Back in the days of sailing ships, when a crew would sometimes only have non-perishable foods on board for extended periods, one of the most feared diseases was scurvy, a condition caused by lack of vitamin C. In 1747 a Scottish naval surgeon, James Lind, treated a crew with scurvy using oranges and lemons, which lead to dramatic cures.
In 1795, the British Navy started to issue lime juice on a regular basis and all but eradicated scurvy. This is where the nickname of “Limey” comes from for us Brits.
So what Charlie?
I’m glad you asked me that. Imagine if that were to happen today. Before a lime could be acknowledged as a medicine or cure for scurvy, it would have to be exhaustively tested and formally accepted as a medicine by the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) or equivalent bodies in other countries. As limes can not be patented this would never happen. A pharmaceutical company would take vitamin C and attach it to some other chemical molecule so that they could patent it. The molecule would probably have to be synthetic, or like the lime it could not be patented. So today, we would end up with a synthetic drug as an approved medicine for scurvy rather than using a simple lime.
But who would pay the enormous cost for the testing of a lime Charlie?
I’m glad you asked me that. The first question that should be asked however, is “who can patent a lime”. Or to put it another way, “who can make a profit from testing the lime”? Obviously nobody can patent a lime, therefore nobody would be able to profit from proving that limes can cure scurvy. Therefore nobody would be prepared to pay the enormous bill for the testing. It has nothing to do with what is best for our health.
This is the problem faced all over the world by millions of herbalists, homeopaths and people in the nutritional supplement business. I promote an advanced colloidal silverfor its proven anti bacterial/antiviral properties, but I know that many millions of people will not accept it despite loads of evidence as it is not FDA approved (yet). There is no end of companies that have brilliant products that can cure diseases, but they are not legally allowed to make such claims because they are not proven to the satisfaction of the FDA (or other countries equivalent bodies).
Now don’t get me wrong, as I do not want to be misquoted here. I DO SUPPORT THE PRINCIPLE OF HAVING AN APPROVING BODY (SUCH AS THE FDA) TO APPROVE HEALTH PRODUCTS, DRUGS AND THE CLAIMS THAT THEY MAKE. I do know that there are a lot of bad products out there making outrageous claims.
So what part don’t you support Charlie?
I’m glad you asked that. The part that I do not support, is that the testing is so prohibitively expensive, that only the big pharmaceutical companies are able to pay, and they will only pay if they can patent it and profit from it. That means that cheap herbal, nutritional and readily available cures (like vitamin C for scurvy) will never obtain approval in today’s world. Our health professionals would have to prescribe expensive drugs (for the likes of scurvy) rather than sending the patient to the nearest fruit shop, or they risk being struck off.
In fairness to the big pharmaceutical companies, they are businesses; so why should they pay for herbal and nutritional products that they can not patent and profit from. They would soon be out of business and it is unfair to expect it of them.
So who should pay to test herbal and nutritional products Charlie?
I’m glad you asked me that. I believe that our governments should pay. But why should one county’s government pay when all the other countries will benefit too. The best solution (that I can see) is for all the governments from the developed countries to pay into a pot that the United Nations World Health Organisation (or similar international body) would administer for testing.
Although it would mean an initial outlay from various governments, the costs would be shared. But just imagine the impact that this could have on the the poor third world countries if they were able to treat their people with cheap herbal, homeopathic or nutritional medicines rather than only being able to use expensive drugs that they can’t afford.
If you think that this is a good idea, then please pass this posting on. With pharmaceutical companies putting the squeeze on nutritional supplements through the international law making bodies, we need to push back. I am a full time carer, so unfortunately I am not in a position to start a campaign, but I can put the idea out. If the idea is spread far enough, then maybe somebody might be able to pick it up and do something with it.
