The Good and the Bad News for TCM in Europe
A study released in Copenhagen earlier this year shows that up to one third of all hospitals in Denmark choose acupuncture as a complementary or alternative treatment in most cases of pain, tumors, cancer, infertility and mental diseases. Acceptance of acupuncture and massage therapy is nationwide and there is an increase in the use of herbal medicines and TCM in Denmark. This is all great news for Europe.
 |
And now for the bad news. The EU’s Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive took effect on May 1st of this year. All herbal remedies sold in Europe except for a few used for minor complaints, such as echinacea and St John’s wort, must now be registered for medicinal use. That means suppliers must pay a hefty fee, in some cases up to 15,000 euros for each product, and provide documentation that said product has a history of safe use of 30 years, including 15 years in Europe.
As with yin and yang, however, nothing is absolute. Positive and negative aspects can be found in both news. On the one hand rampant sales of herbal products in the past have caused misuse or over dosage leading to side effects and more health problems instead of less. Legislation will help prevent that. On the other hand, the registration requirements will be time consuming and expensive, causing a potential lack of interest in using herbal remedies in general and in some cases forcing practitioners and suppliers to go out of business.
In the short term there will be chaos; in the long term we can only hope that harmony will be restored between the relatively new chemical based pharmaceutical industries and ancient traditional natural remedies.
(Photo by Vmenkov)