On herbals

Among the many attention-getting products in the open market today belongs that genre which needs to be examined and studied more carefully because notwithstanding their disclaimers, written in very small and innocuous prints, public health is at issue and the general well being of our people stands to be seriously affected. I refer to those products that, while not claiming to be medicines in the strict sense of the word, hint, at the same time, to be preventive, if not curative, of diverse kinds of known and unknown human ailments. In a manner of speaking, they play around the helplessness of the sick and the gullibility of some. It is not difficult to find them because more often than not, they carry aggressive sales pitches. If we just simply tinker the remote controls of our tv sets, we, in a jiffy, can get to view a horde of them.

For few nights in a row, I intentionally took that route while watching my favored television newscast. During the commercial breaks, I switched channels and in few minutes I came up with such imaginative names as Lactofape, Liveraid, LiverMax, Lucida, MX3, Roch, Taheebo and others I could not any more remember. Most, if not all, claimed to be extracts from herbs and what nature continues to provide. It was their individual assertions that some plants and other indigenous sources have undiscovered extra powers to prevent or cure diseases. Being parts of nature, they were not supposed to cause any side effects even if taken orally.

Let us take a closer look at the testimonies usually accompanying these products or by which strategy they are advertised. Individuals living ordinary lives, not pretty Caucasians or popular movie idols, as ordinary norm would have been, are used. These companies resort to faces that are very easy to identify our own selves with. This, I presume, is the main objective. The success of this sales gimmick lies in making us believe that these products, having proved their medicinal effectivity in the lives of some people, are good for ordinary Filipinos. For example, I marvel at a propaganda value of a certain lady featured as coming from a remote town. In the advertisement, she is projected to have found a cure for her complex diseases from some kind of an herbal. Thus won from an impending death, she is portrayed to have composed and sung her own song, in Cebuano at that, if only to express thanks to such product.

When I shared my observations with my friends, I elicited a number of eye-popping reactions. The down-to-earth, perhaps, altruistic, presentation subconsciously swayed viewers leading others to admit that they too, had such relief after taking in this or that capsule. Some claimed that a product seemed to alleviate a certain discomfort. Still, there were others who professed knowing someone to have been fully healed of a dreadful sickness, compliment of another herbal. Of course, a part of my group simply dismissed the claims as utterly unscientific, whatever that means.

From such heated interaction, I realized that government has to come in. Protection of public health is more a premium than a basic service. I am sure that authorities have been taking steps to ensure that no one takes for granted the fact of ingesting something. It is most reassuring however, to hear of our government engaged in a sustained drive of placing all such products thru a proverbial gauntlet. Laboratory examinations must be very rigid and strict. Where authorities are able to validate a claim of an herbal product to have positive impact on our health, let government so certify and help in its production that its price may be brought within reach of our impoverished people. On the other hand, where a product does not have any advantageous effect at all, such that an expense on it is practically wasted, let it be also clearly declared both to avoid misleading the public and to save on our peso.

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