Finally– Legislation to Protect Your Right to Know About the Science Behind Supplements!

Take Action Today. Help Us Gain Cosponsors for the Free Speech About Science Act, H.R. 4913!
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Consumers are largely kept in the dark about the potential health benefits of foods and supplements. Why? Because current law makes it illegal for food and supplement producers to share this information.
Today Congressmen Jason Chaffetz (R, UT) and Jared Polis (D, CO) have introduced the Free Speech about Science Act (H.R. 4913). This landmark legislation protects basic free speech rights, ends censorship of science, and enables the natural health products community to share peer-reviewed scientific findings about natural health products with the public.
ANH-USA has been working toward the introduction of this bill for several years. Now that it is finally here, we need your help to gain cosponsors and support.
At first sight, this might not appear to be a blockbuster bill. But look closely. If it passes, Free Speech about Science has the potential to transform the healthcare field by educating the public about the real science behind natural health. This is a small bill with vast potential leverage.
For this very reason, the bill will have opposition. It will be opposed by the FDA for reasons we will explain. It will be opposed by drug companies fearing competition from natural health approaches based on diet, dietary supplements, and lifestyle. Please do not let these special interests stop this bill. Please contact your representative today. Ask him or her to cosponsor this vital legislation. Take action now.
We all know that consumers are looking for reliable information backed by legitimate scientific research in order to make informed choices about diet and health. Access to this information is essential if we are to know which foods and food supplements really are healthy and contribute to good health.
science_actThe FDA mission statement says that the agency is charged with helping educate the public about health. The Agency mostly ignores this mission and seems intent only on keeping even valid science under wraps.
Drug companies are of course entirely free to flood the airwaves and print media with ads. As has been well established, the FDA does very little monitoring of these ads. In some cases, drug ads are highly misleading. For example, if you listen closely to a drug ad for antacids, you will see that they give an impression the drugs will cure heartburn but do not actually claim to do so (because the drugs do not cure it and may actually make it worse).
In sharp contrast to the treatment of drug companies, current FDA regulations flatly forbid food and supplement manufacturers from mentioning any link between a product and a health condition, even if the link is established by peer reviewed scientific studies coming out of Harvard and other highly respected universities. Any producer that fails to comply with this censorship regime will have its product declared an unapproved drug. Selling an unapproved drug in turn will lead to fines and even jail.
The FDA has issued many warning letters to various food producers to keep them from telling consumers truthfully about the healthful nature of their products. For example, cherry growers have been targeted and enjoined from referencing peer-reviewed scientific articles showing cherries’ health benefits for gout and arthritis.
For years, the FDA barred health claims about the benefits of fish oil for heart, cancer, depression, body pain, and various other conditions until a drug company paid to go through the approval process. Not surprisingly, the FDA approved version of fish oil (the only kind that can be reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid and the VA) costs as much as ten times more than otherwise available, high quality fish oil.
In the FDA’s view, even providing a link on a website to a scientific study converts a healthy fruit or nut into an unapproved drug, a bizarre result that effectively denies Americans scientific information that could alleviate their illnesses or even save their lives.
If the FDA insists that even cherries must be brought through the full drug review process in order to make any health condition claim, why not just go along? The problem is that FDA approval easily costs a billion dollars! Drug companies can only pay these vast sums because they have patent protection and will use that patent protection to create a monopoly on the sale of the product. Result? $100 per pill in some cases.
Natural products cannot usually be patented and therefore cannot usually be brought through such an expensive approval process. The FDA knows this, but ignores it. It willfully excludes most natural substances from medicine.
Who does the FDA expect to pay the billion dollar cost of approval for cherries? The cherry growers? And don’t forget: the cherry growers cannot combine efforts to do this because that would violate anti-trust laws. And would we want to pay ten times as much for cherries if a cherry company was foolish enough to try to do this?
This is what we have called the great Catch 22 of contemporary American medicine. Doctors are afraid to prescribe non-FDA approved medications. They can lose their licenses for doing so. But with very few exceptions, only non-natural and therefore patentable substances can be brought through the FDA approval process.
The result is an FDA enforced monopoly for drug companies. Natural and often much safer and cheaper natural remedies are ignored. Natural medicine based on diet, dietary supplements, and lifestyle, which ought to be at the center of medicine, is shunted off to the sidelines and subjected to legal threats.
There are many things that need to be done about this. For one thing, we should not allow drug companies to pay FDA expenses and salaries. We should not allow drug companies to pay scientists serving on FDA panels or allow a revolving employment door between the drug companies and the FDA. In other words, we need to reform the FDA.
But Free Speech about Science is a major first step. It will go far toward breaking up the drug company monopoly and the drug company chokehold on the dissemination of scientific information.
Note that the Free Speech about Science Act provides a very carefully targeted change to FDA regulations. It simply says that legitimate, peer reviewed, scientific studies may be referenced by manufacturers and producers without converting a healthy food or dietary supplement into an unapproved drug. The bill amends the appropriate sections of current law to allow the flow of legitimate scientific and educational information while still giving FDA and FTC the right to take action against misleading information and against false and unsubstantiated claims.
Government (and especially allied drug companies) should not be the gatekeeper of scientific information. Consumers have a right to hear about legitimate scientific research.
As soon as the bill is filed in the Senate, we will ask you to contact your senator, but for now we have to concentrate on the House, where a bill of this sort usually originates. Please contact your representative today and ask him or her to cosponsor the Free Speech about Science Act!
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89 comments

