The release said the drugs are not authorized for sale in Britain, but can be
bought on the Internet. "People are warned to exercise extreme caution when
buying unlicensed medicines as they have not been assessed for safety and
quality, and standards can vary widely," it says.
The TCMs named include Niuhuang Jiedu Pian for the treatment of tonsillitis, toothaches and other maladies; Bak Foong Pills, often used for the treatment of menstrual pain; and Fabao, used to treat baldness.
In early August, Hong Kong authorities ordered the recall of Bak Foong Pills because the city's health authorities found they exceeded acceptable levels of lead by two times and Fabao because it surpassed mercury levels by 11 times. In July, the Swedish National Food Agency also found extremely high levels of arsenic in Niuhuang Jiedu Pian and warned other European Union countries that it constitutes a serious health risk.
(Read more: Electronic pills may be the future of medicine)
Richard Woodfield, the British regulatory agency's head of policy for herbal medicines, said in the press release: "The adulteration of traditional Chinese medicines with heavy metals is a significant international problem and can pose a serious risk to public health." He urged the public to choose herbal medicines that meet quality and safety standards, and have Britain's Traditional Herbal Registration certificate on their packaging.
Since the beginning of this year, TCMs have repeatedly been questioned, mainly by foreign official and private drug testing organizations. Apart from being potentially toxic, another common concern is that the herbal remedies often contain pesticide residue.
Two Greenpeace reports issued on July 1 said that out of the 36 kinds of frequently used Chinese herbal products tested in Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, the United States and Canada, pesticide residues were detected in all but one of the products. Among those cited were nine of China's leading drug brands, such as Tong Ren Tang and Yunnan Baiyao.
The industry's reaction toward safety issues has been the same for years: avoidance. No company responded to the Greenpeace reports. A public relations official at one the companies cited told Caixin that his peers all have a standard answer to questions over product safety: "We are in line with national standards. EU standards do not apply to China domestically."
He said pesticide residues are found not only in TCM products, but also in fruits and vegetables.
"We dare not say anything (in public), otherwise we can easily become a target," the PR source said.
The TCMs named include Niuhuang Jiedu Pian for the treatment of tonsillitis, toothaches and other maladies; Bak Foong Pills, often used for the treatment of menstrual pain; and Fabao, used to treat baldness.
In early August, Hong Kong authorities ordered the recall of Bak Foong Pills because the city's health authorities found they exceeded acceptable levels of lead by two times and Fabao because it surpassed mercury levels by 11 times. In July, the Swedish National Food Agency also found extremely high levels of arsenic in Niuhuang Jiedu Pian and warned other European Union countries that it constitutes a serious health risk.
(Read more: Electronic pills may be the future of medicine)
Richard Woodfield, the British regulatory agency's head of policy for herbal medicines, said in the press release: "The adulteration of traditional Chinese medicines with heavy metals is a significant international problem and can pose a serious risk to public health." He urged the public to choose herbal medicines that meet quality and safety standards, and have Britain's Traditional Herbal Registration certificate on their packaging.
Since the beginning of this year, TCMs have repeatedly been questioned, mainly by foreign official and private drug testing organizations. Apart from being potentially toxic, another common concern is that the herbal remedies often contain pesticide residue.
Two Greenpeace reports issued on July 1 said that out of the 36 kinds of frequently used Chinese herbal products tested in Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, the United States and Canada, pesticide residues were detected in all but one of the products. Among those cited were nine of China's leading drug brands, such as Tong Ren Tang and Yunnan Baiyao.
The industry's reaction toward safety issues has been the same for years: avoidance. No company responded to the Greenpeace reports. A public relations official at one the companies cited told Caixin that his peers all have a standard answer to questions over product safety: "We are in line with national standards. EU standards do not apply to China domestically."
He said pesticide residues are found not only in TCM products, but also in fruits and vegetables.
"We dare not say anything (in public), otherwise we can easily become a target," the PR source said.
Personalized medicine: the next big thing?
Alex Gunz, fund manager at Heptagon Capital, tells CNBC how personalized
medicine will have a profound change on health as medicine becomes
proactive.
