Take Two Maca Tubers and Call Me in the Morning

Posted by admin on February 19th, 2008 at 01:21am

Both Grandma’s home remedies and native peoples’ healing materials appear to have curative values that science is only now “proving” through more sophisticated technology.

We are beginning to see articles in magazines, on newstands, and through mainstream media about everything from the health benefits of honey to recent studies touting the potential of rice bran as a treatment for diabetes.

The basis of many modern medicines are often rooted, so to speak, in common plants or their components, and food and dietary factors relative to health (and disease) are now beginning to be at long last recognized and studied.

This is certainly gratifying, but altruistic aspects aside, there is also money to be made. Big money.

According to the New York Times, in a study by the European Commission, natural plant substances generate more than $75 billion in sales each year for the pharmaceutical industry, $20 billion in herbal supplement sales, and around $3 billion in cosmetics sales. The Times article states, “Although the efficacy of some of the products the herbal ingredients go into is hotly debated, their popularity is not in doubt. Thirty-six percent of adults in the United States use some form of what experts call Complementary and Alternative Medicine, CAM for short, according to a 2004 study published by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health.”*

Indigenous “medicines” are showing great potential in eventually leading to cures for some of our most devastating diseases … and what company wouldn’t like be the one to find a cure for cancer or any of the other Holy Grails of the world of medicine in a commonly found plant? This is exciting and heady stuff, but at what eventual cost? According to the article, Big Business and Big Pharm are joining hands and beating a path to remote areas as diverse as the Amazon rain forests and the Andes in Peru in aggressive searches for the latest discoveries. It’s telling that the aforementioned article was found not in the Travel or even in the Health sections, but in the Business section of the New York Times.*

Whether the indigenous peoples (and their fragile environments) will benefit or be on the losing end, victims of both the so-called “biopirates” (those who steal traditional knowledge and don’t give back to the local community) and the drug companies who are investing large sums in the hope of lucrative profits, remains to be seen.

* “On a Remote Path to Cures”; New York Times; Jan.1, 2008

Under CAM