Would creating a new federal agency just for supplements make things better or worse?
In our recent article on Sen. Durbin’s bill and his credibility problem, we wrote, “Assuming that Sen. Durbin is sincere—and we assume he is, despite his misleading arguments—he should create a new federal agency to be in charge of supplements. That would at least begin to make possible sensible federal oversight of the supplement industry.”
Lone Voice responded:
“Whoa, back up! ANH, I agreed with every word you wrote, before this paragraph. But I have to react with raised eyebrows to the above statement. HUH? The Feds should create another agency to…“be in charge of supplements”?…Why on earth would another government entity be any more effective than the FDA?…What we need, ANH, is less regulation and not more of it. To play musical chairs is only to play one more game….
“Can you please explain your thinking to us in your above statement? This strikes me as being at odds with all that, up until this very moment, I have always perceived you to be. Thank you for your open-book response and for your clarification. Sometimes impressions can be wrong, and when they are, they need to be corrected. I will look forward to your posted response, here. Thank you for all that you do, I have been following (and forwarding) your articles, with keen interest and appreciation for your brave and ethical work.”
Dear Lone Voice,
Thanks for an excellent question. And also for your belief in us.
This is not actually the first time we have suggested moving supplements out of the FDA. Here is what we said in an earlier article: “[We need] to move supplements out of the drug agency and into their own agency under Health and Human Services. It doesn’t work for the supplement regulator (currently FDA) to be so beholden to drug companies, since drug companies are very afraid of supplement competition, despite the current government gag orders forbidding supplement makers from explaining their medical prevention and treatment uses.”
Here are some of our other readers’ responses to that idea:
Charlene: “Please move supplements out of the drug agency into their own….It doesn’t work for the supplement regulator to be so beholden to drug companies, since drug companies don’t like the competition. Thank you.”
md: “Removing FDA from having any control over supplements has been my dream for years. What can ANH-USA members do to help move this notion forward?”
Gmic: “Your suggestion to move oversight of supplements from the purview of the FDA to its own agency is fabulous. Thanks for battling on all of our behalf!”
But Kathy had a doubt:
“Are you sure supplements would be safe under [a new agency]?”
Kathy and Lone Star are right to have their doubts. But we still think it would be a good idea to move supplements out of FDA. Here is the main point for us: Big Pharma is currently paying for a large part of the FDA budget. FDA employees’ salaries are indirectly paid by drugs, and they know it. When FDA employees leave the agency, they often hope to be hired by drug companies at much higher salaries. FDA outside experts are commonly paid by drug companies. The FDA has even had the gall recently to announce that it would suspend the few remaining conflict-of-interest rules so that it could hire more experts paid by drug companies.
Drug companies are afraid of competition from supplements, which are so much cheaper, usually safer, and often more effective. They know the only thing that limits competition from supplements is FDA censorship of supplement advertising—in particular, the refusal to allow any reference to valid, documented scientific research if it relates to a disease. But it isn’t just the drug companies that fear supplement competition—so does the FDA, apparently, because the agency depends so completely on drugs for funding.
Under these circumstances, it would help to get supplements out of the FDA. Would it solve everything? No. Would it help? Yes. To be cynical, the employees of this new agency would only have their jobs because there is a supplement industry! If the FDA thinks it has an economic incentive to suppress or kill the supplement industry or to turn supplements into drugs, these employees would have the opposite incentive.
Of course, this could all go wrong. Drug interests could somehow get control of the new agency anyway. Or it could be filled with FDA-trained personnel who just can’t shake the old thinking. But it could hardly be worse than the status quo.
We hope that explains our thinking a bit. It would be nice if government employees could be expected to devote themselves to public service and to the best possible outcome for the public without any thought of their own economic future. In the real world, we can’t expect that. And getting supplements out of the FDA would at least be a step in the right direction.
While you are at it, please consider the possibility of removing foods from the FDA’s remit. The fact that walnut, pomegranate, green tea distributors, for instance, are forbidden by the FDA from mentioning their validly researched efficacy is as outrageous as the situation with supplements. Whatever happened to the First Amendment?
