AYLMER (PasseportSanté.net) February 13, 2006 – How to help consumers of drugs and natural health products to make an informed decision? This is one of the questions addressed by participants at Health Canada’s International Symposium on Interactions between Drugs, Foods and Natural Health Products.1.
“Health Canada wishes to play a leading role in the area of interactions between drugs and natural health products. We want to convey accurate and balanced information to consumers. To get there, we need to better understand the real risks of these interactions, when there is a risk. We need to find strategies to reduce them. Are we doing too much or not enough? And how to act intelligently? “Said Brian Foster2 from the Canadian Department of Health in his opening remarks.
“This communication challenge, industry, regulators and researchers must meet together, and it is not small! », Summarized the speaker Mark Blumenthal, editor-in-chief of the journal Herbalgram and Executive Director of the American Botanical Council3.
Doctors who listen to their patients
To properly inform consumers, it is essential that health professionals be much better trained in the area of NHPs, particularly with regard to the potential risks they present when interacting with drugs.
They must also show openness and respect, according to DD Sunita Vohra, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta4. “As doctors, we must listen to our patients, who are more and more numerous to use complementary medicine. And we have to do it with respect, if we want to have a meaningful exchange with them, she stressed. Let us not forget that the choice of treatment is theirs and that our role is to advise them in an informed way, not to make the decisions for them. Many people do not talk to their doctor about NHP use, for fear of being badly received and misunderstood, among other things.
The pharmacist, who sells both drugs and NHPs, could also be involved by systematically questioning his clients about their use of NHPs. He should also take the time to make official reports of the interactions he observes.
In Canada, naturopaths have recently been authorized to make such reports: a great initiative, both for the safety of their patients and for the dialogue they help to create between professionals in classical and complementary medicine.
Also train salespeople
There is also a major effort to be made at points of sale where the information circulating on NHPs is often incorrect or simply absent. The American Botanical Council (ABC) has also developed a six-hour online training program for, among others, distributors of NHPs and employees of retail stores.
Health Canada plans to use this initiative to disseminate information to points of sale. The CBA has also developed an adhesive label on the back of which contains information on the safe use of NHP supplements. In short, ideas abound, but not all are implemented.
In defense of the experts concerned by this thorny issue, let us remember that this problem is very recent. It was the interactions observed between St. John’s Wort and several drugs that alerted the international community in 2000. “Today people combine products that were never designed to be taken simultaneously,” concluded Brian Foster, scientific adviser at the Canadian Department of Health.
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For more news on the International Symposium on Drug, Food and Natural Health Product Interactions, see our Dossier index. |
Françoise Ruby – PasseportSanté.net
1. This event, entitled Health Canada International Symposium on Drug, Food and Natural Health Product Interactions, was held on February 9 and 10, 2006. It brought together more than 250 people from the health field, the medicinal plants industry, as well as researchers, representatives from various branches of Health Canada and some consumer groups.
2. Mr. Brian Foster is Senior Scientific Advisor in the Bureau of Science in the Therapeutic Products Directorate of Health Canada.
3. The American Botanical Council (ABC), founded by M. Blumenthal in 1988, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of accurate and reliable information on medicinal plants. HerbalGram is a quarterly review: http://herbalgram.com/
4. DD Sunita Vohra launched in 2003, the first university integrated pediatric medicine program in Canada: Complementary and Alternative Research and Education program (CARE): www.care.ualberta.ca
