Supplement Regulation: Who's Behind It, and Why Should You
Oppose It? - Think the regulations on vitamin, herbal and
other supplements being pushed in the U.S., European Union,
and elsewhere are going to make things safer for you? Think
again - while you're still allowed to. Read Brian Vaszily's
latest.
from:
http://www.mercola.com/2003/jul/19/supplement_regulation.htm
By Brian W. Vaszily Let’s make sure that all vitamin and
herbal supplements are clinically proven to do what they
claim, and that they’re safe, before they reach the
consumer. Let’s ensure that their ingredients are closely
monitored, and that their labels and advertisements tell the
truth and nothing but, so that their consumption can be
based on informed and confident decisions.
What pretty ideals. Pretty enough, in fact, for a host of
politicians and governments, and the pharmaceutical
corporations that control them, to hide a considerably more
ugly agenda behind.
Right now a war is being fought over the regulation of
supplements, with the various battles at different stages in
countries across the globe. The European Union already
passed its Food Supplements Directive in July of 2002,
framing it on the principle that supplements should be
proven safe and effective in the same manner as
pharmaceuticals. The UK did not immediately implement this
directive, but will do so come the end of this month.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a host of other nations
are involved in their own battles, and here in the U.S.
Senator Dick Durbin’s proposed “Dietary Supplement Safety
Act of 2003,” one of the first shots in what will
undoubtedly become a mounting campaign.
In general, the claim behind these bills and directives
supporting tighter (and tighter and tighter) restrictions on
supplements is that they will make the world a safer place
for us, the consumers. Yeah, and so would military
occupation of our towns and cities. In reality, it will have
a polar effect on our health and safety. And it will be
chilling.
Keeping You on the Motherland
On a routine basis, Cubans attempt to escape their homeland
on boats bound for U.S. shores. The ocean waters are
certainly not safe, and there are rarely any guarantees
waiting for them here. Nonetheless, the potential, the
possibilities, are a far better option than the dangerously
flawed regime they are trying to leave behind.
This is an apt metaphor in this situation. Because if one
thing is certain it is this: the conventional healthcare
system, our Cuba, is seriously diseased. It is dominated by
industries who are motivated by profit and who therefore
foster whatever will most increase their profits, your
health be damned. For example, processed food is far cheaper
to produce, deliver and store than much healthier whole
foods, and so it’s processed foods that are dumped en masse
into our supermarkets, restaurants and brains. And
prescription drugs that merely treat symptoms versus prevent
or cure the underlying causes are a whole lot more
profitable because, well, when they keep you coming back for
more and more treatment, they’ve made a customer for life.
Most people, meanwhile, have been brainwashed by this
conventional healthcare regime. They don’t even realize
their daily habits like eating are the primary part of their
healthcare, and so it’s quite easy for their habits and
assumptions to be manipulated by the regime. Only when they
get sick or overweight does their perception of healthcare,
fostered by the pharmaceutical companies and others on that
side of the regime, kick in: they will go to the doctor to
get a prescription to “save” them. And these days, in almost
70% of all patient visits, physicians do indeed give them
the drugs they crave. But if that doesn’t work, if things
get serious or seriously inconvenient, they move on to
surgery. Of course, most prescription drugs and surgeries,
reflecting conventional healthcare as a whole, have nothing
to do with prevention and addressing the causes of illness
-- they’re all about merely treating symptoms so people can
move on with their unhealthy lifestyles and get more
symptoms that need treating. It’s great for repeat business.
Some people, however, are aware of the deadly downward
spiral of the conventional healthcare system. They are
refugees from an oppressive system, to be blunt about it,
seeking better alternatives to prevent and cure illness, and
live longer. And here is the key point of the matter that’s
caused this recent surge in opposition to supplements: their
numbers are increasing dramatically, and they are finding
those better alternatives.
Between 1997 and 2001, there was a 15% increase in sales of
vitamin/mineral supplements. In 2002, the overall market for
the alternatives to prescription drugs, processed and fast
food, and surgery -- that is, natural/organic foods, dietary
supplements and other natural products -- was $37 billion.
Those numbers, that attempt to escape from conventional
healthcare’s stranglehold, is what is behind the recent
worldwide war being waged on the leader among alternatives
at over $17 billion annually, supplements. And it’s those
dictators at the top of conventional medicine, such as the
pharmaceutical companies and the governments they own,
driving this war. You see, all these alternates like
supplements are actually getting people to believe they can
prevent illness and avoid trips to doctors’ offices, and
it’s starting to make a dent in their mega-profits, and
threatens to make a much bigger dent.
They want to blockade your passage to potentially better
shores and force you to stay in their Cuba. They’ll put it
in pretty terms of course, try to package it as something
else like “safety,” but that’s what they’re trying to do,
and already in Europe, apparently succeeding in doing.
Let the Deadly Dictators Do the Dictating?
Thomas Moore, a senior fellow in health policy at the George
Washington University Medical Center, estimates that
prescription drugs -- those reviewed and approved by the FDA
-- contribute to 100,000 U.S. deaths each year. One
prominent reason for this that I’ll visit in an upcoming
article is that the entire research and approval process for
new drugs is a hoax -- in short, drug makers now pay private
for-profit companies to do the clinical studies establishing
safety, and the drug companies have a major say in what is
and is not reported. Meanwhile, who knows how many deaths
they indirectly contribute to by veering people toward an
over-dependency on their quick “fixes” and away from a
preventative and curative approach to health?