While you are at it, please consider the possibility of removing foods from the FDA’s remit. The fact that walnut, pomegranate, green tea distributors, for instance, are forbidden by the FDA from mentioning their validly researched efficacy is as outrageous as the situation with supplements. Whatever happened to the First Amendment?
While you are at it, please consider the possibility of removing foods from the FDA’s remit. The fact that walnut, pomegranate, green tea distributors, for instance, are forbidden by the FDA from mentioning their validly researched efficacy is as outrageous as the situation with supplements. Whatever happened to the First Amendment?
While you are at it, please consider the possibility of removing foods from the FDA’s remit. The fact that walnut, pomegranate, green tea distributors, for instance, are forbidden by the FDA from mentioning their validly researched efficacy is as outrageous as the situation with supplements. Whatever happened to the First Amendment?
While you are at it, please consider the possibility of removing foods from the FDA’s remit. The fact that walnut, pomegranate, green tea distributors, for instance, are forbidden by the FDA from mentioning their validly researched efficacy is as outrageous as the situation with supplements. Whatever happened to the First Amendment?
While you are at it, please consider the possibility of removing foods from the FDA’s remit. The fact that walnut, pomegranate, green tea distributors, for instance, are forbidden by the FDA from mentioning their validly researched efficacy is as outrageous as the situation with supplements. Whatever happened to the First Amendment?
Yes, I am all for taking our supplements out from the FDA. Please no new agency, I do not trust the FDA.
The only thing that must be done is by people outside, that understand what and how the supplements are and works, to clean the companies that have supplements with components of inferior quality and not telling the truth about the quantity and quality of what’s in it.
Take people from the supplements world, or people that use the supplements and want to work in it.
The FDA is and has been for at least the past 40-50 years, for sale to the highest bidder. Big Pharma slips them enough money to get drugs to market sooner to pay them for what little research they actually DO on new drugs. This is the prime reason so many drugs are on the market for a year or two then start getting recalled or new warnings put on them…but only AFTER people tart dying or giving birth to deformed babies because of them. The FDA needs to be shut down and, IF ANYONE, small companies who are not allowed to take bribes/’FUNDING” from pharmaceutical companies should be in charge of oversight. These companies should have very strict safety features and complete transparency when it comes to who does what , where the money comes from, and where it goes.
i am so tired of having to ask government officials to represent me and not corporations, or is it that they do not represent me? Apparently they are are shills for corporate interests. ‘Follow the money’
Fortunately AHN-USA is there to look out for us.
Thank you
I have never, ever seen a government agency that isn’t corrupt. Whether it’s the FDA or the SEC, ATF, FTC….. you name it and they are mismanaged and beholden to some sort of corporate entity. Even the politicians themselves are beholden to the big contributors and usually, those big guns aren’t looking out for the citizen’s best interests. It doesn’t matter that the agency is started with “good intentions”. It never ends that way.
The idea of a new agency might sound good but it won’t make any difference if pharma starts paying them off as they do the FDA. We have to get congressmen in there who are not for the drug companies. Until then the more we protest, the better. Thank you for organizing all of us. It is our strongest position right now. Ron Paul would not regulate supplements. He is one of the few who cares about the people
Supplements and drugs are completely two separate products, thus you need two separate departments governing these products. You can’t have the Government always establishing rules for every product in the United States. We have rules and regulations that govern products. .If you know anything about supplements, you realize they are made with natural products and like all natural products there is a variance according to how it is grown and the weather plays a major roll in the growth and nutrient aspect. It can not be perfect every time due to differences that are natural.
Now take a drug. We create is with all kinds of chemicals, some chemicals do not mix well with others, some people cannot take certain chemical compounds without having a problematic effect.
I know this, because being a by-pass heart patient, asthmatic, having two replacements knees, had cancer, thyroidectomy..removal of thyroid and 2 parathyroids, and many allergies to many substances. I have survived on supplements for over 35 years…I am a survivor. But if you take away the natural supplement from me and hundreds of thousands of other people…YOU will be killing us. Is that what you want to do? Yes, there are companies that do not provide good supplements and they need to be watched and stopped from making those bad supplements. But if you are knowledgable, you will find the right supplement that is natural and works for your body.
