My Experience of Alternative Medicine in Spain

[Guest guest]

Hi Health Activists & Consumers,

I just returned from vacation in Spain for most of July.

My wife was taking a Course in Spanish Culture at the University of Alcala de

Henares slightly outside Madrid. I accompanied her and attempted to use the

time to help get the European Union and perhaps the Spanish Government to

oppose the current European Union Food Supplement Directive restricting

supplements. It was not that easy. My limited spanish language skills were not

the only

problem. I was graciously introduced to 2 activists in Spain, AlfonzoSainz

and Vinas, both of Madrid. I did not get to meet them and had

trouble using the phones there. At the end of my 3 weeks in Madrid I sent them

the

following Email which summarizes the somewhat sorry state of alternative

medicine in Spain--there is very little. So little at present that the new EU

directive does not restrict their currently available supplements-if applied it

would even allow more vitamins and mineral products on the market!

Hi Alfonso & ,

Sorry I couldn´t make contact in Madrid. We are going up to Bilbao and

through the north of Spain for a week.

I see you have very limited to insignificant amounts of Vitamins & minerals

for sale in Spain. I did see some herbs and homeopathic remedies in an

Herbolario and some even sold openly with some claims for homeopathic

remedies and herbs.

I visited the Centro Internacional de Dietetica y Nutrcion in Alcala de

Henares. Located at Paseo del estacion,3. I spoke to the woman at the

counter in my limited Spanish. She was not aware of the possible

restrictions on her ailability to continue selling some of the products she

is now selling. she did not have an Email address.

It appears that most of the allowed nutritional counselling revolves around

use of a selection of healthy foods for providing nutrients. I found a small

health magazine that emphasized obtaining nutrition from fresh fruits and

vegetables. I am not

familiar with your countries experience with the use and regulation of

pesticide contamination in the conventionally grown agricultural commodities

marketplace. From a web search a see that you have a law for establishing

Organic Agricultural produce since July 1998, but I could not find any

available in the few grocery stores or Champion Supermarket that l visited.

I hoped perhaps you did not use as much pesticides as we do in the United

States and the third worlde countries we import much of our food. At least

your apples are not as ¨shiny and covered as ours are¨. But then I read an

article on the web by Nicolas Olea, Catedracto of Medicina Interna,Dept. of

Radiology, University of Granada, it was dated 29/04/01 on the dangers of

pesticide use m www.aldearural.com/alpujarra/_disc1/0000000a.htm

I was surprised at how much of a technical report I could understand with my

limited Spanish.Reading is easier than speaking.

Under these circumstances nutrition from natural whole foods can be of a

limited value due to umwanted side effects of overuse of pesticides. As an

environmental activist, which I believe Olea to be. you might be able to

generate some support from the elected members members of the Green party in

the European Parliament and in the Spanish Parlaiment. I believe the Green

Party in Spain is part of the Governing Coalition with the Socialists in the

current Spanish parlaiment. In any event alliance with these Greens who

basically are oriented to a more natural approach might be productive and

be able to bring some political pressure against the medico-pharmaceutical

forces trying to restrict availability of more natural ecologically balanced

and sustainable agriculture and health.

I could not get my regular email account with aol to work here, so I opened

up this temporary account to send this message to you. My regular email:

arnoldgore@...

Thanks and good luck with your fight. Spain really needs some

more changes making health freedom more available and known.

Best wishes,

Arnold

_________________________________________________________________

Overwhelmed by debt? Find out how to ‘Dig Yourself Out of Debt’ from MSN

Money. http://special.msn.com/money/0407debt.armx