  1. Why is this called Free Speech about Science Act? This seems to be forcing natural solutions under a medical frame and that could cause problems down the road. The need for peer-reviewed scientific evidence should not be needed to be able to freely discuss the wonders of cherries. Free speech is supposed to mean free speech. I believe backing this bill will lead the naturals world into something it did not intend down the road.
    Signers beware. Something is not right with this one in my opinion.

  2. I have been helped by supplements, homeopathic and other natural products for years. As consumers, we have the right to know the scientific evidence that has been published.

  3. I appreciate the information on your organization and back your goals 100% and will support your legislative plans.
    I have already been one of McCains supporters who made it clear to him how bad is planned legislation was concerning health supplements.

  4. Regarding H.R. 4913, this bill is very important. The rights of citizens have been violated, I believe, because they have not been allowed by the FDA to learn about the benefits of natural foods for their health. It’s as though the FDA works for the drug industry. I know from my own experience the benefit of eating wholesome foods since I have dropped 30 lbs. in a little over 1-1/2 yrs. by changing my diet and exercising. I have not taken diet pills. Many of the annoying problems I had are alleviated now, such as acid reflux, shortness of breath, etc. I go to a wellness clinic and also take supplements (natural not synthetic). I hope you will consider co-sponsoring this bill. I know you have been a doctor and are concerned about health. Thanks you.

  5. Please cosponsor the free speech about science act. This is so necessesary.
    Thank You

  6. HELLO,
    In the interest of creating REAL health care reform in America, I submit the following:
    Clean fruits and vegetables without pesticides when ingested daily without other toxic foods, processed to deplete nutrition, and without medical toxoids will ensure good health and eliminate cancer and disease in this country.
    As such, we are seeking to educate the poorly educated regarding opening knowledge dissemination channels and sharing accurate health knowledge (as in the previous paragraph) by first of all, paying attention to the FREE SPEECH ABOUT SCIENCE ACT. I urge you with all my might to support this act. Thank you on behalf of all Healthy People Now and To Come.

  7. I have been successfully controlling my systemic cancer myself, without a doctors help, since 2002. Suzanne Somers wrote a book “KNOCKOUT” telling of doctors who are curing cancer alternative ways. Drug companies seem to have the media turn a blind eye to what should be the headlines of the century. I can’t imagine Hitlers Germany being any worse — so many, many innocent trusting folks are suffering agonizing deaths, in my opinion, needlessly. The over the counter items I use are different and simpler to use than any mentioned in Suzanne’s book.
    THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU ___ for telling me of this”act”.

