Will it be enough to rein in FDA’s outrageous power grab?
ANH-USA, together with a number of supplement trade organizations, went to Capitol Hill to plead our case about the FDA’s profoundly flawed NDI (new supplement) draft guidance in the offices of two powerful senators and longtime friends of natural health, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Our visit was preceded by all the letters you have been sending to Congress, which have immeasurably increased the visibility of this issue. As you know, if this draft guidance stands, it would allow FDA to arbitrarily deny the sale of any supplement created (or modified) in the past seventeen years. Immediately after this meeting, Sens. Harkin and Hatch wrote to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and formally asked the FDA to withdraw its guidance document.
The senators urged FDA to begin work on a new draft that provides needed clarification on what constitutes a New Dietary Ingredient (NDI)—but, in their words, does not undermine Congress’s desire to provide consumers with access to safe, affordable dietary supplement products. Exactly!
These senators were uniquely qualified to make such a request, since they were the principal authors of DSHEA, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. “When Congress included language in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) directing FDA to clarify when a dietary supplement ingredient is a new dietary ingredient, the expectation was that the guidance would be consistent with DSHEA,” they write. “Unfortunately, the draft guidance serves to undermine DSHEA in a number of important respects.”
They go on to outline the various arguments that we have been making in these pages for some time:
- The requirement for a manufacturer to submit an NDI notification for every dietary supplement containing an NDI is directly contrary to the language of DSHEA, which requires notification only of the intent to use an NDI;
- This new requirement is burdensome and would impose substantial additional costs on manufacturers, would not provide additional safety benefits, and would undermine access to the safe, affordable nutritional supplements that DSHEA was designed to ensure;
- The NDI guidance’s assertion that synthetic copies of ingredients can never be a dietary ingredient is without any statutory basis, and is contrary to longstanding FDA policy; and
- This guidance is contrary to Congressional intent by grandfathering in only ingredients that were marketed before the enactment of DSHEA—such an argument is particularly specious since “the term dietary supplement wasn’t even defined prior to DSHEA”!
The senators requested that FDA meet with interested parties to work through all of the issues raised in our and others’ comments. Fortunately, FDA can’t just ignore the senators’ request, because the agency is required to work within legislative intent. Otherwise they would be creating new law—which legally they cannot do. This is one of the arguments we have been making all along—that FDA is in fact making new law with this draft guidance, and now Congress is calling them on it!
We would like to thank Senators Harkin and Hatch for being such stalwart champions of natural health, and for their leadership in this battle to prevent the FDA from usurping powers that they are not legally entitled to. We also want to thank every one of you for contacting Congress and the FDA and being such a vital part of this process.
We aren’t out of the woods yet—we’ll have another update soon with additional action items for you. The time may come for more specific legislative action, and we may find ourselves battling FDA in the courts as well. That’s why your continued support and activism is so terribly important. Together we can win this one, preserve your access to supplements, and keep supplements from costing as much as drugs.
it is refreshing to see some senetors understand the importance of supplements. hope this helps us all.
It would seem that haviing a larger number of our Washintin friends push together, might help show the FDA there really is a force working to protect the peolple against the FDA. Why don’t we have more than just two on our side. Ron Paul would definitly be there and I feel certain that others could be found and that doing so would be worthwhile
This good news , I wil continue to do all I can to see this through for our healths sake and our personal health choices.
Good News . . . and many Thanks to Senators Harkin and Hatch . . .
The FDA has too much power over our health. They are in a way telling us, you do it our way or not at all. People of today know how much health care cost and are finding easier ways to keep healthy without the high prescription cost. Even health lab cost is outrageous. A lot of us are trying to get away from chemicals. We are already getting enough in our system.
Thank you Hatch and Harkin. Looks like we will once again take-up the fight for our health freedom!
