Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 10, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free july 1997 a question of standards herbal Medicine regulations create crop of controversy by Alexandra Paul medical reporter t t Winnipeg is earning a name for herbal Medicine and Tough new Federal regulations for the use of medicinal Plant products and supplements like melatonin and dhea reflect both growing popularity of complementary medi Cine and the potential for dhea is produced naturally in the Levels decline As people proponents claim the supplement combats aging and reduces cases of serious such As cancer and dhea is deny a so called Mother hormone because it is a pre cursor to the production of numerous other hormones in the Federal officials with the health Protection Branch claim the new regulations Are to protect the Public by setting standards that ensure the safety of no pharmaceutical drugs like but Many users and distributors of herbal medicines claim Ottawa is acting with a heavy some fear the new with an array of Federal will bankrupt herbal they also argue Ottawa arbitrarily reclassified products from harmless to potentially danger Ous without warning or Good buys or Sells almost everyone who buys or Sells herbal products Points to Winnipeg As an example of crackdown overkill on complementary a raid Here on a local herbal products distributor in March sent Shock Waves through the country health food estimated sales of herbal medi Cines and preparations ring up billion in the alone each the Canadian total runs into the Mil Lions of Sheldon the lawyer for the distributor said his client is still under investigation by the Federal health Protection Branch for allegedly Tributino if charges Are the Man could face from 18 months in jail to 10 years in Federal its a very confusing area because of the reclassification of a number of sub said its hard to Fig ure out what is a the Federal health department issued its edict last it warned dhea is a controlled sub stance and classified As an anabolic steroid under the food and drugs its Export or import or Possession without a licence is subject to trafficking potential hazards Federal policies Are being tightened As sales of complementary medicines Rise and reports All from the potential Haz Ards from some herbal in the past five Ottawa has restricted or banned a number of herbal remedies including cramp a remedy to ease menstrual and a remedy used to strengthen Teeth and Phedra is one of the latest traditional medicinal herbs to attract fed eral Ottawa last month issued a Public warning to avoid products containing also known Asma unless they carry a drug identification number preparations containing this Herb or its Active constituent have caused close to 20 deaths in the Over the last few years and hundreds of Adverse the warning senior Federal health Protection Branch official Michelline to said abuse of Phreda in the As a weightless Aid and an amphetamine substitute accounts for the deaths and reactions ranging from dizziness to heart the warning generated anger from herbal holistic practitioners and distributors in this is poking a stick in a hornets warned Rob a Sci ence director for a Vitamin and Ken free press Alexandra Paul tends to her Herb herbs Are attracting More attention from Federal herbal manufacturer and spokesman for the Toronto based Canadian coalition for health Mcmaster opposes the entire approach Ottawa is taking with regu lating including there not Candy and the Public deserves to be adequately protected but they do not deserve to have it All knocked off the Market because bureaucrats dont understand just because a Herb is restricted Doest mean it can not be used under certain to what you can grow in your own you can use you just cant sell to our main message is not to limit Choice to people but to make sure products Are effective and have appropriate Quality control so customers can the under the 1953 food and drugs substances Are either classified As foods or if they Are no medicinal claims can be if medicinal claims Are the product is a drug and must have a Din number to meet Federal the regulatory changes Are financed by a new array of Federal levies that Range from Din Tion fees to a suppliers operating licence Joel Thuna estimates the fees will eat up 70 per cent of his company profits this As the marketing and production Man Ager for global botanical Corpora a herbal Thuna is angry at what he argues is a capricious Federal fees Are charged depending on whether a product has medicinal claims and therefore is considered a drug subject to Federal standards and companies like his Are obeying the Law but chafing under higher fees and Uncertain Over every herbal shipment that is in sup posed to play russian Roulette with my Thuna citing cases where shipments of herbs his company has imported for years have Sud Denly been stopped at the the interpretation of Federal regu lations also leads to some absurd in Nova i can go and buy Hawthorn Jam but once i dry those same it goes under Hub health Protection Branch As a same same Thuna regulations Arent carved in to the Federal regulations apply to finished such As herbs processed in herbs growing in a Field dont have a there int a claim to the raw Materi Al until its in a finished that Means traditional doctors of chinese Medicine can import raw herbal they can then com Pound in Medicine for specific patients without breaking the concerned by Public outrage Over Ottawa set up a panel in May of experts on herbalism and Consumers to advise it on scratch save 2o diet drug warning issued Fen Hen May damage heart and Fra advises doctors Canadian press fax phone b550 Plain paper fax convenience laser Quality 360 Dpi output Page memory far broadcasting out of paper reception m1hms5 ism 20 cd rom included Colour copier scanner Plain paper fax with 42 Page memory fast 6 transmission 720x360 Dpi Bubble Printer fast Black printing up to 5 ii minis is Toby m w Canon exc Hanoi 18q04631121 plus choose from our huge selection of Canon products in Stock pc 720 personal copier Legal tin and Mem ten to Char Nib Trio Tat Mug Tossitt t to Lime copies w the w Wigfals ref germen torn pc300 compute oper t time t easy la change future shop audio video Apuli ulices Al unit cd t corporate sates Dow Ava Laugi Call Devro at a diet drug combination known As Fen Hen that is taken by millions of americans May cause serious heart and lung the Mayo clinic and the govern ment warned this the food and drug administration began sending letters to thou Sands of doctors asking them to immediately Check Fen Hen patients for valve problems and report them to the doctors wrote More than 18 million prescriptions for Fen Hen last the drugs up the combination Are Avail Able in a spokes woman for shoppers drug Mart said in but a prescription is needed to obtain she told the Canadian a spokes woman for the which want connected to the Mayo clinic study but independently reviewed the stopped Short of recommending people Stop taking the drugs but urged doctors and patients to be very careful manufacturers of the drug said the research was and the pre ident of the american Obe sity association complained that the study May panic Fen Hen he said it is possible that being obese predisposes people to heart valve prob we will be doing a major disservice to the obese people of this coun try if this is a false Richard Atkinson of the University of wis who has prescribed Fen Hen if it is not a false it should serve to Alert physicians that they prescribe drugs for people Only a few pounds Mayo clinic researchers identified 24 women who took both Fen Laramine and Phe Termine to lose weight and later developed deformed heart eight of those women also developed a potentially fatal lung disease called pulmonary the drug combination has been available since the late and deaths in Kentucky and Massachusetts have been attributed to heart failure linked to the diet none of the women in the Mayo clinic study though five underwent heart the researchers had planned to publish their findings next month in the new England journal of Medicine but released them Early at the urging of the journals both drugs Are available Only by prescription Michael Fried the fads act ing said examinations of the valve tissue of five patients strongly suggested that the disorder was but he the Agency is not saying it is inappropriate to use Fen Hen what were saying patients and physicians roust be very the Mayo researchers told doctors to look out for patients reporting fatigue and shortness of breath and to look for heart Mur if a heart murmurs cardiologists recommend an Echo cardio ;