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Alliance for Natural Health

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The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is an advocacy group founded in 2002 by Robert Verkerk and based in the United Kingdom. The ANH was initially founded to raise funds to finance a legal challenge of the EU Food Supplement Directive. The ANH lobbies against regulation of dietary supplements, in favour of alternative medical approaches, and advocates a healthy diet and other lifestyle approaches to health. It also criticizes scientific research showing that megadoses of vitamins lack any health benefit.

In 2004, along with two British trade associations, ANH had a legal challenge to the European Union's Food Supplements Directive[1] referred to the European Court of Justice by the High Court in London.[2] The European Court of Justice's Advocate General said that the EU's plan to tighten rules on the sale of vitamins and nutritional supplements should be scrapped[3] but was overruled by the European Court, which decided that the measures in question were necessary and appropriate for the purpose of protecting public health. ANH interpreted the ban as applying only to synthetically produced supplements - and not to vitamins and minerals normally found in or consumed as part of the diet.[4] The European judges did acknowledge the Advocate General's concerns, stating that there must be clear procedures to allow substances to be added to the permitted list based on scientific evidence. They also said that any refusal to add a product to the list must be open to challenge in the courts.[5]

In March 2011, ANH announced that it intends to launch a legal challenge to the European Union's Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive. The Directive will be challenged first of all in the High Court in London, arguing that it is "disproportionate, non-transparent and discriminatory." ANH then hopes to have the case referred to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.[6] It argues the new rules adversely impact alternative medicine practices such as Ayurveda[7] and that the registration costs are affordable for single herbal products with big markets, such as echinacea, but not for small producers of compound herbal remedies.[8]

In April 2011, a U.S. federal judge ruled against a legal challenge by the ANH to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's adoption of new manufacturing regulations. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found that the regulations "did not exceed the FDA's statutory authority, are not impermissibly vague under the due process clause, and are not arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act." The complaint was filed in 2009 by the ANH, along with Durk Pearson, Sandy Shaw and the Coalition to End FDA and FTC Censorship.[9]

Positions

The ANH runs campaigns in favor of dietary supplements, "sustainable healthcare", and traditional medicinal cultures such as Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine.[1]. It also campaigns against GMOs, fluoridation of drinking water, corporate influence in agricultural, electromagnetic radiation, and the global harmonisation of the food trade by the United Nations Codex Alimentarius Commission.[2]

The ANH believes that negative media publicity about nutrients such as vitamin E are merely a result of misinterpretations over the science.[10] It also criticises the latest research[11] proposing vitamin C supplementation does not protect against the common cold as having a number of fundamental flaws.[12]

Verkerk, the ANH's Executive Director, has stated that bad diets and lack of exercise could create a cancer timebomb for the future and that junk food should be taxed like cigarettes. He also argues that people should be encouraged to look after themselves so that the fewer visits they make to their doctor, the less insurance they pay.[13] Verkerk has also been quoted in newspapers criticizing scientific findings from JAMA and the Cochrane Collaboration, among others,[14][15] which found that some antioxidant vitamin supplements may shorten lifespan.[16]

Speaking at the inaugural "Scientific Research in Homoeopathy" conference held by the Complementary Medical Association (CMA) at the University of Westminster in June 2008, Verkerk said that it was "utterly inappropriate" to use randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to assess homoeopathy and other complementary medicines, arguing that "as soon as you put someone into a trial situation, you destroy many of the effects that exist between patient and practitioner."[17]

Speaking to the BBC in the UK, Verkerk has said that EU standards on health claims favour bigger food companies, adding that big firms who had sufficient resources could play the system and claim health benefits simply by inserting a small amount of an approved ingredient such as Vitamin C into a product.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ EU Food Supplements Directive
  2. ^ 'Court victory for vitamin firms' BBC News Published 30 January 2004. Accessed 29 April 2007.
  3. ^ 'EU health foods crackdown 'wrong BBC News. Published 5 April 2005. Accessed 29 April 2007.
  4. ^ 'Vitamin controls backed by Europe' BBC News. Published 12 July 2005. Accessed 29 April 2007.
  5. ^ 'EU court backs health supplements ban' The Guardian Published 12 July 2005. Accessed 6 October 2007.
  6. ^ 'EU herbal medicines law set for legal challenge' EurActiv Published 29 March 2011. Accessed 10 April 2011.
  7. ^ 'How herbal remedies are turning over a new leaf' Daily Express Published 12 April 2011. Accessed 22 April 2011.
  8. ^ Europe to ban hundreds of herbal remedies The Independent newspaper, UK. Published 30 December, 2010. Accessed 16 January, 2011.
  9. ^ 'Supplement Makers Lose Fight Against FDA' Courthouse News Service Published 8 April 2011. Accessed 10 April 2011.
  10. ^ High dose vitamin E death warning BBC News, quoted from statement of Dr Rob Verkerk, Executive Director of the Alliance for Natural Health. Published 11 Nov 2004. Accessed 30 Sept 2007.
  11. ^ Douglas RM, Hemilä H, Chalker E, Treacy B. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD000980. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000980.pub3
  12. ^ Vitamin C campaigners support supplements Nursing in Practice. Published 19 July 2007. Accessed 30 Sept 2007.
  13. ^ Laughter key to long life The Sun newspaper, UK. Published 17 November 2005. Accessed 28 March 2008.
  14. ^ Bjelakovic G, Nikolova D, Gluud LL, Simonetti RG, Gluud C. Antioxidant supplements for prevention of mortality in healthy participants and patients with various diseases. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD007176. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD007176.
  15. ^ Bjelakovic G, et al.. Mortality in Randomized Trials of Antioxidant Supplements for Primary and Secondary Prevention, systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA, 2007;297:842-857
  16. ^ Your Health: Are vitamins good or bad? New Straights Times, Malaysia. Published 3 May 2008. Accessed 10 May 2008.
  17. ^ 'Homoeopaths label scientists the 'new fundamentalists' The Times newspaper, UK. Published 26 June 2008. Accessed 3 August 2008.
  18. ^ EU health rules "favour big firms" say food campaigners BBC News. Published 14 December, 2012. Accessed 19 December, 2012.
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