>The statement on the Wise Geeks website "No government-regulated agency
has accepted propolis tincture as a method of prevention or treatment of
any condition" isn't very well-informed. Health Canada, a government
agency, allows companies to claim propolis may be used to "relieve sore
throat and/or other mouth and throat infections."

Such claims are not unusual anymore. But I think that there is too much
weight given to the claim as I shall explain and please forgive me for
going into the technical stuff, as its important to correctly interpret a
"general" claim from a "concise" claim.

Being a rather sickly child my Mum raised me on propolis. I don't know if
it did me any good, but it didn't hurt me either.  That's the same attitude
regulatory authorities take with herbal medicines. If it doesn't
hurt anyone its gets registered. Registration is not about the medicine
working, its about keeping an eye on things, because every once in a while
some new superfad will pop up and start killing people.

The last bad one we had in Australia involved Aristolochia herbal tea for
weight loss. Between the deaths and chronic kidney damage people did lose
weight.....

Globally, Health Authorities operate two parallel but profoundly different
systems of registration. There is nothing to stop a complementary (aka
herbal) medicine from getting on the "schedule" (where the real drugs
live). Indeed around half the drugs on the schedule are purified herbals!

So breaking the Health Canada registered claim down into what it really
means: "propolis MAY be used to RELIEVE sore throat and/or other mouth and
throat infections" (emphasis here on the verbs that have strict definitions
in regulatory law).

What this means is that; maybe it will work, maybe it wont. Noting that MAY
is a lower claim than WILL, just as RELIEVE is a lower claim than either
CURE or PREVENT. Again emphasis on legally defined words. When I read a
claim like this it means that there are no studies of acceptable quality to
demonstrate that propolis has any effect on the stated condition (ie sore
throat). But its registered as a complementary medicine, so its unlikely to
cause you more harm than good.

Karl
Canberra, Australia

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