  8. What I don’t understand is why there is even any debate at all about this. Shouldn’t the truth about anything, good or bad, be the ultimate goal? Why would there not be co-sponsors about anything that reveals the true nature of everything we seek to put into our bodies? After all, the same health aspects apply to them and their families too.

  9. The big problem with most of the health care proposals being so loudly touted is that nearly none consider the root causes of outrageously high medical costs. The most important is health damaging lifestyle and food ingredients like GMO plants, antibiotics given to healthy meat producing animals and fish, enviromental toxins like mercury in the fish, medicines that don’t get the advertised results and cause side effects that require more drugs, excessive consumption of high fructose corn syrup and sugar, need for tort reform, unnecessay tests to protect the doctor, corruption in FDA putting dangerous drugs on the market using scientists from the drug companies to approve the bad drugs, Need complete independence for FDA scientists from the Drug industry, collusion between drug companies and health officials to push hoax and dangerous vaccines like Guardasil and H1N1, not having uniform health policies nationwide that can be bought any where convenient, giving illegal aliens free care, MARSA in the hospitals, Not studyiung adecuately cheap and natural remedies because the big drug companies can’t make a big profit on non patentable natural cures, drug reps are the ongoing education of main stream doctors, drug companies bribe doctors to prescribe their medicines, Public advertising of drugs increases demand and side effects, more government control increases costs because each government worker gets paid and gets in the way of doctor patient action, soy bean are touted as healthy when they are clearly not good for you unless fermented, unhealthy foods are subsidized by the US Gov’t, You can’t squeeze any thing out of insurance companies earnin 2.3% on sales, You can’t reduce doctor pay and get more doctors to handle more clients each, The focus is all on the wrong things. More Goverment control isn’t the answer. Honesty in studies, good scientific decisiones regardless of profit, fair evaluations by FDA for natural herbs and therapies, EFT can cure PSTD in days not years and without drugs,these are some of the answers. The doctors and hospitals and drug companies kill too many people with errors and wrong drugs, We have the wrong algorithim, expensive toxic drugs and knives and radiation and it is killing and bankrupting us, a really good education in healthy life style from age 2 up would work wonders that no government can do, but who would teach it? The drug companies would fight it tooth and nail and they have the money to provide misinformation and hide the cheap good secrets. Processed junk food factories aren’t going to tell you their food is bad for you. Who will? And many don’t even care what happens to their health. You can’t protect people against themselves. And certainly not against the goverment.

  10. Please cosponsor HR 4913 the Free Speech about Science act. Consumers should be able to receive truthful information about dietary supplements. These should be treated as foods, not drugs.

  11. Free Speech about Science Act is long in coming. Yes, the claims must stand up to a rigorous examination, but if repeated trials have proven a claim to be true, we, the public, have a right to know–just as we have a right to know when something is presented to us under false claims.

  12. Hello!
    It’s time to listen to people,and allow natural Herbs and Vitiams to take it’s place in our lives.
    The FDA has killed enough people by approveing Deadly Meds,. so they could make extra dollars
    Nature brought us here.So it is time we get back to basics.I known many that take Redrice Yeast
    and it has done a better job than all the poison the [FDA APPROVED].
    SO TO THE MEN AND WOMAN IN CHARGE.GO BACK TO NATURE!

  13. Please lend your support to this bill (HR. 4913) sponsored By Chaffetz and Polis.
    It is sorely needed to end the FDA & big Pharma control over natural supplements

  14. I urge you to support the Free Speech re: Science Act. The public has a right to know about the efficacy of nutritional supplements. It provides a choice instead opting for drugs with their many side effects. Don’t allow the pharmaceutical companies stifle competition and the public’s choice of alternative solutions to their health issues.

  15. Congressman Ehlers,
    I would like to encourage you to cosponsor H.R. 4913. The bill would like free speech for those who have proof that their nutritional products will do what they say they will, will no longer be stopped from telling people the truth.
    I represent a company that has a nutritional product that has been proven just like the drugs have been, but we aren’t allowed to tell people the truth. We have a product that has a Method of Use Patent for the treatment of cancer, is listed in the Physicians Desk Reference, the Pharmacies Redbook, has over 30 clinical studies that have been published in peer review journals, but we still can’t say many things that drugs with the same credentials can say. This product was researched for 18 years before it went to market. It was discovered by the researcher who also discovered the elemental diet, which is used in every hospital. any questions, call 616-878-0427

  16. Representative Ehlers,
    Please cosponsor H.R. 4913. We need the support for good products that have been proven and without any side effects.

