You'll feel better on...

[Mattus]

Swisse.

Swisse had been ordered by the complaints resolution panel of the Therapeutic Goods Administration to withdraw their advertisements which suggest their products are "clinically proven" and "independently tested", and also taking aim at their "You'll feel better on Swisse" which the TGA found was not supported by evidence for many of their products.

Now the federal court has set aside the ruling, claiming Swisse was denied "natural justice" (what ever the fuck that means), ordered the TGA to pay Swisse's legal costs and opened the way for them to return to the air making frankly unsupported claims about the benefits of taking their overpriced candy.

It frustrates me to no end that the findings of the chief scientific medical authority in Australia, one that is supported by panels drawn from experts across the country, is trumped by a federal judge with no more than a high school level of scientific understanding.

http://www.news.com.au/business/breakin ... 6367322407" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Skull Cap]

About that natural justice issue, does this help (from the same link)? 'Swisse argued before the Federal Court that it had been denied natural justice or procedural fairness by the panel and sought remedial orders. Justice Tracey agreed with Swisse, saying the panel was required to invite the company to make further submissions before requesting withdrawal of the ads.'

[boxy]

You sound like you need some magnetic underlays for your bed, Mattus. I hear that they're... the shit.

[AiA Popping]

I suffered for a decade from Chronic Bronchitis. A decade of getting really sick 3-4 times a year with almost constant coughing and discomfort in between. It was awful. Went to several different physicians and gratefully took all the medicine they gave me but in the end all they said was my condition would worsen with age.

Then I went to a Classical Homeopath. A few months after my first visit with her I developed a familiar symptom of a low-grade fever that meant I had an infection in my lungs. I suffered two weeks (and did not take my usual antibiotic) until my next visit where upon she gave me a homeopathic remedy which I took. My wife and I then drove over to the Farmer's Market and stayed for about a half hour. During that time my fever skyrocketed to the point I was delirious and couldn't drive home. I stayed in bed for 4 days with 104 degree temperature and thought I was going to suffocate. It was frightening. During that time my complexion took on this strange, healthy glow. On the 4 day the fever broke and I have never been sick from chronic bronchitis since. As the years have gone by I have continued to see her and all the coughing, lung infections, cold and flu and such have fallen away. I am healed. Not only that, I used to get breakouts on my face and that healed as well.

Say what you want but I am healed and that is all that matters. Have read since that strange, unexplained fevers precede the spontaneous remission of cancer but these spontaneous remissions are becoming rarer because fevers are now usually suppressed. Could my healing have been triggered by the homeopathic remedy and because I let the fever run its course I was healed. I will never know for sure ...

[Mattie popping]

That's fine. But if homeopathic remedies are so effective it should be simplicity itself to demonstrate this with clinical evidence in an appropriately controlled and double blinded investigation. While no such evidence exists, the marketing material should not contain such claims.

Bit of a side track from the original topic. Swisse markets multivitamins rather than homeopathic remedies, but the issue of making unsupported claims of being "scientifically proven" when it abjectly is not are similar.

[AiA in Atlanta]

Homeopathic remedies have legal protection in the American FDA charter because long ago there was an influential senator who was also a homeopathic physician. Now, however, companies call their products "homeopathic" when in fact they contain non-homeopathic materials along with a homeopathic remedy and then make outrageous claims. Have no problem with them being silenced.

The supplement industry is huge in the States (while Homeopathy is relatively unknown.) The EU has cracked down hard on vitamins and supplements and the restrictions are rather bizarre. There are forces in the USA that are pushing for similar restrictions here but Ron Paul & Co are fighting back hard. What about in Australia? Are restrictions tightening generally?

[mantra]

The EU has cracked down hard on vitamins and supplements and the restrictions are rather bizarre. There are forces in the USA that are pushing for similar restrictions here but Ron Paul & Co are fighting back hard. What about in Australia? Are restrictions tightening generally?

Vitamins and natural remedies are big business here. I can't see them being restricted by the government at least for the moment. The widespread use of them is a huge saving for the PBS scheme. If you can afford them, alternative medicines offer so much more than the chemical compositions pharmaceuticals insist doctors prescribe, but then they might eventually whisper in the government's ear that they are affecting their profits.

Perhaps eventually they will be restricted.

[mellie]

'Alternative' therapies doesn't always mean safe or even therapeutic Mantra.

You need to be very careful of these too.


Many of them are just another scam, (profit on peoples desperation/good faith) which escape regulatory bodies (ie PBS) scrutiny under the guise of their being 'alternative' or 'complimentary'.

So....


Alternative and complimentary doesn't always mean therapeutic or even safe.

Never forget this.

I could tell you a few interesting stories I encountered on the ward re- patients actually bringing their own 'alternative' treatments into hospital with them.

One fellow was actually systemically poisoning himself with the gloop (looked and smelled like sump oil) he'd purchased off some ethnic quack for over $500.

Just be aware that these 'alternative' treatments come with no grantee that they either work or are even safe, this and have escaped your typical and more orthodox pharmaceutical trials.

[annielaurie]

I agree with Mellie on this one ..

[mellie]

I agree with Mellie on this one ..

Noone likes a suck-up annie.



Playing devils advocate in the reverse doesn't become you.