Does anyone even remember?
What brought an entire industry to its knees, destroyed careers - and lives? How was a complete coup achieved? And how did it happen in full view of the nation; of something which today, most people still live in ignorance bliss?
Does anyone else remember the Pan crisis? Or, like the rest of Australia, did you just not listen to the pleas of the thousands of ‘alternative’ health physicians who fought for years to prevent its happening?
Baseless persecution destroyed natural health as we knew it just over 20 years ago. An over-the-counter pharmaceutical product that just happened to have ginger in it, was blamed for the death of one person - who has never been identified.
The owner of the company (Jim Selim) was acquitted of any wrongdoing but he lost millions and both his life and reputation were destroyed. When the govt were forced to reimburse him for losses, the media turned the public on him by saying tax payers would be funding it (a TGA, AMA & government modern day collaboration resembling the Spanish Inquisition passed off as a mistake).
A mistake that took years to formulate and almost a year of destruction to execute - both physically and legally. Laws were re-written. Provider numbers of natural health physicians were revoked. Qualifications were revoked. Brick by brick long-established colleges were pulled down. Media darlings both in print and on mid day TV defamed and caricatured any healing modality that did not fall under the burgeoning umbrella of the medical gods. Jim Selim was an unwitting scapegoat to pull down anything seen as competition for modern medicine.
Hundreds of thousands of bottles of supplements, herbals, therapies and adjuvant remedies were destroyed. Pharmacies were the first hypocritical lemmings to wipe everything from their shelves in favour of chemical versions of health products.
What the public were not told is that for the previous close-to-100 years, these same natural health physicians, many of whom studied longer and far wider topics than most medical doctors, had been covered by something called a Grandfather Act. This Act was soon to expire which meant that by the year 2000, the fallacious image of medical doctors would soon end; natural health physicians would once again be able to claim the title of Dr, with all the same rights, respect and recognition that their medical counterparts had.
Years of lampooning the natural healer in the media, TV and movies, dismissal by doctors if a patient dared to ask for a referral to a natural health physician - but worse than that, all the textbook destruction, all the sabotaged research, and having to share the stage with people they had grown to hate; this would cause an avalanche of push-back repercussions. Lost lives, lost incomes, lies and coercions - it would cause a catastrophic collapse of the medical system as it was then known.
And they were not going to allow that to happen. How Selim was selected is anyone’s business. Perhaps he just made too many good products. Perhaps he was on the brink of true affordable blended, integrative medicine for all.
Subsequently, all natural manufacturers were shut down, probably around half of the existing natural professionals were deregistered (me included) and most were never able to practice again.
Big pharma bought out around 90% of existing natural companies. These are the same so-called natural health companies people buy from today. Most formulate little more than synthetic supplements, many of these are ‘practitioner only’ brands. Nutrition is now less about food sources of nutrition and all about medicalisation of encapsulated and IV sustenance.
The other big coup for them was it paved the way for university-trained natural health professionals who were under-trained with watered-down information but now seen as the gold standard in training.
They were taught to promote the 'practitioner-only' products now owned by big pharma and the existing colleges were all shut down except one major player which jumped straight into bed with big pharma while passing itself off as THE leading light in natural health.
All of a sudden, the skills and qualifications of traditionally educated & trained physicians, which were the best in the country, were now obsolete. A consummate coup d'etat in full view with an altogether different story told in the media. All of a sudden, it was no longer about tolerating those pesky healthy fringe dwellers who maybe ate sprouts and did yoga, but an outright war against anyone who dared to be a traitor to the gods of medicine.
Ironically, the original product that started the whole thing (Travacalm), is now back on shelves and owned by a different pharmaceutical company altogether. No fanfare, no change of ingredients. There is even one dedicated to highlighting ginger; also one specifically for children.
The creator was targeted because he paved the way for the blending of natural and modern medicines. Those who initially opposed him, now head the 'integrative' health system. I have personally spoken to family members of staff who originally worked for Pan Pharmaceuticals. A gagging order that was never lifted has ensured the truth has failed to come out.
Long before the shills and trolls, long before a certain wealthy mama blogger’s hatred for anything that threatens modern medicine, there was John Dwyer - his original witch hunt. A man who has never been taken to account for the damage he has caused. Even the documentary exposing the truth (Pandemonium) has been removed from the internet...
Professionals have turned on each other; gatekeepers of registering bodies have become absolute turncoats to the existing professionals. So forgive me if I tend to go on about the state of natural health colleges, the trustworthiness of so many natural health professionals, integrative doctors and health products.
The industry today is so different from just 25 years ago that it's barely recognisable. It's all allowed MLM companies, influencers and gurus to be more sought after than actual professionals.
In the meantime, I hope you will join me in the continued fight for honesty, health and justice for all affected - and still being affected - by medical hegemony. It was never about health, always about money. Those of us who lobbied the government back in the 80s and 90s, arguing that improved natural health care would reduce the pressure and burden upon the medical system, were laughed at. Earlier promises to trial such a thing were dismissed - until now.