Now with the Drug companies, they are suppose to be governed by the FDA, but are they? It is well known fact that the Drug companies use LOBBIEST to get a new drug through the system without doing proper testing. Just look at the Newspapers, the Media, the TV…there are always lawyers telling you if you took this drug and your children have a problem, it could have been caused by this new drug. Zoloft, celebrex, avandia, are just a few of these drugs. Plus Doctors have to prescribe these drugs for you. Do you think all Doctors can keep up with the new drugs, so they depend on the representatives from the Drug company to give them samples and tell them what it is good for. Are the Drug Reps just telling you what they think or what was told to them.
Do you see any problems with natural supplements on TV or the Media? Yes, like everything in this world, if you take too much of one item you might have some problems with supplements or vitamins…but it will not kill you, it will not injure your child. And you are the person who supplies your family and yourself with the supplement, not a doctor. Although there are naturopathic doctors that practice suggesting supplements, vitamins, herbs, and other natural ways of staying healthy. But not all States approve of these Naturopaths, like Maryland.
I am tired of the Government trying to control everything. Not one person and not one Government can control everything in the right way. Just look at what our Government is doing with the Healthcare System now. We are going to be a third world when it comes to Healthcare. That is why we need a private sector to recheck everything, help us make our own decisions. We are adults, not children. We have to make our own decisions and not allow the Government be our parent for everything in life. If that is what you want, there are plenty of other countries you can live in, then go there. Do not take our freedoms that we fought so hard for away from us.
WE want choice and our choice is for supplements not to be governed by the Government.
Supplements are not safe now under the FDA. The drug manufacturers are in charge, obviously. They don’t want them to be used by us – they will keep us healthy and then they won’t have anyone to buy their drugs.
You know, these manufacturers are very clever. They create herbicides and pesticides and add carcinogenics to household cleaning products, etc. and then when we get sick, they want to make it impossible for us to get well without anything but the drugs that they make – drugs that always have side=effects that can kill us. Don’t you people see the whirlpool into which they are forcing us? Without our food based supplements we are sitting ducks for the manufacturers of drugs that will kill us one way or the other. We have a right to food. “And supplements are food. Drugs are poison.
Seemingly, if a new agency were put in charge that could not be corrupted by drug manufacturers and their ilk – we could have the choice of natural supplements or manufactured drugs. And as I see it, we have that right.
9-6-11
Dear ANH-USA:
I agree with your proposal of having supplements regulated by a completely separate federal government agency, which would be far better than what we have now in the FDA. But it would be a form of running away from the problem. It would leave the mess at the FDA completely unfixed. The reason we have an FDA is to protect the Public from dangerous drugs . The fact that many FDA employees are former drug company employees is an intolerable situation. It’s fine for drug companies to provide the highly technical information about drugs to the FDA. But the minute drug company employees start controlling the FDA; drug safety goes out the window. Congress is totally and criminally guilty of allowing this situation to go on for over half a century.
This is a perfect parallel with the food safety problem. Most everyone in the country wants food safety , especially with the new food born diseases we have. But the reason many activist groups wanted the S.510 food safety bill killed was because Monsanto and Big Agribiz have many former employees in the FDA and USDA and have massive control of these agencies with the ” food safety bill ” being actually written by a high ranking FDA official who was a major Monsanto employee !
I know it’s asking a lot, but somehow the word has to get out to the American People that the situation at the FDA and USDA is way out of control and they are progressively escalating their damage to our entire healthcare system and our entire food system as well. Your own newsletter documents it all the time. Even the latest announcement of the drug industry’s expansion of government vaccine programs will proliferate even more sickness and disease. If the FDA isn’t stopped, most of us will be sick or dead.
yours truly,
Roger Fuller
Thanks Roger Fuller! Well said. Let me suggest, that to get word out as you said, we as citizen journalists can take up our own e-pens and do a whole lot of good in the world. Just by touching a few buttons, peacefully, accurately and in a fact-based way, we have the power to spread word, such as never existed before using the internet. The ANH has given reprint permission on its articles for a very important reason, thanks ANH and Deborah Ray! Let’s use this to our advantage—-or better said, to the advantage and wellbeing of all readers.
