Trick or Treatment

Sometimes when people accuse you of specific fault, my mother used to say, “Why don't you check your self”. Village voice is checking out one of the fault our accusers label on us, the year is ending, and so soul searching is part of our evaluation process.  How far have we gone in achieving our goals, what is the success level or challenges, what are those issues that we need to amend?

With Herbal medicine, the general caution on the part of skeptics have always been concern about and for: What works and what doesn't? What are the secrets behind the drugs, and what are the lies. Often, it is also about 'who can you trust, and who is ripping you.

In order to protect the consumer's health on one hand, and his or her money on the other hand, it is of great importance to be careful about what plant or combination of plant that is being ingested. This is not to say however that all products are inefficient or dishonest.

Con men (and women) either in the conventional or herbal medicine sector focus on certain human conditions because they affect a lot of people. Lets call it health and vanity category.
In the HEALTH SEGMENT apart from the popular world wide HIV/AIDS, In America, the con men and women focus on the “big three” ARTHRITIS, OBESITY AND CANCER, Available statistics shows that many Americans are affected by them.

In China and other parts of the world they exist with the addition of HYPERTENSION. In Nigeria, there was a time when herbal medicine practitioners were united in the cure of staphylococcus, the funny aspect was that each of them gave  various meaning to the word “staphylococcus”.

In the VANITY CATEGORY, con artists focus on the vanity conditions afflicting the human race.
BREAST ENLARGEMENT, PENILE ENLARGEMENT AND WRINKLE AVOIDANCE by promising that such conditions can be achieved or corrected without surgery. Looking into one of this “famous disease”- CANCER.

The American Food and Drug Agency (FDA) recently sent twenty- five warning letters to US companies and two foreign individuals who currently market a broad range of products with fraudulent claims that they cure and even prevent CANCER.

America consumers are advised not to purchase or use any of these products, which include various teas, tonics, black salves and creams sold over the Internet. Gary Coody, R.Pn. the National Health Fraud Coordinator and a consumer Safety Officer with the FDA office of Regulatory Affairs warned cancer patient to beware of bogus and exaggerated claims these companies use to promote their products.

Back home, a research conducted by Adeyemi Adegoju on a “Discourse of Advertising Herbal Medicine in South Western Nigeria' is of the opinion that as seen in the way herbal medical practitioners advertise their products, they flout the maxim of quantity by sounding hyperbolic in their claims. The traditional healers ignorantly and at times intentionally make sensational or headline news with wrong unproven claims of curative ability.

This is why critics of herbal medicine have descended heavily on the practitioners that they even claim feats beyond their capabilities, a disposition that can make the unwary patient complacent until more damage is done.

To avoid been deceived, you need to ascertain the difference between reality and puffery in herbal and even conventional medicine sales pitches. You need to authenticate the NAFDAC listing status in the case of Herbal medicine, check out if it is not the adulterated brand, especially if is the first time you are buying the drug. The best way to do that is by buying from genuine sales accredited sources.