About us

What is the Alliance for Natural Health?

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) was founded in 2002 by Dr Robert Verkerk, an internationally acclaimed scientist, with over 25 years of academic, commercial and campaign experience in sustainability as it relates to the environment, agriculture and health.

The ANH is an internationally-active, not-for-profit,  non-governmental organisation, based in the UK, that is working on behalf of the general public and natural health interests to help positively shape the regulatory and scientific framework affecting natural health in order to develop more sustainable, natural and biologically-compatible approaches to healthcare.

As an alliance, the ANH brings together, globally, consumers, scientists, medical doctors, integrative practitioners, lawyers and other interested persons—all with a common interest to protect and promote natural health.

Why are we important to you?

We are working on your behalf to stop bans on safe and effective natural products used by millions in healthcare. In a world where pharmaceutical drugs, complete with a raft of side effects, have become accepted by the medical establishment and  healthcare authorities as the central plank in healthcare, many consumers around the world are choosing different ways to maintain and promote health.

Executive Director of ANH, Dr Robert Verkerk, and past Legal Director, David Hinde, following the ANH's successful referral of its case to the European Court of Justice (January 2004), to protect bans on food supplements, particularly natural sources of vitamins and minerals

Natural products, be they herbs from long-standing eastern or other traditional medicinal cultures or sophisticated food supplements and functional foods, continue to help millions of people to restore balance in their bodies, so that self-healing processes are restored and good health is resumed. But therapeutic natural products are now deeply under threat, nationally and internationally, as increasingly stringent regulatory requirements are being ushered in by pharmaceutically-biased regulators, supported by a clutch of transnational corporations in the pharmaceutical and food sectors.

We in the ANH believe that every person has a right to use nature to help maintain or regain health, and it is an infringement of our civil liberties to prevent this. We also argue that good science and good law are the vital tools needed to help re-access this right, given that these processes work with rather than against nature. Good science and good law is what ANH does daily on your behalf, working locally, nationally and internationally.

The campaign is headed by Dr Robert Verkerk, a world-renowned scientist who has worked tirelessly on health, agricultural and environmental issues both in academia, the commercial sector and as a campaigner.

The ANH campaign, since its inception in 2002 as a response to the European Food Supplements Directive which threatened to ban thousands of products across Europe, the ANH has continued to pull together disparate groups of consumers, practitioners, doctors, scientists, lawyers and leading-edge companies who all see the immense risks posed by regulatory threats in Europe and internationally. The totality of these measures are capable of legislating safe, effective and innovative food supplements, natural therapies adn traditional medicinal cultures out of existence. They may in the future also drastically restrict the practice of traditional medicinal cultures, some of which are thousands of years old.

We are very focused, with a clear remit: to protect natural healthcare using an approach that is rational and underpinned by good science and good law.

Key achievements to date include:

• Raised public awareness of the significance of legislative threats to the long-term sustainability of natural healthcare
• Made significant amendments to EU legislation through collaboration with Members of the European Parliament
• Brought the landmark legal challenge to the EU Food Supplements Directive in the High Court London and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (2004-5)
• Promoted rational science as the basis on which safety of nutrients should be assessed at a global level through the Codex Alimentarius Commission
• Deconstructed flawed approaches to risk assessment and management, which are being used by regulators in an attempt to ban higher, beneficial dosages of natural products
• Created a united front of common interests across Europe, the USA and many other countries

We welcome you to our website. Please explore the many areas accessible via hyperlinks from this homepage, including our informative news archive and newsfeed. And most importantly - please get involved and support the Alliance for Natural Health in whatever way you can.  We are solely donation funded, so all donations [link to donations screen after clicking on box] are very greatly appreciated.

Thank you - in health, naturally

The ANH Team

In the European Court of Justice after the oral hearing
of the ANH's food supplement case in January 2005

The ANH Core Team

Dr Robert Verkerk BSc MSc DIC PhD, Executive and Scientific Director

Dr Verkerk is an internationally-acclaimed expert in sustainability, with 25 years of experience particularly in the areas of agriculture and healthcare. He has a Masters Degree and Doctorate from Imperial College London, where he also worked as a Postdoctorate Research Fellow for 7 years. He has extensive international experience, having worked especially in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australasia and North and Central America. He has acted as an advisor to governments but has always maintained strong connections with the NGO sector. Dr Verkerk founded the ANH in 2002 and has been its Scientific and Executive Director ever since.

Dr Damien Downing MB BS LicAc, Medical Director

Dr Downing, a medically-qualified physician, has practiced nutritional and natural medicine for over 25 years. He presently practices in Harley Street, London and from a clinic in York. In addition to his responsibilities as Medical Director of the ANH, Dr Downing is the President of the British Society of Ecological Medicine, which is the sole association of medical doctors practising nutritional and environmental medicine in the UK. He is also editor of the peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Environmental and Nutritional Medicine.

Robert Collins BA, Barrister-at-Law, Legal Director

Robert Collins has a qualified lawyer with 15 years experience as a military barrister. He has a strong interest in natural medicine and followed the ANH’s legal progress closely for two years before joining ANH’s directorship in 2006. He has played a central role in facilitating gains as a result of the ANH’s legal challenge of the EU Food Supplements Directive, the ruling of which was handed down by the European Court of Justice in 2005. 

Paul Harris BSc, MBA, Finance Director

Paul Harris has extensive experience of manufacturing and service companies, at Director level, in a wide range of business sectors. He brings his administrative and financial experience to the ANH, which is the only not-for-profit NGO with which he is associated. He has experience across all functions of business and an understanding of the preferred business operation from a funder’s perspective.

Meleni Aldridge, Development Manager

Meleni Aldridge has 15 years of experience as a practitioner of complementary and holistic medicine and 11 years teaching experience in her capacity as a Senior Lecturer at a UK university. She has previously worked in the banking and insurance sectors. Her initial training in health and body work was in South Africa, having spent her childhood in Zimbabwe. Her skills as a practitioner and communicator, coupled with her life-long commitment to natural medicine, bring invaluable experience to Meleni’s role as the Development Manager of the ANH, a position she has held since 2005.

ANH affiliates

The ANH has developed an affiliation program with its founding affiliate, the American Association for Health Freedom and the Health Freedom Foundation. This program helps better coordinate international work on natural health protection issues.

Current affiliates

USA affiliate:
American Association for Health Freedom

Norwegian affiliate:
Fritt Helsevalg

New Zealand affiliate
New Zealand Health Trust

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