The 'health food' problem
More or less all medicines, whether Western or Chinese, have side effects. Over the thousands of years that TCM has developed, the concept that all medicines are in a certain sense a sort of poison has always been acknowledged.
The difference is that Western medical practices require the side effects of drugs to be clearly identified, says Wei Lixin, a professor at the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission, which in charge of drafting the official pharmacopoeia, a book that describes TCM treatments and their preparations.
(Read more: Cashing in on health scares, China online food sales boom)
However, there are no such guidelines on toxicity for TCM, says Wei. As a result, Chinese and foreign commercial health care companies have often bragged that their herbal preparations are not harmful.
Yu Zhibin, of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products, said that among the numerous incidents involving acute TCM side effects in the West, one cause is that these countries do not regard the Chinese medicines as drugs, but as health foods.
As a result some in the public take medicines as though they were food.
Work to be done
Theory behind TCM has long held that blending several herbal ingredients mitigates the toxicity of substances, and methods have been developed to make toxic substances react with each other, thus diluting or decomposing toxins.
Also, Wei said that when discussing the toxicity of Chinese medicines, the elements of the chemical compound, dosage and the period of treatment should be taken into account. Simply declaring that a certain substance is poisonous can be misleading. He used the example of cinnabar, the common mercury ore, which is a mineral drug that can, of course, be toxic in high doses.
"It's an incomplete statement to say cinnabar is poisonous," Wei said. "The truth is that it will become harmful to humans in high and extended usage."
For decades, the Chinese medicine community has been trying to use modern Western methodologies to measure toxicity in herbal remedies. Chen Keji, president of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in the current pharmacopoeia, 18.3 percent of Chinese medicines do not have instructions for dosage or any toxicity analysis.
(Read more: China says Glaxo executives confess to bribing doctors)
Many TCM practitioners say that it will be a long time before authorities can provide a systematic analysis for all substances used in Chinese medicine. The effort does, however, continue. At the national level, three Chinese medicine safety evaluation centers and four clinical trial centers devoted to standardizing TCM have been established in recent years. New TCM drugs are required to satisfy the standards of a safety evaluation system before receiving regulatory approval. They must also come with safety guidelines.
Wei says he hopes the central government will launch a comprehensive toxicity study, but says it will require an enormous amount of time and energy to conduct scientific safety evaluations for all TCM products. "A toxicity problem is often not addressed until a poisoning incident is reported," he said.
More or less all medicines, whether Western or Chinese, have side effects. Over the thousands of years that TCM has developed, the concept that all medicines are in a certain sense a sort of poison has always been acknowledged.
The difference is that Western medical practices require the side effects of drugs to be clearly identified, says Wei Lixin, a professor at the Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission, which in charge of drafting the official pharmacopoeia, a book that describes TCM treatments and their preparations.
(Read more: Cashing in on health scares, China online food sales boom)
However, there are no such guidelines on toxicity for TCM, says Wei. As a result, Chinese and foreign commercial health care companies have often bragged that their herbal preparations are not harmful.
Yu Zhibin, of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products, said that among the numerous incidents involving acute TCM side effects in the West, one cause is that these countries do not regard the Chinese medicines as drugs, but as health foods.
As a result some in the public take medicines as though they were food.
Work to be done
Theory behind TCM has long held that blending several herbal ingredients mitigates the toxicity of substances, and methods have been developed to make toxic substances react with each other, thus diluting or decomposing toxins.
Also, Wei said that when discussing the toxicity of Chinese medicines, the elements of the chemical compound, dosage and the period of treatment should be taken into account. Simply declaring that a certain substance is poisonous can be misleading. He used the example of cinnabar, the common mercury ore, which is a mineral drug that can, of course, be toxic in high doses.
"It's an incomplete statement to say cinnabar is poisonous," Wei said. "The truth is that it will become harmful to humans in high and extended usage."
For decades, the Chinese medicine community has been trying to use modern Western methodologies to measure toxicity in herbal remedies. Chen Keji, president of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in the current pharmacopoeia, 18.3 percent of Chinese medicines do not have instructions for dosage or any toxicity analysis.
