Herbal medicines regulation mulled

A Davao City councilor is pushing for an ordinance that will regulate the selling and advertising of herbal medicine and food supplements lacking clinical trials in the market due to possible side effects.

Speaking during the Pulong Pulong ni Pulong yesterday, Councilor Mary Joselle D. Villafuerte, chair of the committee on health, said during a lay forum that she attended at the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) it has come to her attention the various reports of adverse side effects of food supplements promising instant healing of any illness.

She said that the widespread selling of these herbal medicines and food supplements is due to the lack of regulation before being allowed to be sold in the market. Also, there were several media outfits that advertised it accom-

panied with healing testimonies and not evidence-based.

“It’s time, I think, to regulate. This time walang regulatory power. I just called Miss Ameth Atanacio, she’s the manager of Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Care here in Davao City, and she told me that they have no regulatory power,” she said.

Thus, Villafuerte said they will work very closely with them to study the possibility of passing an ordinance in the city to regulate unregulated selling and advertisement of alternative medicines.

“Unregulated ang sale, manufacturing, and marketing and advertisement. Kumikita ang media outfit and balik balik cure all. It’s very easy giving false hope sa atong mga consumers (giving false hope to consumers) not to buy expensive medicine,” she added.

Villafuerte said doctors during the lay forum were alarmed with the increasing numbers of dialysis patients in SPMC who have said they are taking food supplements in various forms. There was also an instance where a patient who is undergoing dialysis, after taking a bottle of liquid concoction, instead of feeling relieved, his case worsened. JCR(For full story visit www.sunstar.com. ph/davao/)