As we edge toward Issue 200 of Positive Health PH Online - Issue 198 - I can report that as usual, there are events of Alternative / Complementary / Natural Medicine prompting dramatic, urgent actions, such as the current ban by the UK medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) that Echinacea should not be taken by children under 12 years of age because of an association with a “low risk of allergic reactions”. www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-198

The longer I work in the field of publishing medical health information - both natural and conventional treatment approaches, the more I feel as though I live in a warped universe. On the one hand, much progress in the understanding of diagnosis and treatment approaches is reassuring and appears to point to a bright future of better health for all of us. On the other hand, however, is the constant back and forth battles between the staunch protectionist die-hards of the status quo, generally pharmaceutically driven treatments, i.e. drugs, and the natural health-oriented community who obtain their clinical results using traditional, complementary or alternative treatment approaches. The battles rage on with proponents of both extremes steadfast in their rectitude regarding their positions.