Very Happy to hear this…
YAHOO!! WHAT A BIRTHDAY (JAN 3RD) PRESENT!!! KUDOS TO HATCH AND HARKIN!! IT’S GOOD TO KNOW SOMEONE IN THE GOVERNMENT IS ON OUR SIDE. THIS HAS BEEN A BATTLE WITH THE FDA FOR YEARS.
If there is any way to add my note of thanks to Senators Orin Hatch and Tom Harkin for their intervention action I would be pleased to be informed about how to do this. Thank you for your vigilance. Yes my prayers will be supporting this journey of vigilance int he days ahead.
Way to go, ANH-USA!!
keep up good work,we need more freedom, jimmy mack
Kudos to Harkins and Hatch. It should be about our right to choose.
Why don’t they rein in the BIG drug companies? they kill far more of us and sicken us than otc supplements can ever do.
Thank you for telling us about this information about dietary supplements. I need 43 vitamins/good oils daily to be ok with my MS/Celiac. Most of America is Celiac…but they don’t know it…tests may not work to diagnose it and doctors may not be trained it. Most people need vitamins/good oils or America will be very sick…and be a weak nation. Thanks for your awesome help!
I take suppliments all the time and have avoided a heart operation because of them. I think the FDA wants to kill us so they won’t have to pay social security. Or maybe it is because the Big Drug companys depend on Seniors taking so many drugs it keeps them in business. My Doctor is amazed that I don’t take ANY drugs and am in good health. Hope to be able to continue taking my suppliments. Norma
It’s about time the FDA tested the drugs they’re providing pharmacists that are truly killing and destroying many seniors and properly educating people about over the counter sleep aids that
have brought on an epidemic of Altzheimer’s disease instead of testing clinically the nutritional supplements people require for amnesty from their lapses in processing healthy food!
We need to stop this insanity. The big food company’s are well in the way to poisoning us all, and wiping out natural foods The FDA works for them and must be eliminated, GMO’s must be outlawed worldwide, The US government needs to be reined in, lobbyist outlawed Lawmakers held accountable
Evil stalkes the earth destroying at will. Attempting to control the worlds food supply is VERY BAD and must be stopped!
Good news but in reality means nothing. The onslaught will continue. The FDA is owned lock,stock and barrel by big Pharma and they will keep coming back at this. The benefits of the citizens are never taken into account anymore, these “representatives” are not there for the people as they were originally meant to be. My guess is that eventually they will win as the apathy in this nation has gone way beyond the tipping point ( thanks to fluoride in the water ).
Thank You Senators for fighting this battle for us. Let’s hope we will be able to decide about our health and our children
The FDA and our government needs to stay out
Of natural products. It is another way of taxing and
Interfering with American’s business. They have
for years inforced man made medicine that has
Harmful side effects making people illl. Now they
want to restrict Natural Products for their own greed.
This must be stopped!!
Keep up the good fight to keep our freedoms. Supplements saved my life. I have the smarts to pick and choose, learn and decide which products are the best for me. No Gov. intervention thank you.!!
We need idiots like this (fda) out of our lives and replaced by responsible, sympathetic human beings.. We should’t have had to write petitions concerning this matter as in it’s very nature was corruption and big pharma friendly. Let us therefore keep a big eye open so these ‘noids won’t go behind our backs and pass it behind closed doors next time.
Thank you to Senators Harkin and Hatch and all involved. Your efforts are so very much appreciated.
I am a Utah resident (Senator Hatch’s state) and my three sons are third generation chiropractors. Supplements have always been an important part of our life and health, and the issue of natural health is of prime importance to me. Senator Hatch’s son in law is also a chiropractor in California and it pleases me no end to see him take on the giants of the opposition and effectively do what few could. Thank you to those whose voice made a difference and may we continue to fight to protect our right to natural healing.
I believe that Gary Null said that he and several others have already filed a lawsuit against the FDA on this issue. I think he mentioned Durk Pearson and Julian Whitaker.
Since the guidance is still in its draft phase, a lawsuit is not yet possible until the guidance has been finalized and a party with standing can show in court that they have been harmed by the guidance. ANH is working with Jonathan Emord and others to prepare a lawsuit against the FDA at such time as it is legally possible.
