself and they are completely harmless. There must be something we can do, right? This law is threatened to come into place on 1st April 2011.
You can read more about this on the Foods Matter website in an article just published in September 2010:
“Medicinal herbs could disappear in the EU – unless we all protest NOW.”
Another article from Gaia Health, a website dedicated to the health and welfare of parents and their children, entitled: “Big Pharma Scores Big Win: Medicinal Herbs Will Disappear in EU
There is still a chance that we can do something to stop this happening, but we really do have to act fast and act NOW. If you value your access to herbs, or if you care about access to vitamins and other supplements, please take action. Even if these issues seem meaningless to you, consider the people who do care. Should they be denied the right to the medical treatment and health maintenance of their choice?
Please write to your local MEP about this. We have to stop this legislation. If you aren’t sure what to write you can download a letter at the end of the article from Gaia Health – see the link above.
I hope we can stop this crazy legislation from going any further, but failing that I’m stock piling now on all my favourite herbal supplements. Without them my skin will be dryer, and my immune system will suffer, problems made worse in the first place by over prescription of anti-biotic drugs.
Right, I’m off for some Echinacea, Evening Primrose and St Johns Wort, washed down with rooibosh tea. But before I do that I’m writing to my local MP. Please, please do the same. I’d love to hear what you think too. Do you take vitamins and supplements? and if so, which do you take? I’d also love to know whether you are going to write to your local MP, or whether you have already done so. Did you hear back? Mine is resolutely silent when I’ve written about other things so I’m not holding my breath…
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