Princess Märtha Louise will focus on alternative medicine alongside spiritual guru Durek Verrett Princess Märtha Louise of Norway has relinquished her royal duties to focus on her alternative medicine business with her fiance, a self-proclaimed shaman, the palace has said. The 51-year-old princess’s relationship with Durek Verrett, a Hollywood spiritual guru, caused waves in Norway after the “sixth-generation shaman” suggested in his book Spirit Hacking that cancer was a choice ..read more

Whistleblower says he was instructed to tell customers the products were safe to consume, despite lack of testing evidence Get our free news app, morning email briefing and daily news podcast A subsidiary of the supplements company Blackmores left a pregnancy multivitamin on shelves for nearly a year despite hundreds of complaints that it was contaminated with mould-like black spots, a former staff member has alleged. In a complaint to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Peter Ellis alleged FIT-BioCeuticals brushed aside concerns about its products, including pregnancy vitamins and vitamin ..read more

Exclusive: Tory leadership candidate has voiced support for what others say is bogus treatment Penny Mordaunt, a leading contender to win the Conservative party leadership contest and become prime minister, has repeatedly advocated the use of homeopathy on the NHS, analysis of her parliamentary records and public comments shows. Homeopathy is a treatment based on the use of highly diluted substances that practitioners claim can cause the body to heal itself. It has been called bogus by the most senior doctor in the NHS, and the health service does not fund it because of “the lack of any eviden ..read more

A pioneering surgery in Brighton is pushing the boundaries of what patients can expect, offering dance classes, art and foraging. Dr Laura Marshall-Andrews on an approach that helps people – and the NHS Working as a GP in 2022 brings Dr Laura Marshall-Andrews deep joy and pride, but it also scares the living hell out of her. She greets me in the waiting room of her Brighton practice, a tall building on a shopping parade close to the beach, and we climb up to a consulting room, where through an open window come sounds of drunk men and seagulls. Though I’m sitting in the patient’s chair, today i ..read more

Clinical trials show that curcumin, present in the spice, may help fight osteoarthritis and other diseases, but there’s a catch – bioavailability, or how to get it into the blood While Kamal Patel was probing through the reams of user data on examine.com – a website that calls itself “the internet’s largest database of nutrition and supplement research” – before a planned revamp later this year, he discovered that the most searched-for supplement on the website was curcumin, a distinctive yellow-orange chemical that is extracted from the rhizomes of turmeric, a tall plant in the ginger family ..read more

From the cavernous shops in Souq El Blat, herbalists share the rich and fascinating history of their proud and ancient trade – and their fears that it could disappear ‘The Souq El Blat is the heartbeat of the medina,” proclaims Mourad Boughanmi, a medicinal herb seller in this historic quarter of Tunis. Indeed, for centuries, its herbs have sustained the bodies of people living here. Bundles of wild thyme, sage, poppy, garlic and eucalyptus have lined the walls of this shadowy souq for at least 700 years. When Covid-19 entered Tunisia in early 2020, some herbalists say demand for plant medicin ..read more

Some of what is on sale is total bunkum. Some is an easy way to spoil your pooch. And some is slightly more complicated … Have you been sold a pup? An increase in pet ownership through the pandemic means there are more than a million extra dogs in Australia than there were in 2019. But the fact that many people are prepared to spend big on their pets has also brought out the snake oil salespeople ..read more

Tribunal hears Simon Floreani also screened an antivax movie in his clinic and participated in an interview called ‘Nazi vaccine regime in Australia’ A Victorian chiropractor who linked childhood vaccination to poison and screened an anti-vaccination movie in his clinic has been suspended for six months for professional misconduct. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) heard that chiropractor Simon Floreani participated in an interview called “Nazi vaccine regime in Australia”, which was published on YouTube in late 2016 ..read more

Pair allegedly charged €150 for ‘ancestral’ ceremonies involving psychotropic substances Spanish police have arrested a couple over accusations they were carrying out rituals – billed online as “international ancestral medicine” – involving an array of banned substances ranging from toad venom to ayahuasca. The couple, aged 42 and 38, allegedly ran an association that performed ceremonies involving psychotropic substances for as much as €150 (£129) a session. Weekend retreats were also on offer at a cost of up to €350 (£300 ..read more

Loss of linguistic diversity may lead to disappearance of age-old remedies unknown to science, study warns Knowledge of medicinal plants is at risk of disappearing as human languages become extinct, a new study has warned. Indigenous languages contain vast amounts of knowledge about ecosystem services provided by the natural world around them. However, more than 30% of the 7,400 languages on the planet are expected to disappear by the end of the century, according to the UN. Related: World must rewild on massive scale to heal nature and climate, says UN ..read more