On another front, the overweight/obesity epidemic, fed by
other giants profiting heartily on their thrones in the
healthcare motherland, is now directly linked to 300,000
deaths per year.
Sure, everybody’s “gotta’ go sometime,” but the numbers
above -- only a very partial list, mind you -- are far too
many going far too soon because they are trapped in the
conventional health paradigm. Meanwhile, even Senator Dick
Durbin, in his 03/26/03 press release promoting his Dietary
Supplement Safety Act, states that “scientific reports have
linked ephedra and similar dietary supplements to 117 deaths
and more than 17,000 other health related problems.”
You do the math. In fact, go ahead and play devil’s advocate
by assuming that the number of deaths resulting from
conventional health are overblown -- perhaps it’s only a
couple hundred thousand yearly total -- while those from
supplements are too conservative -- perhaps it’s actually
several hundred yearly total. And then do the math.
Where does the real problem that needs addressing reside?
It is precisely those at the heart of this problem that want
to “regulate” supplements.
Pardon me for stepping out of the party line, but why would
I possibly trust them to make the supplement industry “safe
and effective” when I see the monster they’ve created with
conventional healthcare? Why would you?
So What Should You Be Swallowing?
None of this is to say, “So trust everything the supplement
makers tell you and consume, consume, consume!”
There are a lot of exaggerated claims, inconsistent
ingredients between supposedly like products, and other
confusion surrounding supplements. I’m sure you wish you
could walk into any old store, or log onto any Web site, and
know for certain that when an herbal claimed it could help
prevent disease, restore youth, and repel rude people, those
claims would be backed by solid clinical evidence. But you
can’t.
For that matter, I’m sure you wish you could trust the big
businesses and governments to fairly and honestly test
vitamins and herbals so we could make more informed and
confident decisions in this respect. But then you learn
things like this: a major study undertaken to discredit the
herbal St. John’s wart in 2001 received “unrestricted
funding” from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. St. John’s
wort, an anti-depressant, has sales of over $400 million per
year, cutting a niche into the profit of Pfizer’s
prescription anti-depressant Zoloft, and Pfizer doesn’t like
to lose profit. It’s not the first or last time a supplement
was discredited in an “independent” study that received
major pharmaceutical company dollars. Of course, such
knowledge (and there’s a lot more of it to be had) entirely
shoots down any trust in the conventional healthcare
establishment.
And so all that’s left is reality. And reality is, you must
trust your judgment more than any other person or
institution when it comes to your health. That means doing
whatever you feel is necessary to trust a supplement enough
to try it -- researching its claims and source, or finding a
source you trust to recommend the proper supplements to you.
I have worked with Dr. Mercola for some time now, editing
his newsletter and website and researching a wide body of
information from other health experts across the U.S. and
world, and his advice makes exceptional sense: use
supplements sparingly, focusing first and foremost on proper
eating to obtain the nutrients your body needs. That said,
he does suggest in articles throughout Mercola.com that some
supplements may be necessary for many people, such as
Vitamin K, which is therefore the one supplement offered in
his store. He explains:
Vitamin K is commonly found in dark green leafy vegetables
like collard greens and spinach that most people do not
consume enough of. It is found in its highest concentrations
in fermented foods like natto, a fermented soy product that
has been a staple food of eastern Japan for over 1,000 years
but that has not generally caught on with the Western
palate.
Research has shown a very significant correlation between
the consumption of vitamin K through these foods and a
reduction in bone fractures, heart problems, and more.
While many Americans are not even getting the Recommend
Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamin K, there is significant
evidence that the RDA is too low. What’s more, vitamin K is
not easily absorbed by the body, and so the levels found in
foods are not all being taken in by the body -- taking the
vitamin K supplement I offer with meals that include fat is
highly recommended.
When doing your own "due diligence" to research a
supplement, it's obviously worthwhile to obtain third-party
information about the product, such as the research and
evidence offered for Vitamin K above, versus just being
inspired by the claims on the product package or
advertisement. A host of other supplements may be necessary
for those with certain conditions, and it’s worth searching
this site by inputting the name of whatever condition you
are interested in to find more information.
To conclude, there are two choices today: the main choice,
the conventional healthcare paradigm, and the alternatives,
which include supplements. The main choice, being rather
deadly, is really no choice at all. Meanwhile, some of these
alternatives are indeed pure nonsense, others are
questionable, and some have already been proven as sound and
worthwhile. But the point is, we all have the capacity, and
at least some of us still have the legal ability, to choose
from among these alternatives.
The bills and directives across the world to “regulate”
supplements are being pushed by the same powers-that-be that
turned conventional healthcare into a sick joke for their
own greedy ends. With “regulation,” they would be the ones
controlling the alternatives... and so go the alternatives.
Or to put it back into the Cuban metaphor, it’s as if Fidel
Castro himself announced to all those trying to escape his
oppressive regime that he will now be running a refugee
ferryboat service to the shores of Florida. All aboard? Me,
I’ll take my chances swimming.
--
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