  17. I think I am mature enough to understand most reports that are published..
    In 2010, 65 and having a BA and AS multimedia and still teaching .
    For my mental health want to know and this law will give the information to
    protect my life.
    Freedom to know is iimportant as a citizen to participat .
    My health is dependent on the way I llive and choices I
    make. Informed decisions are best.

  18. Fourteen years ago, I was unhealthy, then, when my Dr. moved away, I tried a Naturopath Physician. It was the best move of my life. I have more energy, have better blood profile outcomes, and probably was saved from developing pre-diabetes. I have not lost very much of my weight but no fuss is made over it because of my good general health. I do yoga so I am in relatively good form at nearly 72. A gluten-free diet, a good vitamin and some other good supplements keep I and my husband healthier than many others our age.
    Our son graduated from medical school but won’t practice medicine because, “it is not a science.”

  19. OMG- its about time! This battle has gone on since what? the 1950s? In the meantime, people have been subjected to costly and dangerous treatments – when in many cases all they had to do was change their diet. Its been a horrible crime against humanity. I hope that the truth can finally be told. I support this! I hope everyone takes action.

  20. Wow. Looks to me like a very worthy and highly needed piece of legislation. The FDA is a rogue agency that somehow has convinced a lot of Congress critters that all it needs is more money and more power and all will be right in the world. The FDA is nothing more than an extension of Big Pharma. It abandoned its mission, the official one, a long time ago and has only gotten worse in the last decade. What really needs to be done is a total redo of the FDA, especially at the top. It needs to be isolated from the influence of Big Pharma which wants nothing less than a totally drugged society. The same goes for the educational system, especially in schools that train medical doctors and pharmacists. All TV and mag ads for drugs need to stopped, forever.
    This bill, H.R. 4913, is mostly a band-aid, but it will help. You can bet all your money that Big Pharma will spend whatever it takes to kill it. It is afraid of anything that might cut its huge profits by even the minutest amount.

  21. In 1977 @ the age of 34 I was told by my medical team that I would soon die from pancreas & liver failure…..That had I gotten so sick 10 or 15 Yrs hence, transplants would be available, but that the only option they could offer to extend my life (for possibly up to 5 yrs) would be to have my pacreas romoved. Since my drs painted such a bleak picture of the quality of life I would experience during these few yrs I would buy if I subjected myself to the recommended surgury, I decided I would rather die with dignity.
    But I got lucky. While spiritually preparing to die, I explored taking massive amounts of digestive enzymes so that I could at least hold and digest tiny amounts of food

  22. It will be interesting to see how our representatives vote on this bill. Obviously those who will vote against it, will be the ones who Big Pharma has bought-and-paid-for. Those crooks are the ones we need to vote out the next election – regardless of their party affiliation.
    I’m asking you to consider a follow-up article, printing each representative and their vote.

  23. Please get this bill going. We, the people, are ready and waiting to support our right to know about the science behind supplements! There are many of us out here who will support this and believe in the right for all of us to be correctly informed.
    You have every reason to support a bill like this. It’s honest and straight forward. To argue against it just makes you seem shady and dishonest.
    We are counting on you!

  24. The nation’s health is a touchy subject right now, I am devastated by the passing of the health care bill, for reasons not debated nearly enough – that is the promotion of natural health care as a way to achieve true health.
    Please support the bill introduced by Jason Chaffetz (R, UT) and Jared Polis (D, CO) – Free Speech about Science Act.
    The big Pharm, FDA, chemical companies have too much influence and power. They have pushed regulations to the point of strangling the natural health industry for years. These entities have created a monopoly and overcharge in ridiculous amounts and push their ideas and products, opposing and putting restrictions on and silencing any alternative to their products, even to the point of regulating foods and nature.
    The bill amends the appropriate sections of current law to allow the flow of legitimate scientific and educational information while still giving FDA and FTC the right to take action against misleading information and against false and unsubstantiated claims.
    Government (and especially allied drug companies) should not be the gatekeeper of scientific information. Consumers have a right to hear about legitimate scientific research.