We don’t even have to write ourselves, all we have to do is cross-post in link in. Simple, done! Word spread. Let’ s go for it! Thank you all.
In fact, think about it, surley ANH can’t have the whole world on its shoulders where word-spreading is concerned. I am quite sure, without even asking, that they rely on and really need us to help. Again thank you all!
Remove supplements out of FDA control – YES
Sen. Durbin should create a new federal agency to be in charge of supplements – NO, NO, NO.
The FDA does not adequately regulate prescription drugs, or anything else. I seriously doubt that any government agency would do so for supplements. I believe very strongly that we must each take personal responsibility and do everything in our power to maintain the right to make personal choices about supplements, including researching and keeping one another informed both about efficacy and about the value, or lack, of the brands on the marketplace.
We do not need another government agency. What is needed is a clear set of rules under which the FDA would be permitted to interfere with the suplement industry. 1.) Cause verification that what is on the label is in the jar 2.)There is an adverse event reporting system in place…if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. 3rn.) Permit, peer reviewed credible non industry sponsored information regarding supplements to be assimilated to the public without censorship 4.) Enable response to verified contamination issues or significant verified and well defined reported adverse events. 5) A clear and compelling statement of support of DSHEA which cannot be rear ended by the agency. Why do we need another agency when what is really required is a new director and new staff that are committed by law and commitment to the best interest of the American public with a thick wall between the agency and big pharma’s greedy grasping monopolistic aspirations.
Well since the major concern is purity and truth in labeling, why not an office in the Federal Trade Commission. They deal with these sorts of questions/problems all the time. Another possibility is an office in the Consumer Protection Agency. Either of these gets supplement users the oversight they need and does not require a new agency be formed. And, it removes the prejudiced FDA from the process.
We should eliminate that which does not work, and replace it with a slim down, leaner more efficient method of doing business. Not add more bureaucracy
There is a self-policing agency for supplement manufactureres that has been around for many years called the Council for Responsible Nutrition. They make sure that their members are reputable, not selling dangerous formulas or making outrageous claims. Unfortunately, the FDA does not always pay attention to their recommendations. Why not expand this agency?
In regards to having a separate department/agency for the control and regulation of supplements, I have just begun to research the US Dept of Health and Human Services http://www.hhs.gov/ where I can see a fit.
I, as yet, do not visualize how an agency would operate under that department.
Are there other readers who have an expertise in this matter?
Your idea that a new agency should be formed to impose new regulations on the supplement industry is misguided and potentially disasterous. The issue is not WHO should regulate supplements, thereby curtailing our health freedom, but WHETHER OR NOT such regulations are ethically proper. Individuals have a natural birthright to peacefully pursue their happiness and health, as best they can. Their natural freedom to do so is not a grant of political privilege, to be authorized and restricted by some coercive government agency. The freedom to seek to preserve one’s health and life is essential to life as a human being.
People live by thinking and choosing, for better or worse. Good choices, which support one’s life and well-being, generally follow from good thinking. Bad choices, which sabotage one prospects for happiness, usually stem from negligent thinking. One establishes the moral character of one’s own life by one’s habitual policies of thinking and choosing. Destroy the freedom for people to make their own decisions, and people will lose the very possibility of achieving a good life. For the concept of goodness presupposes freedom of choice.
People need individual freedom to pursue the possibility of achieving good lives, and to sustain and advance the sciences that support their lives. For thinking is a profoundly individual process, borne of volitional consciousness and choice. The quality of one’s ideas, in science or any other pursuit, are not guaranteed. They are the outcome of one’s characteristic policies of thinking, which include such issues as persistance, thoroughness, respect for facts and logic, and psychological independence. Moreover, even thinking done with great care and effort may yield false ideas.
Therefore, no one can issue a guarantee to another of infallability. Ultimately each of us is responsible for the ideas we choose to embrace. For each of us must live with the consequences of those ideas.
