mrsd - re your 6th & 7th paragraph above. I couldn't agree more and the why for all this is....GREED and greed may well be the downfall of our country.

Aloneouthere and Marlene, I have no quarrel with your opinions. Here's the situation where I live and why I am so quick to advise people to be cautious: I live in a county that is extremely heteogeneous with immigrants from all over the world. In strip shopping centers all over the place you can find little storefronts with signs out saying things like:Chinese Herbal Remedies, or Holistic Health and Herbs. Inside there is a Chinese lady or someone from India or somewhere who will listen to your symptoms and then mix up a bag of various herbs and twigs out of an assortment of bins and tell you to go home and make a tea out of it to drink, or pull a crudely labled bottle of something off a shelf for you to take home for a "homeopathic" cure. They are diagnosing and prescribing with no credentials of any sort, although they will often offer that they were doctors in their home country. This leaves a lot of area open for abuse and dangerous situations. Very different from what you describe, Marlene, or what might be going on in another country that has it's own credentialling. Of course, I think we should all be careful about taking Western type drugs, too. Many doctors are quick to prescribe unnecessary or potentially harmful drugs. Good food, nutrition and exercise will fix a lot!

Susan,

I did not see your post as a quarrel...I know you were just making sure that we take these concerns into consideration when it comes to alternative treatments. I think you have to strike a personal balance and listen to your gut. We recently stopped working with a Internist who's highly credentialed because "something" was not right. Money and his own agenda took priority. So that radar needs to be working and listened to because there's a lot of abuse and incompetence within our medical system. But after saying that, we have had some wonderful doctors who have helped us through some pretty tough times.

I live in Virginia which requires liscensing for Acupunturist. I would think Georgia does too. Word of mouth is helpful when looking for Alternative medicine practitioners.

Mrs D.....Very scary stuff on the E.coli. One would think basil could not be easily contaminated. Its essential oil is highly antibacterial.

And Dan....I agree....greed seems to be a guiding force by many.

Marlene

Georgia might have licensing for acupuncture, I'm not sure. But what is required by law and what actually happens....... I love living amongst people from lots of different cultures -- but they aren't always used to following regulations and laws. Mrs. D, that is very scary about drugs being deliberatly added to herbs. When you had mentioned contaminents before I thought you just meant bacteria and industrial contaminents.

I had a customer once whose son (in his early 30's) was going blind. Some deterioration of the retina. He went everywhere here, even to the Kresge Eye Institute which was the top of the line then.

NOthing.
Then he met a man online from California, who claimed he could help. So the son flew out there and it turned out this was a Chinese doctor. He gave him treatment Chinese style, and this fellow's vision was saved. It then turned out that this guy emmigrated to China and trained and became a Chinese doctor himself. Now this Dad could not give me many details, but it was a pretty
interesting story.

So there will always be mixed impressions and experiences to share.
The contamination of the herbs exported is alarming because the drugs found in them are very strong. So that when given, there would be a big response.
One third found in that California testing, seems like a very high number to me.
And as time has passed, and more contaminated/poisoned things are coming out of China just this year, I just am very wary now.

new article today:
from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071229/...lement_warning

Hah! I saw this in the newspaper today and thought of YOU, Mrs. D!!! You were right on the money!

Red Yeast Rice for someone, and ran across this:

from http://www.healthfinder.gov/news/new...p?docID=607200

The AARP recently ran an article by Dr. Weil about using red yeast rice instead of statins. Well, guess what? This supposedly safe product is being adulterated in China with a REAL POTENT statin, lovastatin (Mevacor).
So we have to add this to the list above I provided.

If you choose to use Red Yeast Rice, there is a product made in USA that claims it is not Chinese--Doctor's Best. Says made in USA on it. I hope that means what it implies. The active ingredients in red yeast rice are chemically similar to statins, so the statin warnings still apply IMO.