(Read more: China says Glaxo executives confess to bribing doctors)
Many TCM practitioners say that it will be a long time before authorities can provide a systematic analysis for all substances used in Chinese medicine. The effort does, however, continue. At the national level, three Chinese medicine safety evaluation centers and four clinical trial centers devoted to standardizing TCM have been established in recent years. New TCM drugs are required to satisfy the standards of a safety evaluation system before receiving regulatory approval. They must also come with safety guidelines.
Wei says he hopes the central government will launch a comprehensive toxicity study, but says it will require an enormous amount of time and energy to conduct scientific safety evaluations for all TCM products. "A toxicity problem is often not addressed until a poisoning incident is reported," he said.
More from Caixin Online:
Traditional
medicine: handle with care
With funds flowing in, health-care firms are hale and hearty
Debate erupts after mercury found in chinese medicine
Lost business
The inability of Chinese products to meet the norms of modern medicine and provide safety assurances has, ironically, left China behind in the international TCM market, a US$30 billion annual business. Japanese and South Korean companies own 70% of the market. China accounts for a mere 5%, mostly represented by the export of raw materials to Japan and South Korea.
Shen Zhixiang, president of the Chinese Folk Medicine Research Association, said there are two reasons for this. "In reference to safety and effectiveness, Chinese TCM companies have given neither enough effort nor funding," he said. It was up to the industry to do the required research, he said.
Most Chinese TCM producers invest heavily in new product research that can boost stock prices, not in time-consuming clinical or safety studies.
Yuan Jinghua, an investment manager at China Meheco, said China launches over 1,000 TCM products every year. Meanwhile, Japan had almost no new TCM product in the last 30 years, and companies in that country concentrate their efforts on clinical studies and meeting international standards.
(Read more: Health-care cost inflation on track to slow in 2014: report)
Without certification, it is impossible for Chinese TCM products to be used as medicine in developed countries. Thus they are not recognized by mainstream American and European medical institutions.
Britain was the first European country to set up proper legal regulation of TCMs, though the majority of products are sold as health products or food because it is hard for them to meet drug standards.
No Chinese TCM products have received certification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, meaning they are locked out of the country's herbal medicine market, which is worth US$2 billion annually. The only likely candidate is a product under Tianjin Tasly Holding Group, which just passed the second phase of an FDA clinical trial. If all goes well, a brown pill used to treat angina can be sold in the United States as early as 2014.
Our comments
TCM has a variety of natural healing methods that traditionally help to resolve many health issues. These ancient healing forms have been effectively used for thousands of years without any accompanying side effects. Why in recent times are there so much public complaints about its detrimental health effects on application?
In the present era some TCM establishments seem to adopt similar concept as the western practice in making 'healthy' profits from health. It is indecent to make money from healthy people but how not to miss the billions of dollars set aside each year for health purpose? Marketers would think of ways to get in patients in treating disease and chronic illness, and addicting people to lifetime requirements for prescription medicines.
By expanding on the disease economy, profits keep rolling in and shareholders are more than happy to invest in such manufacturing concerns. To manage cost, these companies are least willing to invest in Research and Development, clinical studies or procuring quality raw materials.
Organic produces do not find a place in this economy. Instead, herbs derived are commerically harvested and found laced with pesticide residues. To make matter worse, there are many reported cases where patients have fallen ill or died after being sold Chinese herbal potions and pills that either contained, or were contaminated with, illegal substances, such as poisonous plants, asbestos, heavy metals such as mercury and even powerful Western medicines to enhance their potencies.
Dr Debbie Shaw, a toxicologist who is the head of the Chinese Medicine Advisory Service at UK Guy’s Hospital, has studied 40 case reports of liver damage caused by herbal medicine. At the same time, there are two reported cases of skin complaints prescribed with a Chinese remedy containing the same contaminant - aristochia that put both patients at risk and finally landed on dialysis treatment.
