by Louise Mclean
Published in Positive Health Magazine, March 2004.
When Martin Walker published his fifth book in 1993 - Dirty Medicine: Science, big business and the assault on natural health care, it sent shock waves through the natural healthcare industry. He set up Slingshot Publications to publish this book and others for writers having difficulties getting their books published by mainstream publishing houses. Louise Mclean talks to Martin about his books, his views and his writing.
Many people believe there is presently a worldwide move through Codex Alimentarius to outlaw natural therapies and remedies. The first phase of these has been implemented through the EU Food Supplements Directive, with the Herbal and Medicines Directives to follow. In your book Dirty Medicine you outlined some of the strategies used by the pharmaceutical industry to discredit alternative medicine. What do you think is going on at the moment?
When I was writing Dirty Medicine from 1988 to 1993, I don’t think I realised the importance of the attack on vitamins and mineral supplements. It’s only recently that I’ve understood that the people attached to the Campaign Against Health Fraud (CAHF - now called HealthWatch) in the UK, the American National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) and Quackbusters in America were only the first wave of a more organised, powerful and centralised attempt to destroy vitamin and mineral supplements. I tended at that time to view the people I was writing about as rather quirky individuals who were in favour of professional medicine, biased towards scientific medicine and the pharmaceutical companies, but not as people supported by multinational agencies involved in a continuous conflict over supplements and holistic health therapies.
Of course now that the plan has been unveiled, I can see that the organisation of CAHF and NCAHF was the first stage in the battle. The techniques they were using - the character assassination of alternative practitioners and researchers, the commissioning and planting of press stories, the linking up with more formal agencies like the FDA and the MCA, raiding premises, striking people off professional registers, bringing people before disciplinary board hearings, conducting bogus scientific trials, the undeclared work with large corporations. All these things were linked to a kind of regulatory ground clearing exercise. Now, a legislative battle is taking place on a different level and involving whole groupings of countries.
Read the rest here:
Copyright Louise Mclean 2004
To order Martin Walker's books, write to Slingshot Publications, BM BOX 8314, London WC1N 3XX or email him at fraka@arrakis.es See his website:
http://www.slingshotpublications.com/books1.html
Published in Positive Health Magazine, March 2004.
When Martin Walker published his fifth book in 1993 - Dirty Medicine: Science, big business and the assault on natural health care, it sent shock waves through the natural healthcare industry. He set up Slingshot Publications to publish this book and others for writers having difficulties getting their books published by mainstream publishing houses. Louise Mclean talks to Martin about his books, his views and his writing.
Many people believe there is presently a worldwide move through Codex Alimentarius to outlaw natural therapies and remedies. The first phase of these has been implemented through the EU Food Supplements Directive, with the Herbal and Medicines Directives to follow. In your book Dirty Medicine you outlined some of the strategies used by the pharmaceutical industry to discredit alternative medicine. What do you think is going on at the moment?
When I was writing Dirty Medicine from 1988 to 1993, I don’t think I realised the importance of the attack on vitamins and mineral supplements. It’s only recently that I’ve understood that the people attached to the Campaign Against Health Fraud (CAHF - now called HealthWatch) in the UK, the American National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) and Quackbusters in America were only the first wave of a more organised, powerful and centralised attempt to destroy vitamin and mineral supplements. I tended at that time to view the people I was writing about as rather quirky individuals who were in favour of professional medicine, biased towards scientific medicine and the pharmaceutical companies, but not as people supported by multinational agencies involved in a continuous conflict over supplements and holistic health therapies.
Of course now that the plan has been unveiled, I can see that the organisation of CAHF and NCAHF was the first stage in the battle. The techniques they were using - the character assassination of alternative practitioners and researchers, the commissioning and planting of press stories, the linking up with more formal agencies like the FDA and the MCA, raiding premises, striking people off professional registers, bringing people before disciplinary board hearings, conducting bogus scientific trials, the undeclared work with large corporations. All these things were linked to a kind of regulatory ground clearing exercise. Now, a legislative battle is taking place on a different level and involving whole groupings of countries.
Read the rest here:
Copyright Louise Mclean 2004
To order Martin Walker's books, write to Slingshot Publications, BM BOX 8314, London WC1N 3XX or email him at fraka@arrakis.es See his website:
http://www.slingshotpublications.com/books1.html