  25. This is great news that should bring about the demise of nonsense treatments like homeopathy, but will allow real, peer-reviewed supplement treatments to enter the market. The key to the Free Speech About Science Act is that it should demand real scientific evidence for the efficacy of the natural drugs and supplements being sold by industry. Homeopathy, in multiple scientific studies, has never proven more effective than placebos, so I hope that homeopathy will be seen as the fraud that it is. No tax dollars should go toward homeopathic treatments, and not homeopathic treatments should be sold as a potential treatment for any ailment.

  26. I have taken suplements for years, and they work! I am in my sixties and I have seen what they can do. They help me a lot. Please help us. We need them!!!! We need to protect the right to know about the science behind our supplements!!!! THIS IS A ‘GOOD’ fight, we need it now. Thank You–Martin Gebel.

  27. I have taken suplements for years, and they work! I am in my sixties and I have seen what they can do. They help me a lot. Please help us. We need them!!!! We need to protect the right to know about the science behind our supplements!!!! THIS IS A ‘GOOD’ fight, we need it now. Thank You–Martin Gebel.

  28. I have taken suplements for years, and they work! I am in my sixties and I have seen what they can do. They help me a lot. Please help us. We need them!!!! We need to protect the right to know about the science behind our supplements!!!! THIS IS A ‘GOOD’ fight, we need it now. Thank You–Martin Gebel.

  29. I have taken suplements for years, and they work! I am in my sixties and I have seen what they can do. They help me a lot. Please help us. We need them!!!! We need to protect the right to know about the science behind our supplements!!!! THIS IS A ‘GOOD’ fight, we need it now. Thank You–Martin Gebel.

  30. I have taken suplements for years, and they work! I am in my sixties and I have seen what they can do. They help me a lot. Please help us. We need them!!!! We need to protect the right to know about the science behind our supplements!!!! THIS IS A ‘GOOD’ fight, we need it now. Thank You–Martin Gebel.

  31. I have taken suplements for years, and they work! I am in my sixties and I have seen what they can do. They help me a lot. Please help us. We need them!!!! We need to protect the right to know about the science behind our supplements!!!! THIS IS A ‘GOOD’ fight, we need it now. Thank You–Martin Gebel.

  32. I have taken suplements for years, and they work! I am in my sixties and I have seen what they can do. They help me a lot. Please help us. We need them!!!! We need to protect the right to know about the science behind our supplements!!!! THIS IS A ‘GOOD’ fight, we need it now. Thank You–Martin Gebel.

  33. Free Speech about Science Act advocates that all information be available for the public to review and to reveal any possible conflict of interest. Please protect this right to free speech and health rights.

  34. Where cam we read the current version of the bill? I want to send this to lots of people, but won’t co that until I can read it. thanks…..this sounds FANTASTIC.

  35. I have been a member of the Life Extension Foundation for many years and have found their information regarding supplements to be very good. Unfortunately, many of the scientific articles that they quote have statistical problems the most frequent being a beta error. They also feel that the FDA needs to be reformed and all influence of the drug companies removed. If you are not familiar with their work you need to be.

  36. PLEASE CO SPONSER THIS VITAL LEGISLATION H.R. 4913 FREE SPEECH ABOUT SCIENCE ACT.

  37. This would be a terrific step forward! Maybe it will stop the likes of McCain from going after the supplements we use and let us be free to choose what we put in our bodies! Maybe he (McCain) and the others woring with him are in the pockets of big pharma.

  38. please be a co-sponsor of the Free Speech about Science Act HR4913 . It will allow information about supplements so that we the consumer can make our decisions about a product instead of being hampered by the FDA and its co-sponsor Big Pharm.

