Shirley Price Essential Oils.

http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-medicine-Science-business-assault/dp/0951964607

This book by Martin Walker is well worth a read by all those involved in the front line of health and wellness.  The mobilisation of professional PR skills by large pharma companies can certainly have unintended consequences and there will be many who read this book including pharmaceutical executives and policy makers who say well I did not mean that to happen!  Certainly there are many who are only too aware of the value of primary care for it is only when those frontline defences are breached that the unquestionably toxic effect of many pharmaceuticals can be justified.  No one wishes disability or cancer on their patients.

What is encouraging is that someone of Martin Walkers undoubted ability is able to devote his life to these researches.  There will be millions who benefit as a result and policy will be better balanced by a recognition of the power of professional PR something of which we are all increasingly aware.

At the same time any treatment however non toxic must be justified.  The fact that professional PR is mobilised against the Complementary therapy industry is an opportunity to justify both the record and effectiveness of these treatments provided policy makers are aware of the disparity of resources involved and not taken in by a well resourced PR hoax to the detriment of patient care.  As Walker tellingly observes Homeopathy costs the NHS £150,000 in materials compared to its billions in drug bills.  Indeed I observe how much higher would those drug bills be but for homeopathy.

One day we will understand how these substances charge the water in which they are diluted with their healing but in the meantime how many more can reap the benefits of the fact they and their practicioners do?

The extraordinary rise in healthcare standards in the west has not only been the result of expenditure but the fearless exposure of malpractice of any kind.  Complementary medicines record is virtually unblemished in this regard and any serious blemish should be as much the subject of debate as in allopathic medicine.

Essentia