Thank you Senators Harkin & Hatch for acting on behalf of the people. We need voices like yours to keep our health. From all of us who believe in preventive care, and leading healthy, happy lives as is our right, my husband and I thank you.
Well done to these forward thinking Senators, there are still some folks in politics with principles. Also conratulations to ANH-USA for persistence.
It is another sad commentary on our govt. thinking that it can run our lives better than we can. I am so fed up.
Yeah!!! Yes, I know we are not out of the woods yet, but it is so good to know that all of our emails and faxes to congress is making a dent and that SOMEONE is finally listening to us! After so many losses I was beginning to feel that all our emails and faxes were useless. But obviously we are making a dent. ANH-USA THANK YOU for tirelessly working on our behalf for health freedom! I am proud to be a member of The Alliance for Natural Health-USA!!!
Hats off to the Senators supporting supplements.
Excellent. A bipartisan effort to control an over reaching governmental agency. Thank you, Senators.
thank you ANH so much for all that you do! You are so important and so good….
Thank you Hatch and Harkin! We so much appreciate your humanely-oriented work in this matter!
Why the need to re-evaluate wording? Why any need to review NDIs at all? Herbs and foods have been around for milennia and have already stood the test of time. Clinical testing is already being done a-plenty on herbs and supplements. there is no need for further controls.
I suggest that we won’t have our freedom back unless some of us in the public run for public office to challenge congressional seats. When we get enough good people in office, and we legislate campaign finance reform….then and only then will we have OUR America back.
Short of that, I can foresee a lot of upcoming battles….prune back the branches and the tree grows all the more strongly. We need to dig the tree up by the roots.
LImit government intrusion in my life. I am able to make decisions that affect my life. Let me choose, either right or wrong, but let it be my choice.
Great job folks! Its these little victories against “Big Pharma” that makes all the emailing, phone calls and letter writing worth while. Each success is a march in the diection of liberty.
I would like to see someone look into Commissioner Hamburg’s motivation behind this and other activities. It is clear there is a war on supplements. Does someone just wake up one day and decide they are bad? What recourse do citizens have to call into question what motivators come into play with actions like this. It appears reform is needed at the FDA to return it to an unbiased position.
WOW AMAZING. 2 useful senators. Thank God ! Seriously. The thugs at the FDA need a reality check. Glad OUR representatives made the call.
Way to go Sens Harkin/Hatch and ANH!!! I know we’ll win this battle and war. May 2012 be
the year of awakening for everybody, so they realize the benefits of natural supplements, vitamins and organic foods.
I applaude all of those in the forefront, including the senators in question, fighting this battle for the health of America. God bless America
Good work. Next I ask you this… supplements in the form of plants have been used for thousands of years. There should be no hinderances placed on putting them in bottles or mixing them in a variety of combinations. This would basically be illegalizing food/nourishment. Additionally, the nutritional field is young, much is not known, so the bill now limits new discoveries, this has never been placed on any other industry (though many industries/products should have been regulated per they destroy the environment which provides life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in trade of INC profit and payola by lobbyists). Thanks for all your efforts to protect our food, bottled or otherwise.
Thank you fight for our health freedom, we need more freedom
This is awesome!!
This news renews my faith in humanity ( a little), but the jury is still out.
This renews my faith in humanity ( a little more), but of course, the jury is still out.
Thank you Senators HATCH and HARKIN for standing up for the American people and protecting our freedom to utilize the dietary supplements of our choice! Congressmen WAXMAN and Senator DURBIN who have both worked steadfastly to kill the availability of supplements need to take lessons from you guys. Perhaps they got confused and thought they were elected to represent BIG PHARMA.
Last but not least, Kudos to ANH for taking action to stop this threat to our health and our freedom of choice! Good work!
Thank you, we are watching and know who does good in government, and we’re glad you are in there. Here’s to all our health!
