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Charles
to Finance US Ageing Research
September 6, 2003 The Prince of Wales is
about to give financial backing to a leading alternative medicine centre
in the United States to fund research to reverse the process of ageing. The prince, 54, has authorised
his US charity to generously fund a research fellowship at the National
Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Maryland - part of
the National Institutes of Health - after being impressed by the work of
Marc Blackman, its clinical director. The offer came after Dr
Blackman and his wife, Linda, and other alternative medical experts were
invited by Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles to a private dinner at
St James's Palace last November, "to discuss ideas and visions for
complementary medicine", according to a US embassy document obtained
by the Guardian. Dr Blackman said that he had
originally applied to the Prince of Wales Foundation in Washington for a
grant. His application led to the invitation to dinner. He said: "I was very
honoured to be invited. I was also very impressed with how knowledgeable
both the prince and Camilla were about alternative and complementary
medicine. It was a small dinner party with some 20 guests, nearly all from
Europe." He said that after the dinner
the centre had received a site visit from two members of the prince's
charities, one from Washington and one from London. " I think they
were checking us out." The funding will be announced
on Monday. Dr Blackman said: "The aim
of the research is to have a gentler and better old age and take out some
of the pain and discomfort caused by the ageing process." The prince has long championed
the cause of alternative medicine. He has pushed the government to pour
millions of pounds into researching the clinical effects of such
treatments. In 2000, he was reported to have held a 90- minute meeting
with the then health minister, Alan Milburn, to persuade him. The prince has called for the
integration of alternative medicine with orthodox treatments, arguing that
such an approach would help patients and save the NHS money over the
long-term. He believes that more and more people are turning to
homoeopathy, herbal medicine, and other therapies. But the decision to fund
research in the US was criticised by Edzard Ernst, chairman of
complementary medicine at Exeter University. "This begs the question
why the future king is offering to fund an American institution to
research this area, when in Britain we have the richest source for
research in the NHS." Dr Blackman is an authority on
age-related degenerative illness and the effects of hormones in ageing
bodies. Last year he published the most comprehensive clinical study yet
into the effects of using growth hormones and steroids in healthy
pensioners aged between 65 and 88. His research showed that many
of the men lost their paunches and both sexes improved their aerobic
ability. But his research programme resulted in dangerous and unpleasant
side-effects. Yesterday Professor Ernst said:
"Use of growth hormones is very risky and any research into them
would be controversial. But at least Dr Blackman has drawn attention to
the risks." Raymond Tallis, professor of geriatric medicine at
Manchester University, said : "The jury is still out on this. It is
not as exciting as it once seemed." The research fellowship will be awarded to the division of intramural research at the national centre which is run by Dr Blackman. It conducts clinical investigations into the efficacy and safety of alternative and conventional medicine. Its major theme is investigating the potential success for treatments that can alleviate problems for the elderly from depression, loss of brain power, chronic pain, frailty and sleep disorders. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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