United Nations crackdown on "alternative" medicine. (Insider Report).On May 16th, the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN branch, "took the first step ... toward becoming the global watchdog over unconventional medicine," reported the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times. The WHO "is looking closely at non-Western treatments, because at least 80 percent of the people in the world's poorest countries use them. Few of those countries can regulate their folk healers or share their plant lore -- which may be a miracle cure or a poison." But the WHO would not just scrutinize aboriginal witch doctors. "As defined by the WHO, folk medicine folk medicine, methods of curing by means of healing objects, herbs, or animal parts; ceremony; conjuring, magic, or witchcraft; and other means apart from the formalized practice of medical science. -- sometimes called traditional and alternative/complementary medicine -- includes everything from chiropractic care and fad diets in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. to porcupine porcupine, in zoology porcupine, member of either of two rodent families, characterized by having some of its hairs modified as bristles, spines, or quills. quill injections in South America, shamanistic trances in Siberia, Indian ayurveda, Arabic unani medicine and faith-healing with handfuls of chicken guts in the Philippines." "We're not pushing to be the global anything -- this isn't the black helicopters," insisted Dr. Jonathan Quick, the WHO's essential medicines director. "There is no WHO policy that says, 'You should regulate herbal medicine herbal medicine, use of natural plant substances (botanicals) to treat and prevent illness. The practice has existed since prehistoric times and flourishes today as the primary form of medicine for perhaps as much as 80% of the world's population. this way.' We're just trying to get information out there." Despite Dr. Quick's insistence, the WHO is preparing to do more than provide traditional medicine information. The Times points out that the WHO "envisions writing common codes of ethics and training for folk healers," standards that would likely apply to other alternative treatment providers. |
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