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Moving the Holistic Industry From Fear to Empowerment
In the past several months there have been a lot of e-mails floating around causing quite a bit of unnecessary fear in the holistic industry. From e-mails saying that holistic options were going to be outlawed to e-mails stating that the government is taking away your right to choose a healthcare practitioner, many of these e-mails are unfounded and simply instilling fear in the community. Well, I find that disempowering.
My intention
I’ve found in the past that my words have been misinterpreted and I want to make this as clear as possible. I’m not saying that there aren’t issues to be addressed. I am saying that there are ways to address valid issues with empowerment instead of fear and empowerment comes from having the truth revealed and enough information for individuals to make their own decisions. Without the information to back up the rather harsh statements or to offer people empowering choices, these e-mails become unnecessary spam – as unnecessary as any that instill fear to create action and that is not what holistic methods should be focusing on – yes, I’m judging that one.
In this article I will offer what I have found and information that I have received. I am not saying all of this is totally accurate, I am saying it's a step further than the e-mails being floated around with no information. I am totally open to someone forwarding me more information to offer to readers as well. I am not stuck to a viewpoint, I am rather taking what I can find and beginning to make sense of some topics. In a world of information overload, that is really all we can do.
I believe that the most useful information BEGINS by offering solutions and full-disclosure of information so that people can choose for themselves what is right or wrong. To better illustrate my point, here are a few examples of what I’ve received and my thoughts on them.
Example 1:
Recently I received and e-mail that stated:
“Your right to alternative methods is being taken away! You must act now to ensure access to alternative healthcare!”
The e-mail then went on to request money to a ‘holistic’ organization who is supposedly going to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Following that e-mail I received 4 e-mails from individuals that know I work in the industry, who were concerned and wanted more information. After spending nearly 4 hours researching, I found nothing upholding the claims. When I went to the links on the site from the original e-mail, they claimed the US government was going to take everything away but gave no information on the document they were referring to so I could make my own decision on it.
Then about a week later, a few friends sent me the same letter with a document explaining what it was referring to on the government website (see below). It is a document that describes the regulations, not for taking away products, but for how they categorize them and NO WHERE in the document did it say that a holistic product would be taken away, only that something that didn’t meet their standards would not be recognized by the government as an alternative method. Ie. you could purchase an herb that is not on their list but the marketer couldn’t sell the herb and say it was recognized by the government as being a healing agent.
Here is a copy of the information that refers directly to what the organization was referring to for you to peruse and make your own judgments:
http://www.fda.gov/cber/gdlns/altmed.pdf
I also sent an e-mail to the organization with the document and asked for clarification which I didn't receive.
Example 2:
I received another e-mail saying:
“Your right to choosing an alternative healthcare option is being revoked! Stop the bill, NOW!”
Yes, I received a bundle of e-mails, understandably so, from this one too. I also ended up at a health food store that day where people were discussing the e-mail and the bill. I asked out of curiosity if anyone had read the actual bill it was referring to and they said no but were up in arms about how devastating it was going to be. I asked what they new about it and they said 'the government is against alternative options because the pharmaceutical industry owns everything'. I pushed a bit and asked if they somehow had a connection with someone who was working on the bill so they could verify it's existence. The women put looked at me, pretty angrily and said no but they believed the source - a source they didn't know and had never heard of. I said I felt it was a fear-based way of looking at the world to believe something fearful simply because it was stated. I didn't make any new friends that day but I hope I offered them the option of another choice.
Anyway, as someone in the industry I feel it’s my responsibility to understand things like this so I spent a Sunday researching and here is what I found:
There is a bill regarding compounded medicines that is in the stages of being written. It has been called the Safe Drug Compounding Act of 2007. Nothing has been done with it yet and I’m not even sure it has been written to sufficiently understand it yet. From my research, some websites are stating that it is written to take away all compounded medicines (I’m concerned on the efficacy of that statement), some state it is referring solely to inhalation devices that some pharmacies are selling that haven’t been adequately tested and are causing healthcare problems, others state other things.
As I couldn’t find all of the info, in fact, it seems that the draft of the bill has been pulled from the sites where I found links to it as I tried 4 sites with links to the bill draft and couldn’t find it anywhere (if someone does find a draft, please e-mail me a link and I’ll place it on the site and put a note in the next newsletter) .
I don't want you to go based on my information alone as I don't have all the facts either, I'm simply trying to offer you more information. Here are some sites that I think may offer you information to decide for yourselves. Many are fear based so please note that I am not condoning them, I am simply offering the information I’ve found and I realize that without having the actual bill to look at, we are mostly guessing at the truth of this matter anyway. I’m working on getting a bill to look at and will post it when I do.
In the meantime, here is some info if you want to get started in understanding options that are being discussed.
http://www.compoundingfacts.org/ http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/pdf/Autism%20Position%20Paper%20Compounding.pdf http://interestalert.com/story/03090002aaa05f05.nw/siteia/MEDICAL1/medical.html http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_health_care/004384.html https://secure2.convio.net/iacprx/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=149#Write http://www.drugtopics.com/drugtopics/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=414436 http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7519 http://www.aphanet.org/AM/Template.cfm?Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7591 http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/09/01/ruling_hurts_fda_push_on_compounds/
***UPDATE 5-12-07- I received a note back from one of the organizations that I contacted this morning stating that - 'This bill has never been introduced and the Senators considering it were very responsive to our concerns. There is still a possibility the bill or something similar will be promoted by others.'
I also received a link to the bill that was never introduced and have attached it for your perusal. Click here.
In Closing
I believe there are times to take action on topics that concern all of us and I feel that there is much that goes on throughout the world that we don't get all of the information on and I understand that at times we need to rely on others to provide us with information to make informed decisions. I hope that we in the holistic industry, being an industry focused on healing and empowerment, will increasingly focus on ways to motivate toward action that are empowering and can find ways to offer more information so that individuals can decide for themselves what is important for them without begin driven by fear of losing something.
I am not saying there aren't organizations that do this already. There are and I feel they are stepping stones for many who might benefit from learning new ways. Basically, when we are empowered to make decisions based on having enough information to do so without fear, meaningful, lasting change occurs rapidly. I believe in making this a healthier place for our children to grow up, not only healthier in our food and natural resources, also healthier in our minds and emotions.
It truly begins with language and here are a few samples of what might get attention in a positive way:
- Empower Yourself, Choose Your Healthcare Options and Let The Government Know Your Choice
- Have A Stronger Voice in Your Family's HealthCare
- Learn About Healthcare Bills That May Affect You
- Help to Keep Your Loved Ones Healthy
- Be an Informed Alternative Healthcare Consumer
- Let's Empower Our Country's Health - Together
And if you have some ideas, send them on in!
Wishing you health, vitality and unlimited resources in choosing what is right for you, and your families.
Many blessings,
Jenifer
Jenifer Shapiro is a proven intuitive and shamanic teacher/counselor professionally trained in coaching, hypnotherapy, NLP, yoga, shamanism and other mind, body, soul therapies. She holds an M.B.A. in international business and is the founder of The Empowerment Centre (www.TheEmpowermentCentre.com) with offices in Pennsylvania, New York and the Midwest. She is also the founder of Satya Business (www.SatyaBusiness.com) and HolisticHometown.com as well as the originator of Integrative Release TherapyTM. She teaches and works with individuals, teens and holistic entrepreneurs to assist them in manifesting empowering, fulfilling lives and businesses. She can be reached at (610) 213-1010 or www.TheEmpowermentCentre.com.
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