The FDA (Food & Death Administration) absolutely MUST be dismantled!!!!
I say *KUDOS* to Senator Harkin and Senator Hatch for going to bat for the supplement industry, and of course all the effort and hard work the ANH-USA has done and with so many accomplishments on so many health issues Americans are faced with today. I am proud to be a supplement supporter and user!
Thank You!!!!
Thank you senators for standing up & protecting our rites!!!
To the Senators’:
THANK YOU for not only being open minded, forthright, and logical but showing the population that their open does matter and can be heard.
Many people heard about the FDA’s criminal actions but REFUSED to join the fight. I hope this will motivate other to get involved on all the other serious health issues that the FDA is seeking totalitarian control over!
Thank you again!
That law needs to be applied to the drug manufacturers and the fast-food gurus
instead of the dietary supplement businesses.
Whoo Hooooo!!!
Thank you, thank you!
May our progress on these issues ever continue!
Thanks for the feedback as to the effect of our efforts. Keep me posted and let me know if you need any help from me. Would a request for a cash contribution from members to sustain this effort be beneficial?
Jon F. Burke, Ph.D.
The supposed guardians of our freedoms and those who look out for the “little guy” do just the opposite. This perfectly makes the case for a very limited government, which our Founding Fathers wisely encoded in the Constitution. Let’s start electing people who will govern and appoint judges who hold to a strict, literal reading of the Constitution instead of becoming dictators. Elections matter folks!!!
The FDA is a tool of Big Pharma and the AMA. The American people want to use natural healing methods including dietary supplements. The idea that only drugs can cure disease is false, and everyone but Big Pharma and the FDA knows this fact.
I was sick alot, I got off of 4 medications fore asthma.
Today I am doing well , do to the help of supplements and vitamins.
My Thanks to the creators. Thank God.
Sens. Harkins & Hatch Thank you & God Bless.
Very good news for us all!!
I applaud Senators Hatch and Harkin for calling attention to the bureaucratic shroud the FDA has imposed on dietary supplements. Consumers would be best served if FDA spent more time enforcing the current laws rather than attempting to reinterpret and circumvent those laws in order to create a void in the dietary supplement market — to be filled by pharmaceutical companies!
I support the more conservative approach to reining in new dietary supplements. Without evidence showing their effectiveness, they may benefit the manufacturers and no one else. They may, in fact, be harmful.
thank the universe!!! i have been using supplements for over 30 years and without them, the AMA and doctors would have destroyed me and my body.
what are the next steps? what can i continue to do to ensure unhindered access to supplements of my choice???
I agree with Rita, unfortunately any thing Orin Hatch is involved in makes be suspicious. My guess is the only reason he agreed to make a request is because he gets more money from the large multilevel marketing companies who sell over priced supplements than from multinational pharmaceutical companies. I fear a wolf in sheep’s clothing here and that the FDA, DEA, and Big Pharma have not fired their last shot.
Thanks to Senators Hatch and Harkin. The medical profession has been bought by big Pharma and they are trying to shut down supplements. I have had so many adverse side effects from different chemical meds that I am afraid of taking anything that Drs. perscribe. I was in the hospital from New Years day to the 4th of Jan. and they pumped me full of antibiotics and now I am having to take something to counteract the effects of that. I had another reaction from 2 antibiotics. Now I am allergic to six antibiotics. If they try to shut down the supplements I do not know what I am going to do. I have had very good results from them. My cholesterol is down to normal. I could not take them because of bad side effects. I say great that these two Senators stood up for our rights.
If Orin Hatch had not been around in 1994, the supplement business would have been destroyed. I remember when the FDA came in and cleaned off the shelves at our little health food store in Vermont back then. It was frightening, to say the least, and now they are trying to write a law, which is not their right. Thanks to both the Senator Hatch and Harkin for the new bill.
