The Headlines report that perhaps as many as one million 'mistakes' occur within the NHS and that 2000 patients die every year from a variety of errors, ranging from falls, errors in medication, equipment defects and patient accidents. These figures exclude hospital-acquired infections, from which it has been estimated that as many as 20,000 patients may die each year; 10,000 from MRSA.

When we reflect upon these sobering figures, it is clear that becoming sick and being an NHS patient has potentially deadly consequences.

Of course, that is not to say that the NHS doesn't also contribute to saving the lives of many individuals; however, perhaps we ought to keep the above figures in perspective when considering the generally safe record of the many disciplines within Complementary, Alternative and Natural Medicine approaches.

We are regularly subjected to hysterical and paranoid reporting with respect to the potential harm of certain nutritional and herbal supplements, as though even one millionth of the above statistics were occurring to patients undergoing Natural Therapies.

Recall the furore caused by a remark by the Prince of Wales that more research ought to be conducted regarding the practice of the Gerson Therapy for cancer patients. The derision and contempt in which Complementary and Alternative Medicine is held by many medical professionals and journalists in the media is truly shocking and totally unwarranted.

How easy it is to deride and mock many practices out of ignorance and the sheer thrill of ridiculing strange practices. I would imagine that many journalists wanting to ridicule could have a field day in creating scathing attacks of many of the Naturopathic practices described in the Naturopathy Special Feature (see pages 14-21). How they could ridicule the idea that Nature Cure could have any place in the 21st Century. How they could poke fun at the idea that looking at microscopic slides of blood could in any way reveal one's state of health (See pages 30-33). Or that using the body's own innate curative powers may be vastly superior to downing multitudes of prescription drugs, each of which engenders an entire array of serious medical symptoms.

Moreover, such sentiments were exactly expressed during the 20th Century, as we reprint the Preface from the famous Naturopathic tome Appendicitis by James C Thomson, a pioneering Naturopath who established a Naturopathic School and Clinic in Edinburgh.

"Nature Cure or Naturopathy is much more than a way of dealing with disease; it is essentially a way of looking at life; a curiosity about life and a philosophy of living. It is not 'just another cure' – to quote the words so often used by those who neither wish nor care to understand the Nature Cure viewpoint. Indeed, one can immediately spot those antagonistic to Nature Cure – no mater how impartial they seek to appear – by their attempts to diminish its scope. 'Nature Cure is just diet', 'Nature Cure is just sunbathing and eating fruit' '… just Osteopathy', '. … just faith-healing', '…just exercises' in fact, almost any one thing – except possibly just living at its highest and fullest degree."

In fact, contrary to the knowledge of many of today's young medical professionals, examining the tongue, urine, blood and faeces of patients is a very powerful clinical and diagnostic art of medicine. Sadly, nowadays, just as youngsters become lazy doing their arithmetic sums on a calculator and cannot add up in the heads, many medical professionals have lost the vast array of basic clinical arts and skills, instead relying upon laboratory tests and scans. Hi-tech is fine; however, since when do we need to lose all other basic skills?

Naturopathy has evolved from its pioneering days to a crossroads whereby the Naturopathic Physician in the USA undergoes the same training as that of medical doctors, and is considered on a par. Naturopathy in the UK is at a fundamental crossroads where Training, Accreditation, Degree and Postgraduate courses are all undergoing scrutiny, as is occurring throughout the majority of complementary and alternative disciplines, in preparation for imminent Statutory and Voluntary Regulation of the many of these professions.

I remember when medical doctors used to ridicule Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture; not any more, as Acupuncture becomes more and more embedded into mainstream medicine. Witness the authoritative feature Asthma Treatment: Conventional and Chinese Medicine Approaches by Attilio D'Alberto (please see page 23) which describes the effective treatment of Asthma using Ma Huang, a combination of Chinese herbs.

As reports are circulating regarding the potential efficacy of Vitamin C in combating the Bird Flu Virus, remember to stock up on natural remedies as an insurance policy, in case the vaccines and drugs don't materialize in time.