Regulatory Issues in Cam Paper

Regulatory Issues in CAM

Jill Apple, Kevin Morris, Terri Lindsay, Vera Brown, Akbar Rohanifar, and Charles Claude

SCI/201 Survey of Alternative Medicine

Phil Bellefeuille

August 15, 2011

Regulatory Issues in CAM

This paper will detail the current and future role of regulation and oversight in the field of CAM therapies and how it affects the consumer. This paper will also examine the current regulations and oversights that exist in the United States today, the organization that oversee a specific therapy, and potential deficits of the current regulatory oversight. In addition, potentially adverse outcomes that could occur within the existing system will also be covered. Newly proposed rationale for a new or alternative regulatory process as well as analysis of how the new plan would increase consumer protection will serve to enlighten, and conclude with prospective obstacles to execute the new plan.

Botanicals

Herb medicine is known as botanicals medicines or herbalism. Herbal medicine involves the use of plants or parts of plants to treat different medical conditions or injuries, and is the oldest form of healthcare known to humans. The first written record of herbal medicine was recorded in 2800 B.C. and the uses of its remedies are still valued in all cultures today as an alternative medical approach in the treatment of a wide variety of health problems. Imagine the primitive man using herbal plants to provide food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. Thus the middles ages witnessed herbal or botanical medicine as the only form of medicine in existence used to heal those in needs, and for centuries the practice of herbs was pass from generation to generation. Many prescribed drugs used today include ingredients derived from herb plants. For example, morphine, which is used to treat moderate to severe pain contains an herb knows as opium poppy. Incisions are made into the wall of green seed pods of opium poppy plant, and...