I have been on supplements for 46 yrs. as a drug almost killed me then. I do not trust drugs unless they are absolutely required. I think the FDA should check their drugs first before attacking supplements as there are thousands that die from drugs but you don’t hear of any deaths from supplements. Shouldn’t that be any proof of safety for supplements? I think Big Pharma is worried of supplements taking over their drugs. Follow the money!!
To all the friends who support ANH-.org who are the senators who are supporting the fda and who are our fighters ,so that we can write to them and thank them and support them at elections time. I think its always important to know who is on our side. Its better to prevent, then to repent in this case it might be to late for us to fight back after the barn door is shut. why don twe receive more press and tv media on this does the chemical company have more clout then those of us who are fighting for our freedoms thanks for the opportunity to comment JAS
Its nice to know someone is willing to fight for what is right.
It is about time the Senators stood up for our freedoms against the dictatorial FDA.
I have been denied insurance coverage on the basis of my choosing safe and effective supplements in lieu of pharmaceutical poison that my doctor prescribed only on a trial basis, as he is a staunch supporter of supplements. However, he was pressured to prescribe more “traditional medicines” in order to keep his practice going. So I gave the poison a trial, and the side effects nearly landed me in the hospital. When the doctor found out, he took me off the stuff. But because of this, I am now considered “uninsurable.” I asked the insurance underwriter if I should have continued taking the poison until it killed me, and then would I have been posthumously eligible. He hung up on me.
I THINK THE FDA NEEDSN TO BE RAINED IN ON A LOT MORE ISSUES THAN THAT<BUT THAT IS A GOOD START ( THANK YOU ) Congressman, Thank You
I THINK THE FDA NEEDSN TO BE RAINED IN ON A LOT MORE ISSUES THAN THAT<BUT THAT IS A GOOD START ( THANK YOU ) Congressman, Thank You
I THINK THE FDA NEEDSN TO BE RAINED IN ON A LOT MORE ISSUES THAN THAT<BUT THAT IS A GOOD START ( THANK YOU ) Congressman, Thank You
I THINK THE FDA NEEDSN TO BE RAINED IN ON A LOT MORE ISSUES THAN THAT<BUT THAT IS A GOOD START ( THANK YOU ) Congressman, Thank You
I THINK THE FDA NEEDSN TO BE RAINED IN ON A LOT MORE ISSUES THAN THAT<BUT THAT IS A GOOD START ( THANK YOU ) Congressman, Thank You
I THINK THE FDA NEEDSN TO BE RAINED IN ON A LOT MORE ISSUES THAN THAT<BUT THAT IS A GOOD START ( THANK YOU ) Congressman, Thank You
1-4-12
Since Tom Harkin is from Iowa, the number 1 corn producing state in the nation, what is his position on genetically engineered ( without our permission ), insecticide producing corn that is over 85% of total corn production in the USA ? How could he accept this corn and be for natural supplements too, especially during the Iowa Presidential Primaries ? And why total silence on GE corn from all the candidates, that supposedly represent the People ?
Its all about MONEY of course, and unfortunately no tthe health of the American public!
It’s nice to see direct evidence of the influence we exert as individuals and collectively. I have one word Schweet!!! Let’s keep this up.
Our government and its huge agencies has gotten out of control, and is more of a danger to citizens than a help. The life span of a democracy is about 200 years, and we are now past that. Time to reshuffle the cards.
Right on brutha!! What happened to the Obama promise to get rid of all the “duplication & redundency”
In the federal government? The CBO came out 3 weeks after he made this promise for the 3rd time & said they found over $200 billion a year in this waste. Now he has given the FDA totally unconstitutional power. We reshuffle this November 2012!!!
Thank you for being a voice of reason.
I think it would be a great idea to provide all of us with a message we could sign thanking Senators Tom Harkin and Orrin Hatch for their instruction to the FDA to rewrite their NDI Draft Guidance and also letting them know how critical access to dietary supplements is to our health and well being. I’m very relieved to know that we now have a “lifeline.”
TO ALL WHO WORKED AND STUDIED to bring COMMON SENSE to the issue of supplements: a very big hurrraaahhhh !!