  39. please be a co-sponsor of the Free Speech about Science Act HR4913 . It will allow information about supplements so that we the consumer can make our decisions about a product instead of being hampered by the FDA and its co-sponsor Big Pharm.

  40. please be a co-sponsor of the Free Speech about Science Act HR4913 . It will allow information about supplements so that we the consumer can make our decisions about a product instead of being hampered by the FDA and its co-sponsor Big Pharm.

  41. please be a co-sponsor of the Free Speech about Science Act HR4913 . It will allow information about supplements so that we the consumer can make our decisions about a product instead of being hampered by the FDA and its co-sponsor Big Pharm.

  42. please be a co-sponsor of the Free Speech about Science Act HR4913 . It will allow information about supplements so that we the consumer can make our decisions about a product instead of being hampered by the FDA and its co-sponsor Big Pharm.

  43. please be a co-sponsor of the Free Speech about Science Act HR4913 . It will allow information about supplements so that we the consumer can make our decisions about a product instead of being hampered by the FDA and its co-sponsor Big Pharm.

  44. please be a co-sponsor of the Free Speech about Science Act HR4913 . It will allow information about supplements so that we the consumer can make our decisions about a product instead of being hampered by the FDA and its co-sponsor Big Pharm.

    1. Dear KJ,
      You can post this on to your facebook page by clicking on the Share button at the end of the article and selecting facebook.
      Thanks,
      ANH-USA

  45. Please allow peer review studies to be available without converting a healthy food or dietary supplement into an unapproved drug.
    Thanks,
    Elizabeth Howard

  46. I urge you to co-sponsor or at least support HR 4913 (Free speech about science) which allows for the truth to be told about health supplements. Please side with the people against the big drug companies who will fight this bill because they fear that the public will discover inexpensive natural remedies for their health problems.

  47. Please, read and consider the above article regarding legitimate scientific and educational information outlining the healthful benefits of dietary supplements and healthy food. The Constitution guarantees our freedom of speech regarding, among other things, legitimate, peer reviewed, scientific studies supporting these issues. As a concerned constituent, I am requesting that you accept this request and fight against the suppression of this information and make it available to any one interested in having it.

  48. Please suppot the free use some supplements, such as fish oil , Co-Q-10, and vitamins to control my arthrities and cholesterol level . Those supplements I use now do not have any side effects like the avaible drugs.

  49. Please suppot the free use some supplements, such as fish oil , Co-Q-10, and vitamins to control my arthrities and cholesterol level . Those supplements I use now do not have any side effects like the avaible drugs.

  50. Please suppot the free use some supplements, such as fish oil , Co-Q-10, and vitamins to control my arthrities and cholesterol level . Those supplements I use now do not have any side effects like the avaible drugs.

  51. Please suppot the free use some supplements, such as fish oil , Co-Q-10, and vitamins to control my arthrities and cholesterol level . Those supplements I use now do not have any side effects like the avaible drugs.

  52. Please suppot the free use some supplements, such as fish oil , Co-Q-10, and vitamins to control my arthrities and cholesterol level . Those supplements I use now do not have any side effects like the avaible drugs.

  53. Please suppot the free use some supplements, such as fish oil , Co-Q-10, and vitamins to control my arthrities and cholesterol level . Those supplements I use now do not have any side effects like the avaible drugs.

  54. Please suppot the free use some supplements, such as fish oil , Co-Q-10, and vitamins to control my arthrities and cholesterol level . Those supplements I use now do not have any side effects like the avaible drugs.

  55. I have the right to know the facts of any product and how it relates to my health. I also have the right to choose for myself how to best take care of my health. I will always do so. I support H.R. 4913 and I urge to do so, too.

  56. I have the right to know the facts about products and how it directly effects my health. I have the right to choose what to take for my optimal well being. I support H.R. 4913 and I urge you to do too. Thank you.