The notion that an armed censor should do our thinking for us, permitting this idea and prohibiting that, is absurd and morally atrocious. “Scientists” who wield coercive power to restrict the ideas that others may implement are not scientists at all, regardless of their position or education or the name of the agency from which they derive their power. They are politicians, and they respond to the same incentives as other politicans in appointed or elective office. These people align themselves with the prevailing winds, like weather vanes. They disregard and suppress inconvenient facts. They persecute those who insist on upholding facts that contradict the received dogma.
These “scientists” are the enemies of science, because they destroy the individual freedom on which science depends.
Enough of this false idea of creating a new supplement agency, that you imagine will restrict ideas in ways you approve.
You seem to be missing the obvious solution to the Entire Problem — just abolish the FDA. What have they done for YOU lately?
Yes, I’ve advocated online for this exact move about 8-9 years ago.
R. Fleischer
Actually, I think our efforts, energy and money are misguided. The real important issue is not whether FDA regulates supplements or a new agency does it. What we should be doing is bringing criminal charges against almost all of our regulatory agencies for crimes against humanity, get our lousy congressmen/women to take back oversight of the regulatory process and force them (through the threat of and the implementation of criminal charges), to regulate to protect the American people. Along those lines, ban lobbyist and our morally bankrupt corporations from the regulatory and legislative process. These people conduct themselves as though they have no children, grandchildren or spouses to protect! Our present government (corpocracy) is the quintessential example of evil!!
anh,
You know as well as I do that the best government is less government. As soon as a new board for supplements is set up the pharmaceutical companies will corrupt it just like they have corrupted the FDA. They will even have a hand in setting it up so they can put the people on it that will do what they want. This is not a good idea. Just get the information about supplements and what they can do out there and let the people make their own choices. It’s not perfect but it’s better than more government control.
More federal double dance and speak! It’s Bad enough with the present bunch of dishonest personel in the FDA
Some kind of Quality oversight is required. I do not recommend FDA or its clone as both are likely to be corrupted by Pharma influences. An independent agency funded by the supplement consuming public but not beholden to the supplement, pharma or any other industry is required. I do not trust the supplement manufacturers either.
I believe that as long as cash has anything to do with it, any oversight will be biased. Natural supplements come from a long history of Earth sharing with all animals, and they really are no one else’s business. Natural supplements represent folk sharing their knowledge with folk, and any agency with its paycheck in mind will fear this, because it takes them out of the equation. As long as we can still make and purchase supplements made from natural substances, the less interference, the better. Any force trying to circumvent this is coming from a place of fear, and in Western speak, is definitely not respecting the individual or individual freedom.
Hello friends at ANH
thank you very much for answering these questions and explaining your thinking to us.
I appreciate what you are trying to do, but also agree with every one of the statements posted by readers above. We need:
A) Less government regulation, not more of it, and which agency does it is not at all the point. Less is more! More freedom, namely.
Obviously, the FDA and the Feds are trying to convert us to a dictatorship. The FDA is working on medical dictatorship, and the FBI and Congress are working hard, and faster than we can blink, on converting the USA to a dictatorial land where civil liberties will be no more. Any other Federal arm overseeing supplements will be no better than the FDA, that is a guarantee, given the current state of affairs. Just look at the texts of post-911 legislation for proof! We need to assume that the Federal government has become the Govcernment Of The Corporations, By the Corporations and For the Corporations, not of the People, by the People and for the People. Keep our supplements out of the arm of any government entity, please!
B) Gary Bobbett, you are absolutely right: Class action lawsuits, and criminal charges, you had better believe it. That is our solution, or such is my belief (I am not a political strategist or expert, just thinking out loud). It would seem to me that the power is in the purse. And in the voices of the greater masses. If enough people complain, and press criminal charges as a larger group, they will have to listen.
I recall watching a video online, of masses of people from Rumania singing as a chorus, in unison and in harmony, chanting for freedom. Because the power of the masses was so great, the dictatorship fell and the tyrant Prez had to be flown out by helicopter. It was all a peaceful and non-violent effort as best I understand, yet it was so effective. We can all take heart from this. The power of a few voices may not be heard, but the power of the masses is a tsunami. It cannot be ignored.