Keep this the greatest country in the world by celebrating and continuing to employ that wonderful part of the human brain called common sense.
Think about it: common sense is the sense that is common to a group of enlightened individuals: it is the product of the thought and reflection of a number of people looking at an issue from a number of points of view.
It goes back to Plato’s discourses, it is essential, it is the bedrock that protects of from transient dogmas…..KEEP IT UP and THANK YOU
Modern medicine says God is a “quack.” I guess I’m in good company. This is not a religious issue, but it could profoundly impact the freedom that all Americans very often take for grated. Don’t ever presume they will stop trying to seize and control the natural substances that keep us out of the doctor’s office…or the hospital. The sooner people understand that the medical system is not about healing, but money, repute, prestige, and the right to put on a white coat and wear a stethoscope around your neck, the sooner they will fully comprehend the pervasive attitude and the mental processes that truly manifest the lunacy of both the medical and pharmaceutical professions.
If you get the chance, watch the YOUTUBE video, “The Town of Allopath.” It’s very interesting.
There is so much more that the FDA is doing that they shouldn’t be doing, such as finding legal ways to ensure competing treatments don’t upset the business of cancer in this country. I think their actions are (or should be considered to be) legally criminal. The big pharmaceutical companies, the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society are all colluding to keep viable cancer treatments; even some that have passed stage II of the FDA’s own trials out of the public eye and out of the market. This at a time that the FDA has placed or is trying to place limitations about what the public can know about the food supply and the relationship to increasing cancer rates.(for example: antineoplastons – there is a documentary out about it, I am hoping everyone will see it. at:http://www.burzynskimovie.com
Good job. I was going to get some COq10 just because it was on the list. It must be good for someone if it’s on the FDA’s list.
Everything you need to know about Codex and then some is right here in this google video titled Nutricide,-Criminalizing Natural Health.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5266884912495233634
I hope we keep our herbal medicine. We have more control over our health. I trust it more than what the FDA approves. All you hear is how the medications are killing people and the terrible side effects. Shows you how much they know. We need to have say over what we take.
I hope we keep our rights to have our herbal medicine. I trust it more than what the FDA approves. We keep seeing how people are dying from approved medication. We have to keep in control of what we take.
In the past 27 years there have been 0 deaths from the usage of vitamins in comparisson to over 3 million from the usage of prescription medication! It is rediculous that the FDA is regulating vitamins when they let pharmaceutical companies get away with murder. They protect them, hide dangerous data and say it’s safe, attack alternative medicine, have loopholes in their system which allow organizations to poison us with pesticides and carcinogens in our food and consumable products, and let pharmaceutical organizations to put new, biasly, barely and unsubstantially tested medications on the market. They need to start doing their job! They say they do not have enough funding to put into substantiating pharmaceutical companies bias testing, but it seems they must since they have so much funding to waste going after natural supplement manufacturers!
It just doesn’t make any sense!
I would like to say thank you to the Senators that fight for us. We should have the right to use supplements if we choose. It is the pharmacy drugs that have dangerous side effects. My Mom always used supplements and was very healthy. I feel better when I use them. You don’t need those energy drinks if you take supplements.
I am almost 72 and TAKE NO PRESCRIBED MEDS and I am extremely healthy. I have reversed by osteoporsis with a multiple, Vit D-3 (10,000 IU) Vit K and a few others. I only exercise about twice a week for 30 minutes. I do walk a lot around the house every day.
PLEASE STOP THE FDA TAKEOVER of SUPPLEMENTS ! ! ! !
Let’s get the Gov’t out of our personal lives.
If you have not done so already, please take a serious look at Ron Paul for 2012.
Thank you
Unfortunately, Ron Paul can’t do squat unless he has a enough support in the House of Reps. which he won’t.
In 2003 I had a heart attack that led me to by-pass surgery, quad, then two years later stents. The medications the doctors were prescribing made me worse, that’s why the stents had to be applied.
