World Health Organization members should make better use of traditional techniques, particularly acupuncture and herbal medicines, to improve health care around the world, according to Prince Charles. International studies indicate the effectiveness of acupuncture techniques, while herbal applications such as St. John’s Wort—which is used to treat non-severe depression—show positive effects in clinical trials with very few side-effects, Charles said. “I believe that the proper mix of proven complementary, traditional and modern remedies, which emphasizes the active participation of the patient, can help to create a powerful healing force in the world,” Charles told the World Health Assembly…“This is where orthodox practice can learn from complementary medicine, the West can learn from the East and new from old traditions,” Charles said. “Many of today’s complementary therapies are rooted in ancient traditions that intuitively understood the need to maintain balance and harmony with our minds, bodies and the natural world. Much of this knowledge, often based on oral traditions, is sadly being lost, yet orthodox medicine has so much to learn from it.”
—Associated Press, CTV.ca, 5/23/06

A poll shows Americans are less confident in the FDA’s role of ensuring the safety and efficacy of new drugs than it was two years ago, with 58% responding they feel the agency does a fair to poor job. Only 36% gave the agency a good or excellent rating, and those numbers are almost exactly the opposite of two years ago.
—The Wall Street Journal, 5/24/06

Researchers at Ohio State University are so enthusiastic about the anticancer potential of black raspberries and other dark-colored fruits that they say it may be time to add a new word to our vocabulary: “Fruitraceuticals.”
“A lot of people are already familiar with the terms ‘nutraceutical’ and ‘functional foods’—both terms that refer to foods that offer proven