DRUG COMPANIES SUPPRESS UNFAVOURABLE TRIALS

I believe that acupuncture and other forms of complementary medicine should be regulated. Only strong and effective regulations can protect patients and potential clients, and ultimately it also protects the overwhelming majority of practitioners who act ethically, professionally, and competently at all times.

Therefore I welcome scrutiny and regulation, not least because it protects me from those unethical people who hang around the fringes of complementary medicine.

What I sometimes do object to is the hostile accusations that are occasionally thrown at the practice of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, accusations that contradict the World Health Organisation and ignore vast amounts of clinical trials and a lineage of healthcare that goes back more than 2,000 years.

Therefore, it is important to remember that the drug-centred conventional western medicine system can hardly be held up as without problems. A recent article in the Guardian (3.1.2014) revealed that it is common for the pharmaceutical companies to withhold the results of clinical trials that fail to support their products – products that they then go ahead and sell regardless.