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Re: once You are correct. I do not read German. I relied on approved translastions of said documents. I never said that the US herbal suplements industry was regulated. I actually said "I agree that much of the American herbal therapy industry is unregulated and non-standardized". I also did not say that herbalists here in the US are trained. I just pointed out that there are countries with respected and accredited universities, that offer degrees in herbalism. I in no way disagreed with anything Linsay Novak said. I agree that the letter writer should ask for her workspace to be moved, and that the other woman should not be allowed to let her illness interfere with her work. Where I work, a woman that vomited into the garabge (which is a biohazardous waste) would have been sent home so as to NOT inflict her illness on others. What I did was point out that Lindsey made a sweeping statement that was not backed up with facts. In my personal opinion, public figures, such as Lindsey, have an extra responsibility to be completely accurate when making a statement. She should have prefaced her statement with "In my opinion, herbs are part of an unregulated industry and have no true medical studies to support their usage. Even though she sees an herbalist, she has no idea what her system needs or what she is putting into it."

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Oh, what nonsense. Have you ever read Commission E's documents? (No? You don't read German? Well, I do.) Commission E is a list of government regulations that specify what herbs are allowed to be sold in the country, in what formulations, and with what labeling. It's the scientific equivalent of the US rules that say consumers can't buy a gallon of fluoride-based toothpaste, because some kid might poison himself by eating the whole thing. (Yes, the US federal government regulates the size of the tubes of fluoridated toothpaste. It's totally legal to sell the non-fluoridated kinds by the bucketful.) No matter what you read in some blog, Commission E doesn't pretend to say anything about what has actually been proven to work. It just tells you what's legal to sell in Germany. It's primary point is to make sure that consumers get what they think they're paying for. Here in the US -- unlike Germany -- herbal preparations *are* woefully under-regulated, and you *don't* actually know what you're getting, especially for the cheap stuff. Herbalists aren't licensed in most of this country, either: you can set up shop as an herbalist just by printing up some business cards. For all we know, the "herbalist" this woman is seeing has no more medical knowledge than a psychic palm reader. Furthermore, the two "diagnoses" that this woman claims raise some red flags. My sister was told by three different "herbalists" that nearly all digestive upsets, and hers in particular, are due to intestinal worms. If it's not worms, then it must be Candida (yeast). She repeatedly tested negative for parasites and nothing they suggested did the least bit of good for her, but that didn't change their minds. After a real physician did a biopsy, she learned that she had a textbook-perfect case of ulcerative colitis -- a potentially deadly disease caused by an overactive immune system. The last herbalist hadn't even heard of that disease. I thought Novak's response was right on: The letter-writer needs to see what she can do to move her desk away from the other woman. If she wants to believe that she has parasites, then that's fine, but she has no right to interfere with other people's workdays over it.

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Dear Lindsey Novak, "Herbs are part of an unregulated industry and have no true medical studies to support their usage. Even though she sees an herbalist, she has no idea what her system needs or what she is putting into it." Before stating your opinion as fact, you should do the five minutes of research I did on the internet. After reading your response, I googled "randomized double blind studies on herbal supplements" and found many resources, including the National Institute of Health, a department of our own government and the exerpts from Wikipedia, complete with citations, and the exerpt from the Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences. While I agree that much of the American herbal therapy industry is unregulated and non-standardized, I cannot agree with the rest of your statement. From Wikipedia: "Herbal remedies are very common in Europe. In Germany, herbal medications are dispensed by apothecaries (e.g., Apotheke). Prescription drugs are sold alongside essential oils, herbal extracts, or herbal teas. Herbal remedies are seen by some as a treatment to be preferred to chemical medications which have been industrially produced.[42] In the United Kingdom, the training of medical herbalists is done by state funded Universities. For example, Bachelor of Science degrees in herbal medicine are offered at Universities such as University of East London, Middlesex University, University of Central Lancashire, University of Westminster, University of Lincoln and Napier University in Edinburgh at the present." and: "In 2004 the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the National Institutes of Health began funding clinical trials into the effectiveness of herbal medicine.[124]" As you can see, there HAVE been double blind studies done with herbs, and herbalists, at least in other countries like the UK and Germany, are given training and do have some idea of what they are prescribing. And from the Journal of Neuropsychiatry (12:177-192, May 2000) American Psychiatric Press, Inc.: "In 1976, the Federal Republic of Germany defined herbal remedies in the same manner as conventional medicines. Because of the wide use of herbal remedies in Europe, in 1978 the German government established an expert committee ("Commission E") to evaluate the safety and efficacy of phytotherapy and herbal substances. The committee included physicians, pharmacists, pharmacologists, toxicologists, biostatisticians, pharmaceutical industry representatives, and nonmedical practitioners. The commission reviewed data from clinical trials, field studies, case reports, and scientific literature to establish with "reasonable certainty" the safety and efficacy of the herb in question. The German Commission E's findings were published as 462 monographs (GCEm), evaluating 360 herbs and 391 preparations of herb parts by the end of 1995." Please, for all of the people out there who read your column and follow your advice, do your research before making a statement. Thank you.