fw: Supplement Regulation - Who's Behind It, and Why Should You Oppose It?

[Guest guest]

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.