The medications became toxic to my body, everyone they tried gave me more health problems. I told my cardiologist this and he wouldn’t listen. So I did the next best thing, I changed cardiologist. I found one that listened and he agreed that I start vitamins instead of the poison medications that were killing me. I have lived on vitamins, herbs, homeopathics and natural alternatives since 2005. The heart medications not only were poisoning me, but they put weight on. Naturally the Doctors do not tell you that these medications will put on weight, especially with women. The medications also screwed up my thyroid, metabolism, and created other health problems until I start my vitamin therapy.
Thank you Senators, otherwise there would be a lot more deaths caused from medications. I live in Maryland, Maryland does not allow Naturalistic Doctors in our state. In fact, they frown upon any Natural Medications, so doctors are not allowed to prescribe a natural alternative as medication. Now all we need is to have the Senators allow natural alternatives to be used as real medications and be allowed to take the vitamins, herbs, and other natural medications off as medications for health purposes. If it wasn’t for the vitamins I would have been dead by now. I use certain vitamins as antibiotics and that’s what keeps me alive.
They need to use the vitamins and natural alternatives to be used as medications as a medication for our health on the income tax forms. This would help many citizens. Then the doctors would have the ability to work with their patients and make sure that they will survive instead of dying from pharmaceudical medications.
I pray that the FDA will not be allowed to get rid of our natural supplements. I’ve also been using them for over 35 years and if we can’t buy them anymore, I don’t know what I’m going to do–I don’t believe in conventional meds at all and haven’t used them for about about 35 years. Keep signing petitions everyone!
True the FDA needs to be reigned in on a lot of things. This is a good start as is doing away with S510.
i’m totally in agreement with both senators’ efforts to prevent the FDA from taking on the natural supplements industries. besides, natural supplements have been the mainstay of medicine for many thousands of years and it should continue that way.
A positive small step. But look into previous employment of FDA (and other agency) officials
and researchers.
I have been taking supplements from health food stores, too, for 30 years or more! They are one of the reasons I am in very good health.Please leave our supplements alone. The companies that provide these natural substances do an excellent job of providing quality products to their customers.
You all know the AMA, the FDA, the pharma drug peddlers and anyone who benefits from being connected with them is diligently trying to rid the medical profession of chiropractors, naturopaths and holistic providers. Our health is being manipulated by those in power.
I’m not sure the two people mentioned are not “wolves in sheeps clothing”
I have experienced the severe effects of several pharma drugs and my health has been impaired by them
I’m wondering why online, catalog and retail stores who deal in supplements don’t mention the issues/problems/attacks ANH-USA articulates.
I want to just encourage everyone here who is an advocate of health freedom, to stand up and support our congressman in eveyway we can, especially to those who want to help keep our supplements on the market so we can continue to using them for as long as possible. A very big thank you goes out to Sen. Tom Harkin and Sen. Orrin Hatch for standing up for Americans to help us have access to our supplements. Their help is a big step in the right direction. Way to go senators, I wish both of you the best of luck.
Tell the FDA and Government to leave the supplements alone. I have been taking herbal supplements over the past 20 years and haven’t had any side effects or major illness. LEAVE THE SUPPLEMENTS ALONE FDA AND GOVERNMENT”””””’
Please note that Utah Senator Orrin Hatch is a great supporter of supplements as citizens of Utah fervently use supplements for health care. Relatedly the making of supplements is a major industry in Utah. I have purchased supplements from various companies there, and the products are sensational.
Consequently, every time someone in Congress tries to stop the purchase of supplements I email Sen. Hatch to stop this attack and especially as Sen. Hatch has a lot of seniority. And he always comes through.
We owe many thanks to Senator Hatch.
thank god!! Great job!! Senators, that’s what we need. Let us come together and make this world a better place to live. Let’s eliminate at least 50% of the FDAs power.
I was suprized and glad to read this article. I hope it sticks! Big Pharma has way too much power already, and they have No biz. playing GOD. they will pay for that by the way.
