WARNINGS have been issued over the use of alternative medicine following the death of a woman at a therapy retreat - as it emerged a child had died receiving the same controversial treatment .

Grandmother Danielle Carr-Gomm, from Lewes, died whilst taking part in a course of Chinese slapping therapy.

Today we can report that last May seven year old Aidan Fenton - who also suffered from type-1 diabetes - died in Australia after being treated.

Director of doctoral studies at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School Professor Pietro Ghezzi warned that patients taking complementary therapies could “endanger their lives” as some supposedly natural therapies were contaminated with toxins or if patients stopped taking approved medicines.

Ms Carr-Gomme had been warned that she could die if she stopped taking insulin. On a previous retreat with the same organisation in Bulgaria she said she had fasted, stopped taking her insulin and ended up suffering seizures and vomiting “black syrup”.

Aidan is believed to have had type 1 diabetes and police were investigating whether he had been taking insulin before his death.

Aidan had attended a workshop delivering the slapping and stretching techniques with his mother

The Chinese therapy involves slapping the skin in a bid to clear the body of toxins but the controversial treatment is not the only complementary medicine to cause concerns.

Doctors have warned of the dangers of complementary therapies which can be not only ineffective but potentially dangerous.

The hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca - used in Shamanic treatment centres- was linked in an inquest to the mental breakdown of a Brighton mother who committed suicide in 2007.

And in 2003 Sarah Parkinson - wife of comedian Paul Merton - died after refusing chemotherapy for cancer.

Ms Parkinson, of Rye, opted instead to try nutritional therapy, yoga, meditation, positive thinking and laughter

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has calculated that alternative medicine is now a £2.3 billion-a-year business, with 50,000 practitioners making a living from it. Yet scientific support for the industry is almost non-existent

The House of Lords scientific committee investigated complementary medicine (CM) a few years ago and highlighted the lack of proper evidence for the efficacy of treatments. It also warned about unregulated quacks and the dangers of seeking CM treatment in place of conventional diagnosis.

Last month OCT doctors writing in the British Medical Journal warned of the dangers of complementary and alternative medicines. after a four year old boy had to be admitted to accident and emergency after his parents gave him 12 different alternative treatments.