Actress Jane Seymour Testifies on Alternative Medicine

May 10, 1999

The Congressional Government Reform and Oversight Committee held a hearing February 24 to discuss whether there is bias against alternative medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This agency decides what medical treatments will be evaluated with government funds, and which will not.

Jane Seymour Shares Her Experience with Alternative Medicine

A key witness, actress Jane Seymour, who plays Dr. Quinn in the popular television series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," shared her experiences with herbs, vitamins, and homeopathy. She told the Committee "During my 16 hours a day, 5 days a week job on Dr. Quinn, I rarely got sick.

"Indeed, even pregnant with twins at 45, I was able to support my immune system with this regime and not miss a single day of work," she said. "I propose [that] the NIH stop withholding its billions of dollars in research funds from the implementation of natural medicine and protocols," stated Ms. Seymour.

Representative Dan Burton (Rep.-IN) stressed that "A 1997 survey in The Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that over 42% of Americans used at least one in 16 [various] alternative therapies during the previous year." Whether you support alternative medicine or not, it seems that if taxpayers are forced to foot the NIH's $15.6 billion-per-year research enterprise, then that agency should examine the treatments that millions of Americans are using.

Jane Seymour Supports Health Freedom!

IHF's Sue Blevins caught up with Ms. Seymour after her testimony. When asked her opinion of health freedom, Ms. Seymour said:

I think our health is very much our health and everyone should have the right to choose their own [health care], whether it be spiritually founded, medically founded, allopathic, or alternative.

This article was originally published in the March/April issue of Health Freedom Watch, the bimonthly watchdog report published by the Institute for Health Freedom.