Is there any way that ANH can reach out beyond current readership, to increase the power of numbers in their petitions?
What if ANH readers not only post to Facebook, Twitter and other blogs, thanks to your reprint permission ANH….we appreciate your efforts….maybe we also can be reminded about the power of letters to the newspaper editors? College newsletters? These will print matters which are censored by the mainstream press. Further, the college kids will talk to their parents, thus awakening the slumbering giant. Two birds with one stone! Maybe the mainstream press would even become jealous and want to scoop the story. Just an idea?
Local, smaller newspapers may also print what the mainstream press will censor. Just an idea.
Dear ANH, I am so concerned. I truly appreciate all that you do, so vociferously, bravely and ethically fighting for human health and the free choice in that health path. You are so wonderful. This idea though, of replacing the FDA with a different arm of government, is doomed to fail and counteracts your purpose. All your efforts in court, in writing to us all, and in gathering funds for court litigation, etc will all fall on their nose. And we, as people, stand to lose. We beg you to please try another path. No government involvement in supplement regulation!
Thank you very much for all that you do. You are wonderful, ANH and we appreciate you.
PS in brief, ANH, again it is understood that you are asking that the supplement regulation be moved out of the FDA.
And I agree with this proposal.
What I do not agree with, and remain concerned about, is the idea of replacing FDA regulation with another Federal entity.
It will not work, and will only result in more enforcement of medical dictatorship, the beginnings of which we are already seeing.
And mind you, this is only the beginning.
Words of the wise. A friend from the former Iron Curtain commented that people got their free speech back, “when the government relaxed its power over the economy”.
Granting the corporations the power of a human being, such as Congress deliberately and strategically and calculatedly voted for, is a giant step toward dictatorship.
Removing power from the corporate lobby is where it is at, if we want any chance for our freedoms at large, and for our health freedoms, to survive.
And to decentralize health regulation is also where it is at. Or we can kiss our health freedoms goodbye.
How to practically go about this? I have no idea, except for the powers of the voices as above.
A strategist did say to me, that in letters to the editor, for writers to identify and rebut commonly-held beliefs is key to changing the face of society.
Example: “We need their regulation to keep us safe”.
How might we rebut that, after first identifying the belief? That would be a good subject for ANH to write to us all about, as readers.
Just an idea.
Simple slogans cut through the masses where some people may prefer not to read or think too much.THat is why politicians use slogans such as “Change” et al. If we can come up with similar slogans to appeal to the common brain, then we too can be effective in creating real change. The kind of change that we really want, that is.
Hello friends, sorry to dominate, not the intention. One last important mention:
The strategist I mentioned above, said that class action lawsuits are printed by the mainstream press where private lawsuits fail to get media attention.
I fully believe that Gary Bobbett’s idea of class action suits, pressing criminal charges, is correct and will work.
ANH, you and Jonathan Emord together have been just phenomenally successful. We are so grateful to you for all that you do. The class action idea is just one more to add yet more steam to what you already have very successfully done. Thank you for all your efforts!
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By now I hope it is clear that the concern is that Big Pharma will indeed fund the new arm of government proposed for supplement oversight,just as they are now funding the FDA.
As for the incentive being there to regulate supplements and therefore to keep the supplement industry alive, I doubt it. I think they are trying to enforce the power of Big Pharma and shove it down our collective and individual throats, with profiteering interests in mind.
THere has to be legislation forbidding the power of the lobby to purchase public power and the rule of law.
Campaign finance reform, that is where it is at! This is how we must attack the problem, at the core.
The problem is, that Congress will never vote for any bill which threatens to dethrone them or remove their power.
Solutions, brainstorms? Would love to see what readers have to suggest about this!
Thanks everybody.
Thank you ANH, for graciously opening up this Reader’s Corner discussion.
