Many Natural or Alternative Remedies Are Also Medicines
Robert’s most striking feature was that he did not consider ginkgo, ginseng, saw palmetto, or melatonin to be medicines. And because these were natural substances that he obtained in a health food store, he was willing to spend a fair amount of money on them despite his financial difficulties.
Many people do not count alternative remedies, or substances that occur naturally and are marketed for their health effects, as medicines. The reality is that many of these products do contain active ingredients, and the remedies that Robert was taking should be counted as medicines. Don’t forget that many modern medications were first derived from naturally occurring substances, and the drug companies are always on the lookout for naturally occurring products with active ingredients that they can test against specific diseases. So don’t take alternative medicines lightly; some of them do have active chemical compounds that have effects on various bodily organs, and some of them can cause side effects.
Regulating Alternative Medications
Alternative remedies, which are unregulated by any federal agency, have increased in popularity mainly based on anecdotal reports and beliefs: assume a therapy works unless someone can prove that it does not work (innocent until proven guilty). This approach is diametrically opposed to the scientific method underlying pharmaceutical testing and approval (guilty until proven innocent), and has created a bridge that has proven difficult to cross. Fortunately, the NIH has begun to fund
randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials of these alternative remedies (NIHfunded studies of ginkgo for memory disorders and St. John’s wort for depression are ongoing), to try to establish how effective they are and what side effects occur. Stay tuned for the results.
Worldwide Regulation of Medications
Prescription medications are regulated strictly by the FDA in the United States, and over-thecounter medications are regulated to a lesser extent.
Regulation of prescription medications is more lax in nearly all other countries compared to the United States. If a medication does not have major side effects, most European regulatory bodies will approve it as a prescription medication even if it hasn’t been firmly proven to work
in treating the illness.
Alternative medications are not regulated by the FDA, but they are lightly regulated in a few countries.
These differences explain why a number of medications available in European and Latin American countries, including Mexico, are not available in the United States. Several medications that are approved in European countries— for example, nimodipine, which is used to treat vascular disease in the brain and is prescribed for dementia by many doctors— have failed to show superiority over placebo in American clinical studies conducted according to more stringent FDA standards.
Germany regulates alternative medications, which places it a step ahead of the United States in this area. Talk of uniform international regulations has been making the rounds for decades, but no country has been willing to give up its prize turf in controlling the manufacture and flow of these money-making drugs. It is easier to generate a common Euro currency than to create a single regulatory body to approve new medications for all countries in the European Union.
Taken From: The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss
and Enhance Memory Power
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