The world of complementary and alternative medicine has and always
will be, highly political, influenced and affected by a myriad of
events, laws and attacks from opponents. Veteran practitioners and
manufacturers of nutritional, herbal, homeopathic and Ayurvedic
medicines, as well as diverse products such as essential oils, foods,
and beauty creams, wade through a minefield of regulations and
bureaucracy to bring precious, safe and natural remedies to countless
millions of consumers of natural products and medicines.
We have
grown used to being constantly buffeted by the slings and arrows of
opponents of natural medicines and treatment approaches, including, more
recently, various EU directives regarding the availability of herbal
medicines. Over the years, there have been countless campaigns to fight
for the availability of nutritional and herbal medicines. The Alliance
of Natural Health is now in the process of mounting a legal challenge to
the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD). Here is a
short extract from the ANH Press Release, published in the Brief Takes:
"The Alliance for Natural Health
wants to say a huge thank you to the ANH legal action supporters whose
donations have seen them raise the £90,000 target for the first stage of
the Alliance's proposed legal challenge aimed at protecting the
availability of herbal products in the EU. The majority of these funds
have been raise by thousands of people contributing small amounts from
different parts of the EU. The next step is that the Alliance for
National Health with their colleagues at the European Benefyt Foundation
will continue to progress with preparing the case..."
www.positivehealth.com/article/product-news/short-features-and-brief-takes-issue-181
There will probably never be an end to how events in the wider world
interact with the multitude of therapies within complementary and
alternative medicines. However, this month the enormously powerful
earthquake and tsunami in Japan directly affected Positive Health PH Online. This is because originally, the Cover Story for April Issue 181 was a beautifully illustrated feature Japan - Country of Tranquillity, Wellbeing and Spirituality.
The devastating effects of the earthquake, tsunami and radiation crisis
at the Fukushima nuclear plant made it perfectly clear that for PH
Online April Issue 181 at least, this feature wasn't appropriate until a
later date. We hope and fervently wish and send our best wishes that
life for Japan will return to as much a normalcy as conceivable in as
short a time possible.
The choice to make Give Fat a Chance the
cover story for Issue 181 was entirely appropriate, given the mountains
of conflicting information and disinformation and headline coverage
about weight, obesity, diets and the inevitable pot shots at fats
published in the print and broadcast media. Except for those fortunate
individuals who are natively thin and never put on weight, all the rest
of us struggle with overweight, obesity, fitting into our clothes, diets
of almost biblical proportions - low fat, low carb, no carb, no fat,
high protein - to name but a few.
This article by Nutritionist
Wilma Kirsten reminds us in an authoritative and informative of the
importance of fat to our health.
- Fats are essential in the diet to provide:
- A concentrated source of energy;
- Regulation of cardiac cells;[1]
- An insulating layer under the skin;
- Structural components in the body;
- Functional constituents of many metabolic processes;
- A vehicle for intake and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (Vitamins A, D, E & K);
- An important contributor to flavour and palatability of foods.
"Essential
Fatty Acids (EFAs) are made up of the 'good' fats that our bodies need
in order to perform specific functions in targeted areas within the
body, such as membrane structure and permeability. EFAs are termed
essential because they cannot be manufactured by the body, and thus need
to be present in the foods that are consumed regularly.
"EFAs
support the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems.
The human body needs EFAs to manufacture and repair cell membranes,
enabling the cells to obtain optimum nutrition and excrete harmful waste
products. A primary function of EFAs is the production of
prostaglandins, which regulate body functions such as heart rate, blood
pressure, blood clotting, fertility, conception, and play a role in
immune function by regulating inflammation and encouraging the body to
fight infection. EFAs are also needed for proper growth in children,
particularly for neural development and maturation of sensory systems,
with male children having higher needs than females. Foetuses and
breast-fed infants require an adequate supply of EFAs through the
mother's dietary intake to promote healthy growth."
Read this article as a master class of why certain types of fat are indeed essential to our health:
www.positivehealth.com/article/essential-fatty-acids/give-fat-a-chance
Although,
individually, we seem to be perennially battling to overcome
life-hindering circumstances - lack of money, overwork, lack of business
- we are actually going through life's struggles together, despite
feeling that we are all alone. I guess that one of the secrets to not
succumbing to the struggles is to keep connected to our collective fight
and spirit.