When I first started my practice I joined a fellow acupuncturist who had been in practice for almost 10 years. He, like myself, was trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine but had incorporated the world of nutritional pharmaceutical grade supplementation into his already very successful practice. At first I was reluctant to even look into it because the amount of information was intimidating and there was a great deal of western medicine and pharmaceutical knowledge one needed to know to really be good at it. Most of my patients, as with most of the western world, are on some sort of prescription drugs, so I wanted to make sure I knew as much as I could regarding various interactions. That is a lifelong education. But as I got more into the nutritional aspect I started to see how much bogus information and companies there were out there too. Companies that were in it just to make money, people who were in it just for the money, and people distributing supplements with basically no nutritional background or education. It started to really bother me seeing people come through my door with 10 bottles of supplements, monthly bills of $100's of dollars and them not knowing how they ended up on so many and still having the symptoms that prompted them to seek out alternative nutritional help in the first place. Dead giveaways of sketchy companies and reps/distributors are phrases like "this cured me", or "I have never seen anything like this" or "I want to let you in on the good news". Well the old saying really is the best to go by when sifting through the BS of many of these: If it sounds too good to be true, then it is. If great health were one simple pill, juice or powder away there would be no need for western medicine or eastern medicine, we would all be taking that pill, using that company. If we all answered those ads that said "you too can make 6 figures your first year", then we would all not be worrying about the cost of gas and late night TV would have no ads. Health is a process. A good practitioner knows when to refer and makes a great network of like minded ethical practitoners who can help find all the pieces of the puzzle.
Don't get me wrong, I give out nutritional supplements because I do think they work well. But I also think there needs to be some regulation or standard so that if the patient has any bad interactions there is accountability. Just like someone off the street isn't able to buy acupuncture needles and set up shop after reading a book on acupuncture, so should a person not be able to sell supplements after just reading some companies pamphlets. Those of us living in Colorado are blessed because we have many great ND's. MD's. L.Ac's. etc, etc. but given the populations openness to 'alternative' therapies, we also have a lot who hold no real credentials.
The chinese medicine commuity saw the dangers of the wrong herb in the wrong hands when the FDA banned Ephedra. The fact that ephedra was misused as a weight loss supplement and stimulant when its main purpose was for asthma is criminal. And the fact that it is illegal now for chinese practitioners to give out such a popular bronchodialator is ridiculous. So the fact that people with no nutritional knowledge are selling these supplements and then not being held accountable is very scary. Basically pharmceutical grade high quality nutritional supplement companies can only sell to those with licenses. These companies adhere by strict quality control regulations and cannot sell to patients directly. This is for the patients protection as well as the companies. And the cost to the patient is always less than it if it was a MLM, who are known for having trace amounts in bottles and high prices to make up for distribution costs.
Just ask yourself this question, if you had children, would you send them to someone unregulated, uninsured, with no real knowledge about child development?
So why would you do the same thing to your mind and body?
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