Posted by kathryn in All In A Day's Work and Health News

There was an interesting article in the Health&Science section of the Sydney Morning Herald this week – The Hype Behind Herbs . In many ways it’s a good report and makes some valuable points. Australians spend a lot of money on complementary health products each year and, as with any industry, there are both good and bad operators and products. For consumers, faced with rows and rows of bottles, it’s really hard to tell what’s going to work and what’s a waste of money.

Unlike drugs made in the laboratory, plants can vary in their potency, depending on where they’re grown or which part of the plant is used.

“It’s like the difference between one wine and another – to say that all St John’s wort or all echinacea products are the same is like saying all shiraz is like Grange Hermitage because they’re all made from grapes,”

For me, however, the really interesting part of the article, is that nowhere does it mention or refer to professionally qualifed herbalists. The experts that are interviewed are professors and doctors. In the list of recommendations about how to choose products, it doesn’t suggest talking to an actual real-life herbalist.

Having spent a long-time studying herbal medicine, being a qualified and practising herbalist, being a registered member of both the National Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA) and also the Australian Traditional Medicine Society (ATMS), I find this highly disturbing. In looking at the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines, why was it not obvious to the reporter to check with a herbalist, or seek the opinion of one of our professional bodies? Being the people that have studied herbs in detail, that know about the physiological effects of herbs, being the experts in this field, why was our voice not sought?

It’s hard to know the exact answer, it could just be bad reporting, in which case a few letters to the editors of the Herald are in order. In general though, we herbalists have been pretty average at getting the message out about the credibility of our profession. We are not media savvy, we don’t have a big budget for spruiking our message and we have so far been less than effective at presenting a united front and message.

While I don’t have all the answers, I do know we need to get better at this, because we’re working against some very powerful and well-funded voices from the conventional side of the health field.

It should have been obvious to the reporter to check with a professional herbalist on an article about herbal medicine – it should have been more than obvious, but it wasn’t and yet again our profession is further marginalised.

12 August, 2006