Thanks!!!!!
Thank you!
Unfortunately the type of ‘corruption’ you experience in America with large corporates lobbying the goverment to put restrictive practices in place that would enable them to sell more artificial chemicals is not limited to America. It’s spread to New Zealand, too. We have a new ‘food bill’ which is being vehemently opposed by the public, the full details of which are here: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2010/0160/latest/DLM2995811.html. In brief it attempts to place a lot of restrictions on growing your own food and sharing seeds, which is exactly the type of thing Monsanto would love.
Add to that some negative stories seeded in the media about the efficacy of supplements, plus ongoing attempts to regulate what supplements are allowed to be sold, what can be said on the packaging, etc, and you’ve got a perfect storm of corporate greed outweighing the common good.
Why dont people see that every bill that passes is just another step towards all of our fredom gone , its already half gone .We need lots of help.
The fundamental problem with implementing affordable health care in America is the fact that it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to perform all the testing required by the FDA to get a substance approved as a drug, and if this drug can’t be patented, then there’s no profit motive for a company to pay for the testing. One reason a substance with healing/curative powers may not be patentable is if it is a naturally-occurring herb or vitamin. There are many cancer cures identified by published NIH research that fall into this category, including one that saved my life from Melanoma, just this past year, Curcumin. (See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=cancer+curcumin+apoptosis ). Without this common supplement, Melanoma would have killed me, as there are NO FDA-Approved Drugs that are as effective at treating Melanoma as Curcumin. The AMA/FDA/Big-Pharma approach to treating Melanoma involves surgery, radiation, and Chemotherapy, the side effects of which are devastating, expensive, and on-average, ineffective. I was without Health Insurance, having been laid-off, and had to spend my own money and do my own research to find an alternative approach to treating Melanoma, myself. I managed to succeed, using Curcumin plus a few other vitamins and supplements available to me at the local vitamin store. In all, curing myself of Melanoma (with a 3-month prognosis) cost me about $1000, including treatments that I tried that proved ineffective. (Today, I could save someone from dying from Melanoma for about $100, using only supplements available from vitamin stores.)
In doing my research, I found that Curcumin, along with a handful of other common supplements, can cure many other types of cancer, including the most common killers and the most-common childhood cancers. NeuroBlastoma is similar to Melanoma, and can be cured by Curcumin as easily, with few side effects. (Curcumin is simply the compound in common yellow mustard that makes it yellow.)
Leukemia, the most-common childhood cancer, can be killed effectively by grape seed extract. (See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2760842/?tool=pmcentrez ) Obviously, no Big Pharma corporation is going to pay hundreds of millions of dollars jumping through the FDA’s regulatory hoops to prove a yellow-mustard derivative or extract of common grape seeds can cure cancers when they already have a monopoly on more profitable (and less-effective) chemotherapeutic agents. It isn’t a matter that Big Pharma corporations are intrinsically evil, *wanting* children to die, it’s simply a matter that, according to corporate laws and SEC regulations, corporations’ first loyalties are to their SHAREHOLDERS’ PROFITS. A well-meaning CEO could spend the ~$500Million to prove that Curcumin or Grape Seed Extract is effective and harmless, and actually end up being PROSECUTED under current corporate laws for acting AGAINST the interests of the Shareholders’ Profits (by making alternatives to their own highly profitable/ineffective chemotherapeutic agents that CAN’T be patented, so anyone could buy a generic version as soon as the “drug” is proved safe and effective). Despite the fact that this would be to the great advantage of the health care system and to the benefit of those who have to pay for that health care, the current system, including the FDA, precludes the course of action that would allow these childhood cancer cures to be developed and used to cure the sick children stricken with cancer.
Clearly, since the current system is actually PREVENTING KNOWN CURES for CHILDHOOD CANCERS from being used to SAVE THE LIVES OF CHILDREN WITH CANCER, THE CURRENT SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE OVERHAULED!