  57. Dear Fellow Citizens:
    Upon reading above article on said H.R. Bill 4913 I immediately thought of one of the major reasons that our health care cost system is in overdrive.
    The fact that the FDA and FTC have such control over the dissemination of scientific information that they pose the very Anti-Trust regulation our constitution speaks to protect us from. The only reason they have been given these powers over this information is to protect the “Litter” in the den of control over what defines health care to the people. This Antif-Trust way of protecting their Litter (ie.drug companies) is why health care costs have been in overdrive for a long time.
    The public is entitled to know the truths about what scientific knowledge is out there to better their health in the alternative, nutritional treatment venues. The fear the doctors and food manufacturers have over this AntiTrust hold the FDA has over them prevents the full truth of disclosure of nautral health medicine.
    If the FDA had there way about it and if they were in existence back then, they would have thrown out the “limes” the early explorers consumed on their voyages to the new world in preventing scurvy. After all, limes are a fruit that solved a legitimate health claim of the times. This simple scientific knowledge saved thousands of lives. But, don’t forget, it took many, many years before it was fully accepted by the established medical powers to be. It also took a long time to recognize the simple technique now fully accepted of washing your hands prior to surgery to aid in the prevention of post-operative infections.
    Big, Bully, Brother (FDA) needs to get a clue as to what works rather than protect those with the gold coins. Don’t turn your backs on yourselves and the people you are supposed to serve because in the long run, this will affect all of us in our better healthy time on this earth. The irony of this, is that the FDA is affecting societies better healthy times on this earth in their Anti-Trust ways spoken of earlier.

  58. I will be happy to contact my representative. Why don’t you set this up like the other web sties in which all i have to do is sign my name and a message is automatically sent to my representative.
    I really don’t have time to locate the address of the house of representatives etc. Since I am doing this my my office at work. I don’t have computer at home.

    1. Dear Daniel,
      Thank you for your comment. Our system is set up for you to send your comments to your Representative, but we need your name and postal address to ensure that it is delivered to the correct person. Please let us know if you have any further questions.
      Thank you,
      ANH-USA

  59. Countries in Europe use a lot of herbal supplements.
    Garlic, during WWII, was the penicilin (substitute) in Russian.
    1/3 of German prescriptions are for herbal supplements
    and they are very well regulated.
    We live in a “free” country where the citizens
    have choices…………………..

  60. To be self-responsible for my health it is to my benefit to be able to know how a
    supplement will or will not be valuable to my overall excellent health.

  61. Are there informative stats that can be used to descibe the bioavailaility and resultant blood concntrations of supplements and vitamins? It seems from just reading the labels that they are all good for what ails you. It seems that if the supplements and vitamins companies did the same double-blind studies as the drug companies the FDA couldn’t stop the reporting of these studies under the freedom of speech clause in the First Amendment. What am I missing here?

    1. Part of the problem, as I understand it, is that the “same double-blind studies as the drug companies” are extremely expensive. These drug-approval trials cost hundreds of millions of dollars for a new drug. Now consider that a natural product cannot be patented, though a synthetic drug compound may be. Thus, the cost incurred by undergoing the drug-approval process will never be retrieved by the company/investors. Even your competitors would be able to use the results of your studies for their product(s). It is therefore a matter of economics why this would not work in this manner.
      However, there ARE good scientific studies available that demonstrate the efficacy of many of these natural substances, though the studies do not mirror the drug-approval process. MY question is, why don’t these studies fall under the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment?
      I am hoping the Free Speech About Science Act will help remedy this situation.

  62. It is about time! Now all Americans will be able to know the truth about the major health benefits of vitamins, minerals, herbs and organic foods and stop filling their bodies with bad foods and drugs that only cover their symptoms and then cause more side effects and symptoms. Not to mention the cost savings they will experience along with a lack of dependence on our healthcare system, insurance and pharmaceutical companies and their greed… I support HR 4913!!

