Reply #7: My take on clinical trials for ayurvedic or other alternative meds.

[Stevepol]

One thing to keep in mind in this debate is that the alternative treatments, usually herbal, have a heckuva hard time getting tested and for a very simple reason.

I have a friend who formulates and mixes herbal remedies for a lot of things, often for naturopaths or chiropractors or such based on their requirements. He tells me that he has a lot of trouble selling his formulations for the very reason cited. He can't afford naturally to fund these huge lab studies at some university or other and have a double blind set-up etc. Because of that, he can't make claims about the efficacy of his herbal remedies.

I've used a couple of them and I've talked to others who've used them and I feel there's a real effect to them and in line with the drugs on the market for the same problems. I tried a cold concoction he came up with and found it at least as effective (I felt) as the regular cold medicine I might have bought at the store.

He's from Iran and has an ancient herbal from old Persia and some other European herbals that he uses. He also keeps up with the testing of herbal remedies in Europe, where herbs are more often tested since evidently the huge kind of studies done in the US at universities thru Big Pharma's bank acct are not required in Europe.

Anyway, that's a factor to take into acct. The people here in the states who are formulating and selling herbals just have no way to test these things. It takes too much money.

I personally feel that herbals can be as effective as regular "drugs," and if they aren't effective, at least their side-effects are usually not nearly as serious as those asstd with the drugs of the pharmas. Just my two cents.