Pushing for Supplement Restrictions - Again!
..."Mounting evidence showing the numerous side effects of popular supplements and their potentially dangerous drug interactions makes it clear that now is the time for manufacturers to let consumers take the driver's seat. Here's what could be done to help consumers make more informed choices:
Reclassify supplements routinely recommended by physicians. These include folic acid for pregnant women, calcium for those at risk for osteoporosis, iron for those with anemia, and multivitamins for everyone. None should fall under the dietary-supplement umbrella."...
WOW - holly molly "numerous side effects" some stats! given that supplements are several orders less toxic than foods (Dietary Supplement 0.0001% vs Food 0.24% deaths - in plane language that is 1 death in a million people vs 1 in 417).
We are supposed to fall for this industry malarkey.
Boy Suzanne Leigh is one straight shooter. The death rate from properly prescribed and used drugs is 5.18% or roughly 5 in 100 (That is: for every 1 death from supplements, 417 die from foods and 50,000+ die form drugs!) - but she turns a blind eye on this inconstancy in her argument on dangers between drug and supplements. On the one hand they claim they have not got the resources to regulate dangerous drugs but they can spend so much time, expense and energy squandering what little they do have on perfectly safe natural products. Boy are they desperate!
See also: Understanding The Pharmacartel Assault On Supplements
Chris GuptaLetter to USA Today (for email and instructions see below)
From Shane Ellison M.Sc.
Author Health Myths Exposed
As a drug chemist I was intrigued by Suzanne Leigh's article in USA Today entitled "Lax rules let supplements lurk as health threats. My intrigue was replaced with disappointment.
Pushing for stricter regulations on dietary supplements, Leigh lacks insight. She writes that the journal known as Experimental Biology and Medicine showed Citrus aurantium to have the potential of eliciting the same cardiovascular dangers as ephedra. This is in sharp contrast to what the study actually found. The journal published that no adverse events have been associated with ingestion of C. aurantium. This study is a weak defense for restrictions.
Turning up the rhetorical heat, Leigh closes with "the deaths linked to ephedra might be just the beginning. The problem here is that there was never a link. The U. S General Accounting Office insisted that the majority of side effects thought to be caused by the plant ephedra were instead caused by the FDA approved drug ephedrine. Still, 155 deaths over the 5000 years that ephedra has been used is hardly worth concern when compared to the deaths caused annually by FDA approved drugs: 100,000 according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Here lies my disappointment. If others share this lack of insight, access to dietary supplements will become limited and subject to the pharmaceutically compliant FDA. Dietary supplements are essential to healthy living. Restrictions will undermine our health. People will grow sick. To witness, observe the lack of health among those who don't use dietary supplements but instead practice the worship of pharmaceutical drugs.
Suzanne Leigh's article is here
About the Author
Shane holds a Master's degree in organic chemistry and has first-hand industry experience with drug research, design and synthesis. He understands that Americans want and deserve education rather than prescriptions. His shocking ebook surrounding cholesterol lowering drugs can be downloaded for FREE as a pdf file at
Copyright 2004 All Rights Reserved
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posted by Chris Gupta on Friday November 5 2004
updated on Saturday September 24 2005URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2004/11/05/pushing_for_supplement_restrictions_again.htm
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