Incidentially, under EU rules that came into force in 2011, all medicinal herbs must be officially certified as safe before being sold publicly. The regulations aimed to ensure quality control, reporting of adverse effects and proper labelling of contents. A ban is also imposed on unregulated health practitioners from commissioning or formulating their own concoctions.
With over 12,800 types of Chinese medicinals known by people, including over 11,000 medicinal plants, 1500 medicinal animals, 80 medicinal minerals and 1 million TCM prescriptions found to-date, it is an immense task to document all for study reference to make possible better appreciation of the complexicities involved. To put into proper perspective, controlled studies should be forthcoming to add credibility. A more scientific approach aims at transparency and universality, cutting across all boundaries and cultures, bearing consistent results is a big step to take for the betterment of mankind!
Source ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1254746/Chinese-medicine-caused-kidney-failure-cancer-So-safe-popular-cures.html
VIVA corner
The baby boomers live in an information age where most understand the importance of taking charge of their own lives. This orientation leads to a major shift towards prevention and away from treatment. Alternative therapies become very acceptable in developed societies - eg. in Americans more than 65% currently use multivitamins and more than 30% use herbal products. Results have shown that such safe alternative as compared to costly prescription drugs enables individuals to live not just longer but also healthier.
A new industry known as 'nutraceuticals' is born out of a need for products that can provide high safety and high efficacy. A nutraceutical is defined as a product extracted in concentrates from fruits, vegetables or plants, deemed safe and non-toxic, and has beneficial medicinal purposes. Two decades ago, this new trend was not obvious and few companies saw the change coming. VIVA LIfe Science not only identified the potential but viewed this as a way to help people to achieve optimal health.
Since then there is no turning back and its scientists have been busy identifying and scientifically testing beneficial nutrients, and producing high quality products under exacting pharmaceutical standards. To carry out this huge project, millions of dollars have been invested in state of the art research laboratories and FDA registered manufacturing facilties. This is made possible by sourcing the highest quality from the farm to R&D labs.
The final products are put to undergo rigorous testing by several prominent medical teaching universities and hospitals before the clinical reports are published in many peer reviewed medical journals. Moving a step forward, VIVA has initiated filing patents for its products.
As a food-based company, there is no necessity to go the extra mile to prepare for the launch of its products. However, the painstaking effort taken is well rewarded with strong gain in brand reputation in USA and abroad. Thus far, VIVA has been bagging highest recognition awards by the Taiwan Health Authority for few consecutive years running.
If VIVA can be so committed to quality scientific rigor, why are other
companies not willing to take the similiar path? You can be sure that VIVA
dares to take up the challenge because it truly provides premium quality
nutrients to suit any individual!
With funds flowing in, health-care firms are hale and hearty
Debate erupts after mercury found in chinese medicine
Lost business
The inability of Chinese products to meet the norms of modern medicine and provide safety assurances has, ironically, left China behind in the international TCM market, a US$30 billion annual business. Japanese and South Korean companies own 70% of the market. China accounts for a mere 5%, mostly represented by the export of raw materials to Japan and South Korea.
Shen Zhixiang, president of the Chinese Folk Medicine Research Association, said there are two reasons for this. "In reference to safety and effectiveness, Chinese TCM companies have given neither enough effort nor funding," he said. It was up to the industry to do the required research, he said.
Most Chinese TCM producers invest heavily in new product research that can boost stock prices, not in time-consuming clinical or safety studies.
Yuan Jinghua, an investment manager at China Meheco, said China launches over 1,000 TCM products every year. Meanwhile, Japan had almost no new TCM product in the last 30 years, and companies in that country concentrate their efforts on clinical studies and meeting international standards.
(Read more: Health-care cost inflation on track to slow in 2014: report)
Without certification, it is impossible for Chinese TCM products to be used as medicine in developed countries. Thus they are not recognized by mainstream American and European medical institutions.
Britain was the first European country to set up proper legal regulation of TCMs, though the majority of products are sold as health products or food because it is hard for them to meet drug standards.
No Chinese TCM products have received certification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, meaning they are locked out of the country's herbal medicine market, which is worth US$2 billion annually. The only likely candidate is a product under Tianjin Tasly Holding Group, which just passed the second phase of an FDA clinical trial. If all goes well, a brown pill used to treat angina can be sold in the United States as early as 2014.
