Thanks, Ron Paul!

[kimmerspixelated]

May 30, 2007



Please Forward Widely:
Every Letter Counts



Ron Paul's Given Us a Great Bill
to Get Behind!







Congressman Ron Paul, MD (R-TX) has done it again. He has introduced a great bill into the House of Representatives, The Health Freedom Protection Act, H.R. 2117. This bill is of monumental importance to your health and health freedom. Short, pithy and to the point, it allows supplements to carry scientifically justified health claims. It shifts the burden of proof to the FDA to prove that health claims are NOT scientifically warranted, rather than assuming that health claims are forbidden as advertising unless they relate directly to either structure or function. Thus, "Cherries may be good for arthritis" would be permitted since there is strong scientific evidence that they help people with joint pain.



FDA Restricting Your Right to Know What Supplements Can Do For You



The FDA does not want you to know how good supplements are for you. If you understand how safe, effective and inexpensive they are, why would you take drugs? When I coined the term "Nutricide" I gave it two definitions:


1. The death of a body of knowledge about the health benefits of foods
2. The death of large numbers of people through the manipulation of the food supply.



The FDA is working on both the first (through tools like the recent dangerous and assaultive "CAM Guidance") and the second (through forcing Codex "HARMonization" on you and your food).



It's Your Right to Have
Information About Supplements



Although Dr. Paul is trained as an allopathic physician, he believes in your right to use supplements and herbs which have truthful, informative health claims on their labels and in their promotional material.



The FDA does not believe any such thing, of course. Their endless attacks on truthful health claims are part of a "Pharma-Phriendly", lop sided and dangerous policy designed to put drug competitors (i.e., natural products and practices) out of business. FDA policy which attempts to gag real information on natural products while colluding with dangerous drug to hide their dangers. To cite just one example of an unfolding cabinet of horrors, the FDA colluded with drug companies to allow neurotoxic, suicidality-inducing anti depressant medications (commonly known as SSRIs) to be prescribed as if they were safe and effective (despite abundant information showing they are neither) in the very young, the very old and everyone in between. The FDA resisted tooth and nails adding precautionary information ("black box warnings") to labels notifying doctors and patients that these compounds could cause death and injury in a variety of ways (e.g., suicide, homicide, cardiac death, stroke, neuroleptic crisis, etc.) and do permanent harm to anyone taking them. They also buried the information that these drugs did no better than placebo, although placebos did not lead to death or permanent physical injury. And placebos are a whole lot cheaper. Loved ones were lost, families were devastated, brains, livers and lives were injured beyond repair.



Truth is Just A Bowl of
Cherries



At the same time, the FDA threatened the Michigan Cherry Growers Association (MCGA) with severe legal punishment if they did not remove links from their websites to independent peer reviewed scientific studies. These studies, which the MCGA had no role in producing or sponsoring, showed that cherries were good for people who had arthritis. According to the FDA, mounting such "advertising" on their web site which then was making "health claims" TURNED CHERRIES INTO AN UNTESTED DRUG. Of course, cherries are a lot cheaper and safer than, say, Vioxx or Celebrex. Cherries have never been associated with 130,000 plus deaths from heart attacks, but, then, their profit margin is absolutely unacceptable to Big Pharma.
You probably recognize this twisted, commercially engendered "logic" from the recently proposed abusive and dangerous "FDA Guidance on CAM Regulation" which proposes that same magical transition for ANYTHING whatsoever (including a needle to remove a splinter, holy water or carrot juice) used with the intent to induce health. (By the way, despite broken links and other manipulations, over 197,733 people submitted comments through our site to the FDA opposing their inaccurate "restatement of the law".



One of the people who urged the FDA to back off from its intended abuse of its power was Congressman Ron Paul. But, because he realizes well that the FDA is just gearing up for another round of assaults on your health and health freedom, he did more than that.



What H.R. 2177 Does to Protect
Your Health Freedom



Dr. Paul reintroduced his important and powerful Health Freedom Protection Act shortly after the disastrous "FDA Revitalization Act of 2007, S. 1082, passed the Senate. Congressman Paul's bill shifts the burden of proof onto the FDA whenever the agency wants to deny the public the benefit of health claims information about Dietary Supplements. And it wants to deny the public that information a lot.



H. R. 2117 provides that reasonable health claims, with proper disclosure language, shall be allowed "unless the Secretary determines that -- (i) there is no
scientific evidence that supports the claim; and (ii) the claim is inherently misleading and incapable of being rendered non-misleading through the addition of a disclaimer." Thus, even "a scintilla*" of scientific evidence would allow Dietary Supplements to make claims that they may be of benefit to individuals. The requirements of the bill are consistent with the law that already governs the agency's position, announced in 2004, "FDA intends to apply a standard for substantiating claims for dietary supplements that is consistent with the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) standard for dietary supplements and other health related products of 'competent and reliable scientific evidence'."



