CPP Conference
I went to the CPP conference for the first time this year. It is also the first year the venue has been at London House. This building is part of Goodenough College and is near the Russell Street tube station. The building is lovely, what I saw of it anyway. Oak panelling on the walls in some rooms, marble floors and walls in the entrances and reception rooms. In the refectory/cafeteria/eating space the wood panelling was up to about 2 feet below the ceiling with what looked like coats of arms around the walls/ceiling and lots of portraits of people on the walls. (I assume Deans or Headmasters)
The conference started at 09.30 and I arrived about 10 minutes later while people were still arriving. This was the meet, greet, get tea and pick up your name badge portion of the proceedings. I met Pamela Bull who is amazing, I swear if anything happened to her the CPP would just fall apart at the seams!
We got settled and the Chair introduced the first speaker Dr Dick Middleton who was talking about drug/herb interactions from a regulatory body perspective. It was really interesting. He spoke a lot about why there were warnings on over the counter (OTC) medicines for things that we as herbalists know are reactions to be so low as to be negligible; its basically because the assumption by the regulatory authorities is that the person who buys the OTC will have no intervention by a healthcare provider of any kind and the information sheet they get with the product is the only safety information they have. Therefore it has to be much more vigorous.
As part of his presentation he had a couple of slides that went through all the recognised contraindications (recognised via clinical research) of every TRH, which are traditional herbal registration certificate marks for specific herbs. According to the MHRA "Where the herbal medicine carries the Certification Mark this means that the MHRA has assessed the product to ensure that is acceptably safe when used as intended, is manufactured to the quality standards we set, and is accompanied by reliable and accurate product information for the public and patients. The authorised dosage of the medicine is based of evidence of its traditional use. The effectiveness of the product has not been assessed by the MHRA" The manufacturers of any OTC herbal remedy can apply for a THR. While showing those particular slides he talked about the theoretical and not so theoretical contraindications of certain herbs with specific drug types; i.e. the theoretical rick of Vitex and dopamine agonists and antagonists.
Dr Chris Etheridge then went through some case histories. Notably, a synergistic reaction between Salbutamol and Coleus forskohlii for a patient suffering with asthma.
Dr Saul Berkovitz was due to present the next set of case histories but he wasn't able to attend so they were presented by someone else. Also on using herbs safely with modern drugs.
An update was given as to what the current situation is with regards to Echinacea and under 12's. Apparently the CPP has been collecting case history information from members who have been treating children under 12 with Echinacea to present to the MHRA along with the NIMH, they have been doing the same thing.
The next presentation was also case histories, presented by Dr Serene Foster. Professor Liz Williamson was unable to be there. This was really interesting because the case histories were all positive interactions between pharmaceutical preparations and herbs. With the herbs increasing the efficacy of the drugs in some cases.
After this presentation there was the discussion panel for all the previous topics as well as a short progress report about the current situation and progress of the regulation issue and then we broke for lunch.
After lunch Brian Lamb gave a presentation about the medieval hospital at Soutra Aisle in Scotland. Brilliant presentation, Brian was very funny and very informative. Apparently the hospital when it was built was 3/4 of a mile square and that's the building not the grounds. The people who were in charge of the hospital were Augustinian monks and they used herbal medicine exclusively, apparently the herbal they used was Macers herbal (pronounced Mace-er) which was only ever written in Latin. Apparently Brian Mothill or Moppet (I didn't manage to get the gentleman's surname clearly) who is the director of the site has written Sharpe Practice 1-6: Sutra Hospital Archiobotannical Report which I soooo want to get my hands on. At the site there was also a well of healing water according to both Brians which distracted him into talking about water and healing water specifically and also what the criteria is for water being a healing water. They are as follows:
1) Must be clean - no pollutants of any kind
2) High oxygen saturation
3) Must have an acid pH
4) Must have a low redot potentional
5) Very low mineral content
Brian's presentation went on until about 3.15pm, there was a break for coffee and then they had the AGM.
All in all, a very enjoyable day where I met lots of lovely interesting people and found out some very useful information.
The conference started at 09.30 and I arrived about 10 minutes later while people were still arriving. This was the meet, greet, get tea and pick up your name badge portion of the proceedings. I met Pamela Bull who is amazing, I swear if anything happened to her the CPP would just fall apart at the seams!
We got settled and the Chair introduced the first speaker Dr Dick Middleton who was talking about drug/herb interactions from a regulatory body perspective. It was really interesting. He spoke a lot about why there were warnings on over the counter (OTC) medicines for things that we as herbalists know are reactions to be so low as to be negligible; its basically because the assumption by the regulatory authorities is that the person who buys the OTC will have no intervention by a healthcare provider of any kind and the information sheet they get with the product is the only safety information they have. Therefore it has to be much more vigorous.
As part of his presentation he had a couple of slides that went through all the recognised contraindications (recognised via clinical research) of every TRH, which are traditional herbal registration certificate marks for specific herbs. According to the MHRA "Where the herbal medicine carries the Certification Mark this means that the MHRA has assessed the product to ensure that is acceptably safe when used as intended, is manufactured to the quality standards we set, and is accompanied by reliable and accurate product information for the public and patients. The authorised dosage of the medicine is based of evidence of its traditional use. The effectiveness of the product has not been assessed by the MHRA" The manufacturers of any OTC herbal remedy can apply for a THR. While showing those particular slides he talked about the theoretical and not so theoretical contraindications of certain herbs with specific drug types; i.e. the theoretical rick of Vitex and dopamine agonists and antagonists.
Dr Chris Etheridge then went through some case histories. Notably, a synergistic reaction between Salbutamol and Coleus forskohlii for a patient suffering with asthma.
Dr Saul Berkovitz was due to present the next set of case histories but he wasn't able to attend so they were presented by someone else. Also on using herbs safely with modern drugs.
An update was given as to what the current situation is with regards to Echinacea and under 12's. Apparently the CPP has been collecting case history information from members who have been treating children under 12 with Echinacea to present to the MHRA along with the NIMH, they have been doing the same thing.
The next presentation was also case histories, presented by Dr Serene Foster. Professor Liz Williamson was unable to be there. This was really interesting because the case histories were all positive interactions between pharmaceutical preparations and herbs. With the herbs increasing the efficacy of the drugs in some cases.
After this presentation there was the discussion panel for all the previous topics as well as a short progress report about the current situation and progress of the regulation issue and then we broke for lunch.
After lunch Brian Lamb gave a presentation about the medieval hospital at Soutra Aisle in Scotland. Brilliant presentation, Brian was very funny and very informative. Apparently the hospital when it was built was 3/4 of a mile square and that's the building not the grounds. The people who were in charge of the hospital were Augustinian monks and they used herbal medicine exclusively, apparently the herbal they used was Macers herbal (pronounced Mace-er) which was only ever written in Latin. Apparently Brian Mothill or Moppet (I didn't manage to get the gentleman's surname clearly) who is the director of the site has written Sharpe Practice 1-6: Sutra Hospital Archiobotannical Report which I soooo want to get my hands on. At the site there was also a well of healing water according to both Brians which distracted him into talking about water and healing water specifically and also what the criteria is for water being a healing water. They are as follows:
1) Must be clean - no pollutants of any kind
2) High oxygen saturation
3) Must have an acid pH
4) Must have a low redot potentional
5) Very low mineral content
Brian's presentation went on until about 3.15pm, there was a break for coffee and then they had the AGM.
All in all, a very enjoyable day where I met lots of lovely interesting people and found out some very useful information.
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