SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2001

I don’t know if you have heard about it, but a new regulation concerning vitamins, homeopathic preparations and medicinal herbs will be effective in the spring of 2002. At that time, all natural products will need to have been authorised before their distribution on the market. Furthermore, the Natural Health Products Directorate (NHPD), affiliated with Health and Welfare Canada, will provide consumers with a toll free information line where the consumers will be able to receive information about those products side effects or abnormal. I was reading in “La Presse” last July 7th, that prior to this regulation, Health and Welfare Canada has been keeping an eye open. A warning has been issued on Ethedra, a Chinese herb. About sixty reactions have been identified in 36 years of use, as stated M. Ryan Baker, a spokesperson for Health and Welfare Canada. “No one has died from its use, but lets be vigilant”. I wonder what Mr. Baker thinks about Lipobay / Boycott, a cholesterol lowering agent, commercialised by Bayer. For those of you who are not aware, the Bayer company has recognised this past august, that its cholesterol lowering agent had been suspected of causing over one thousand incidents in the world, including 52 deaths. One of this product’s side effects is rhabdomyolysis. In this acute infliction, muscular cells are destroyed and freed into the blood. It causes sharp pain, which are generally located in the ankles and the lower back, and can cause other serious problems such as renal failure or other organ failure. In extreme cases, it can be lethal. I think that Health and Welfare Canada should consider to offer a toll free line for those users of cholesterol lowering agents, should they want more information about their medication’s side effects or abnormal reactions. The “Ordre des Pharmaciens du Québec”(OPQ) is pleased with this new regulation and its future adoption. Paul Frenet, OPQ president states that “It isn’t because a label is stuck on a so called natural product, that this product is harmless”. He also states that “interactions may occur when two incompatible products are taken together, whether or not they are natural. They must be used wisely and the consumer needs to be able to obtain information from knowledgeable persons”. Personally, I think that I have enough knowledge to make the right decision: when given the choice between natural or not, I would rather avoid the “not”. Jacqueline B.Blouin