by Bob Flaws

There's an interesting article in the Feb/Mar 2009 issue of The Townsend Letter about what we can expect from Washington in terms of alternative/complementary (CAM) health care. In the author's opinion: some good and some bad -- about what one would expect.

Nevertheless, this article got me thinking about our two major parties vis a vis our profession. When I was President of the Acupuncture Association of Colorado during our bid in the early 1990s to expand our scope of practice to include Chinese herbal medicine, one of the things I learned was that, paradoxically (parodoxically for an independent who nevertheless typically votes Democrat), on this issue, the Democrats were our enemies and the Republicans were our friends. While my experience is that more Democrats in general use CAM, Democrats in positions of power are often pro-regulation and tend to act in loco parentis. In other words, they want to protect the public from itself (as if they know better what's right and wrong). Henry Waxman, D from Hollywood, CA is a case in point. He wants to put more restrictions on the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) under which we are allowed to buy and sell (but not "prescribe") Chinese herbal "supplements." On the other hand, Republicans believe in freedom of choice and free trade. While they probably don't use CAM in as large numbers, they are also less likely to want more restrictions on choice in health care and choice at the market (or health food store). In addition, Orin Hatch, R from Utah, is a staunch ally of the nutraceutical industry since something like half of the major nutraceutical manufacturers are located in his state.

As a case in point, when we were trying to get our second law passed in Colorado to include Chinese herbal medicine in our L.Ac. scope, I had to get a Republican from Colorado Springs (bastion of the religious right) to sponsor our bill. Then we had to fight the Democrats on the Health, Education & Welfare (HEW) Committee to get our bill out of their committee. The Dems were deeply aligned with the Colorado branch of the AMA, while some Republicans admitted to me that the Medical Practices Act which gives MDs a state-mandated monopoly on professional health care should never have been enacted.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that we need to be very pro-active in our oversight and communications with the new administration in Washington to protect our rights. While I am overjoyed that Obama won and that both houses of Congress are in the hands of the Dems, I am worried that, as a profession, we may become complacent in thinking, "These are the good guys. What's to worry?" In The Townsend Letter article mentioned above, the Vitamin Lawyer Blogger is quoted as identifying Waxman and Ted Kennedy, venerable D from Massachussets, as the "Kenedy-Waxman Axis of Control" for opposing health claims under DSHEA. In other words, under DSHEA and the FDA which oversees and implements DSHEA, we are not allowed to say that Huang Qi boosts immunity or Dan Shen dilates the coronary arteries. That would be a health claim regardless of the many valid pieces of research supporting these claims. Although some of the health freedom bloggers and advocates are a little too Cassandra-ish for my taste, past experience here in Colorado suggests that we need to be careful about our assumptions of who're our friends and who're our enemies.

Oh dear, welcome to the world of realpolitik.

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