Our comments
TCM has a variety of natural healing methods that traditionally help to resolve many health issues. These ancient healing forms have been effectively used for thousands of years without any accompanying side effects. Why in recent times are there so much public complaints about its detrimental health effects on application?
In the present era some TCM establishments seem to adopt similar concept as the western practice in making 'healthy' profits from health. It is indecent to make money from healthy people but how not to miss the billions of dollars set aside each year for health purpose? Marketers would think of ways to get in patients in treating disease and chronic illness, and addicting people to lifetime requirements for prescription medicines.
By expanding on the disease economy, profits keep rolling in and shareholders are more than happy to invest in such manufacturing concerns. To manage cost, these companies are least willing to invest in Research and Development, clinical studies or procuring quality raw materials.
Organic produces do not find a place in this economy. Instead, herbs derived are commerically harvested and found laced with pesticide residues. To make matter worse, there are many reported cases where patients have fallen ill or died after being sold Chinese herbal potions and pills that either contained, or were contaminated with, illegal substances, such as poisonous plants, asbestos, heavy metals such as mercury and even powerful Western medicines to enhance their potencies.
Dr Debbie Shaw, a toxicologist who is the head of the Chinese Medicine Advisory Service at UK Guy’s Hospital, has studied 40 case reports of liver damage caused by herbal medicine. At the same time, there are two reported cases of skin complaints prescribed with a Chinese remedy containing the same contaminant - aristochia that put both patients at risk and finally landed on dialysis treatment.
Incidentially, under EU rules that came into force in 2011, all medicinal herbs must be officially certified as safe before being sold publicly. The regulations aimed to ensure quality control, reporting of adverse effects and proper labelling of contents. A ban is also imposed on unregulated health practitioners from commissioning or formulating their own concoctions.
With over 12,800 types of Chinese medicinals known by people, including over 11,000 medicinal plants, 1500 medicinal animals, 80 medicinal minerals and 1 million TCM prescriptions found to-date, it is an immense task to document all for study reference to make possible better appreciation of the complexicities involved. To put into proper perspective, controlled studies should be forthcoming to add credibility. A more scientific approach aims at transparency and universality, cutting across all boundaries and cultures, bearing consistent results is a big step to take for the betterment of mankind!
Source ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1254746/Chinese-medicine-caused-kidney-failure-cancer-So-safe-popular-cures.html
VIVA corner
The baby boomers live in an information age where most understand the importance of taking charge of their own lives. This orientation leads to a major shift towards prevention and away from treatment. Alternative therapies become very acceptable in developed societies - eg. in Americans more than 65% currently use multivitamins and more than 30% use herbal products. Results have shown that such safe alternative as compared to costly prescription drugs enables individuals to live not just longer but also healthier.
A new industry known as 'nutraceuticals' is born out of a need for products that can provide high safety and high efficacy. A nutraceutical is defined as a product extracted in concentrates from fruits, vegetables or plants, deemed safe and non-toxic, and has beneficial medicinal purposes. Two decades ago, this new trend was not obvious and few companies saw the change coming. VIVA LIfe Science not only identified the potential but viewed this as a way to help people to achieve optimal health.
Since then there is no turning back and its scientists have been busy identifying and scientifically testing beneficial nutrients, and producing high quality products under exacting pharmaceutical standards. To carry out this huge project, millions of dollars have been invested in state of the art research laboratories and FDA registered manufacturing facilties. This is made possible by sourcing the highest quality from the farm to R&D labs.
The final products are put to undergo rigorous testing by several prominent medical teaching universities and hospitals before the clinical reports are published in many peer reviewed medical journals. Moving a step forward, VIVA has initiated filing patents for its products.
As a food-based company, there is no necessity to go the extra mile to prepare for the launch of its products. However, the painstaking effort taken is well rewarded with strong gain in brand reputation in USA and abroad. Thus far, VIVA has been bagging highest recognition awards by the Taiwan Health Authority for few consecutive years running.