  63. This bill could go a long way to helping reign in the cost of healthcare in the US. For too long our medical system has focused on treating the symptons rather than addressing the causes. If the population would lead a healthier lifestyle disease could be greatly reduced. Diet, exercise and supplementation could drive significant cost out of the health care industry and lead to a healthier populace.
    I like the concept behind this bill because it requires scientific study and review. I will be contacting my congressman as soon as I finish this post.
    To your continued health,
    Bruce

  64. People stop asking for double blinds! They don’t even work for drugs, They were originally designed for pesticide experiments in agriculture and the researchers who designed them didn’t want them used for drug studies as they were concerned they would be inappropriate. One reason is that you control for TOO MUCH. In the real world, variability is the name of the game. A drug goes to a real person, taking many drugs, eating many foods and with a biological terrain unlike anyone else. In a double blind the subjects must be in a narrow range of age, not taking any other drugs, etc.
    And as was mentioned, double blinds are expensive and since you can’t patent B vitamins, a company will go bankrupt doing these tests. Go to basic science and see all the studies there. There is plenty of information already. In fact, nutrition and vitamins used to be researched before the ’50s when the FDA demanded the double blinds. I have med journals from the 40’s and it is amazing to see studies on Vit C or ads for vitamins and the diseases they will help.

  65. I hope that this bill , When Passed, will lift the band on “Laetrile”, and the Band on the German
    Cancer treatment “Hyperthermia”. Read the books, World Without Cancer”, By G. Edward Griffin,
    ‘Cancer-Free’ by Bill Henderson, ‘Cancer Step Outside the Box’, by Ty Bollinger, ‘ Laetrile Case
    Histories’, By John A. Richardson, M.D. and Patricia Irving Griffin, R.N., B.S.
    LATRILE, VITAMIN B17 AND AMYGDALIN, ARE ONE AND THE SAME PRODUCE. Also the book
    “German Cancer Breakthrough”, by Andrew Acholberg.
    If LATRILE COULD BE PURCHASED OVER THE COUNTER, I BELIEVE IT WOULD CUT THE
    INSURANCE COST BY ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR..

  66. This is so needed and so overdue. The facts show that many natural products – taken in sufficient dosage – prove as good or better in treating the conditions as synthetic pharmaceuticals and are way, way safer. Natural products and treatment paths work very well – very often. Pharma drugs have horrendous side effects and often no better effectiveness. There is winderful data supporting natural therapies that is blindly ignored by our systematic suppression of truth, over totally false pretences at protecting the public. Protecting big pharma is all. German research I have studied has thousands of examples of herbs out performing the toxic pharma equivalents with virtually no comparable side effects, yet they get banned and toxic dangerous drugs re freely pushed in an information vacuum.
    Hold the torch high America – the rest of the world needs tyou to become a beareer of truth and freedom again, you have been lost in some bad places for too long.

  67. How did civilization survive all these centuries without Milk Thistle, Oregano, Pears, Quinoa, Horseradish or Mustard?
    I don’t believe it would have been possible for the following reasons…
    1) Milk Thistle was used by Pedanius Dioscorides in 50 A.D. to treat snake bites because he found that his patients were more likely to recover from the deadly effects of snake venom.
    2) Oregano has been used for centuries to eliminate intestinal parasites.
    3) The Romans, after ingesting poisonous mushrooms would eat pears to improve survivability.
    4) The Incas found that when neighboring tribes did not eat Quinoa, but the Incas did, the Incas could better survive the harsh Andes winters. They further proved their theory by showing the neighboring tribes how to grow and harvest Quinoa, and they found that a higher percentage of those tribes survived as well.
    5) Horseradish and Mustard has been ingested for centuries to clear the sinuses, as well as eliminate intestinal parasites. The Romans would ingest Mustard seeds immediately after eating bad meat. Perhaps this helped prevent Trichinosis, illness or death from other intestinal parasites.
    Meanwhile, I will continue to employ all of these food sources in moderation in my diet, whether they meet FDA approval or not! Why in moderation? Because one of the side effects of eating too much of the foods in the horseradish, mustard or cabbage family is a depressed thyroid, even though they are not prescribed pharmaceuticals!
    This proves that civilization was able to survive without the FDA. A sobering thought.

  68. It’s important that we all take responsibility about what goes into our bodies. Without that knowledge then we are putting ourselves at a high risk and I for one am not going to trust my health to people who only claim to know whats best for me. This bill should be passed.

  69. This is a very imporant act that should be enacted. Your support will be appreciated. I want to read on the bottle what the contents are expected to do for my body. Thank you .

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