Greeting to everyone out there,
I am also for the great idea of taking the FDA out of the control of supplements and having another agency in charge, Here is the catcher tho: The person that should be in charge,-the head of the agency- should be a big hearted, go getter type of person who has the people’s interest at heart(a Ron Paul type of guy) who is interested in supplements and fully and wholly believes in what they do. It should be a person who actully takes them themselves, a person who would actually fit that bill should be a Naturopathic Doctor, a homeopath, a nutritionist or a good chiropractor who believes in supplements and nutrition. This person has to be able to stand up for whole food and supplements and for what is right and our own rights as well and also stand against the demons that want to destroy our health freedoms, ie: big pharma, FDA and the USDA., and then maybe our supplments and herbals and whole foods can be a bit safer for us to buy and take and we can worry a little less of having them taken away from us. The folks he/she should hire should be folks who have an interest in the natural and holistic field, not from the FDA or big pharma. That is my point and my opinion. Best of luck to all the people of ANH who fight for us everyday on a daily basis. God blessings to all these good people. I have faith that all this will somehow work out in the end. With God’s help, we will prevail. Take care and be strong.
In good holistic health,
Michelle r.
Moving Supplements and food including herbs out of the FDA-Big Pharmacy control to NIH makes the most sense. But what about the legislation passed in congress in compliance with the WHO regulations? The FDA is also making statements that Healthful food is not a right but a privilege. Such concepts are as dangerous as they come to personal freedom A situation not even thought of at the time the constitution was written.Food at that time was generally free of additives and chemicals, and people did their own cooking, not dependent on corporate control.
It is time to take the FDA’s power away from them. How many approved drugs have side effects that harm people’s health…..how may people die each year from the accumulated effects of medication and end of life care for Cancer. Oncology Doctor’s make profit’s on Cancer patients and on specific chemotherapy brands that may not be the brand that is best for the Cancer patient.
Brand Z may not be the best choice for each patient.
I am totally in favor of seperating out the FDA because the Medical profession does not study natural science, and the taking of food supplements to fight disease…..so why should they be in charge of something they do not understand.
Millions of dollars are made per application for review…..Why drive up the price of food supplements. American’s need a choice other than pharmacuetical drugs.
This all seems a bit tyrannical to me. We all need to stand up and speak out for the principles, standards and ethics we believe in for a democracy is participatory. The downfall of any government or nation is not its own corruption but the complacency of the citizenry. We are the sleeping giant.
Do we really want a federal agency that still operates in the old medical box overseeing such an integrative treatment as supplements and other alternative treatments?
Hello everyone again,
Just want to mention to everyone, that there is another social network for all those interested in holisitic health and those involved in the holistic health field, it is called the holistic social network and its website is as follows: http://www.holistic-network.com. I was thinking along with the lone voice that maybe we could go on there and let folks know about ANH and get them to sign petitions to help spread the word that way about the supplement issue. I am a member on there myself and I check it out when I can. It is very easy to sign up and register, you can link up with others in the holistic health arena and as you do that, you can spread the word about ANH and let them know about the petition to help stop the FDA from taking away our supplements and herbals. I am going to try and do the same myself. Like the lone voice says, we desperately need the masses to stop this dictatorial craziness from going on in our health freedom. I just wish there was a way a whole bunch of us could go to Washington DC and lobby to help keep our access to supplements and herbals alive. That would be a big dream of mine and a goal as well. Like I mentioned before, we need to trust and put our faith in God above that all this will hopefully work out in the end. With his help, we will all prevail. *PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT EVER GIVE UP, KEEP ON KEEPING ON ALONG THIS JOURNEOUS ROAD, IT MAY BE A LONG ONE, BUT WE WILL ALL MAKE IT EVEN THO WE MAY BE WEARY AND TIRED. AND IN THE LONG RUN, IF WE SUCCEED, IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT IN THE END.
God bless and take care my friends,
In holistic health,
Michelle r.
I am for a seperate agency to regulate food and vitimans and an agency to regulate prescription drugs. They could compete with each other and we could see which does the best fo us. They should compete and let us decide which is best for our use. I have not been to a doctor in over 20 years. The last time I was put on satin drugs for my heart. I took three different ones in 3 months and told my Dr. if this was his best i would just have to die. I have not had a sick day since. I am 83 years old and enjoying life. There are man made vitimans out there and are not very good for you.My good and bad C is around 280 suits me fine keeps me heaalthy. to each his own. I like my way best. Everyone should be able to choose what is best for him or her.