This policy has not been adhered to by the FDA since it attacks health claims on a regular basis and allows only so-called "structure function claims", barring all other types of health claims.



Kill the knowledge of health benefits of dietary supplements and you kill the market for dietary supplements. The logic is unassailable. The impact is a classic double whammy:


Whammy 1: a rise in the preventable diseases of under nutrition, defined by the World Health Organization as
Cancers
Cardiovascular Disease
Stroke
Diabetes and
Obesity
Whammy 2: a rise in the number of deaths and serious adverse events from the use of drugs where natural, safe, effective (and cheap) treatments could have avoided this human tragedy.



The Natural Solutions Foundation and our legal counsel believe that this bill would greatly enhance public access to truthful and non-misleading health information. Your right to access truthful, non-misleading health information is supported by, and is in keeping with, the US Supreme Court's dictum in Thompson v. Western States Medical Centers,
"If the First Amendment
means anything, it means that regulating speech must be a last - not first - resort. *** We have previously rejected the notion that the Government has an interest in preventing the dissemination of truthful commercial information in order to prevent members of the public from making bad decisions with the information. *** Even if the Government did argue t that it had an interest in preventing misleading advertisements, this interest could be satisfied by the far less restrictive alternative of requiring ... a warning ..."



Health Freedom Protection Act



The Health Protection Act, H.R. 2117, is cosponsored by Congressmen Burton (R-IN), Shays (R-CT), Bartlett (R-MD), and Duncan m(R-TN). It presents a clear opportunity to enhance legal protections for Dietary Supplements and natural remedies. Its adoption would
shift FDA resources from over-regulation of safe food substances (e.g., Dietary Supplements) to what should be their main task: protecting people from truly dangerous drugs and medical devices. We need to encourage other congresspeople to join as cosponsors and get behind the Health Freedom Protection Act.
And, should the House equivalent to Senator Kennedy's disastrous "FDA Revitalization Act of 2007, S. 1082, be passed, we are urging your Congresspeople to act strongly to attach the whole of H. R. 2117 to it as an amendment to provide strong protective language for Dietary Supplements and their legitimate health claims.



Click here to tell your Congressperson how important your health freedom is to you. (http://tinyurl.com/3xwmjm) (http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/healthfreedomusa/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11754)



Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima


Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director

Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org




*scintilla \sin-TIL-uh\, noun:
A tiny or scarcely detectable amount; the slightest particle; a trace; a spark.




The text of the bill, reintroduced on May 7, 2007, can be found at:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-2117







PLEASE NOTE: If you click on a link and it seems like it isn't working, if it's a really long link (two or more lines long), you may need to copy and paste each line into your browser's address bar, being sure to delete the space in between each section of the link.

[Taverner]

1. Kick - and I definitely think the FDA has been sitting on its ass

[sunwyn]

2. 'Bout time.....but doed it have a chance?

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. LOL!

:crazy:

[StarryNite]

4. Thank you so much for posting this.

This is a very important issue to me. I'm tired of big pharma trying to gain complete control of our freedom to choose when it comes to such matters.

[phantom power]

5. You realize that this is *bad* news for us consumers, right?

There is a very very very good reason that the scientific method operates on the principle of proving claims, as opposed to this "Ron Paul" principle of "allowing claims that aren't proven false."

Because it's easy to generate an infinite supply of claims that can't be proven false, and an even larger set of claims that could be proven false, but haven't yet been.

So why does this matter: because it allows drug companies, charlatans, hacks and quacks to make commercials claiming all kinds of misleading bullshit, that the FDA will now no longer have the authority to prosecute them for.

Christ, advertisers are already allowed to stretch the truth to the breaking point. All this bill would do is free them up to lie their asses off with total impunity.

[NobleCynic]

7. You're dead on here

This is about the dumbest thing one could do to reform the FDA, which admittedly is in dire need of reform. But seriously, the last problem in the world with the FDA is that it is too strict.

[philly_bob]

6. Very bad news for consumers. Health scammers delight.

Look, OP, you and Ron Paul are entitled to take any home nostrums you want. Try that Romanian bee growth hormone weight-loss spray if you want. Feel free.

But when you're advertising to the public, especially people who may be tragically sick and poorly educated, there should be standards for truth.

The "natural supplements" industry is HUGE and as corrupt as any other large profit-making industry. They need more federal regulation, not less; more science, not less.

[file83]

8. That's kind of what I was thinking...got any of that there snake oil?

[philly_bob]

9. Sorry. Used it all up buying houses for no money down...

and reselling them for millions.

[Bucky]

13. Hey I know a sure fire way you can get your money back... big time!

I've got this friend in Nigeria, see...
.

[kimmerspixelated]

10. It's hard to believe that the health industry

could be as corrupt as Big Pharmas, who regularly profit and profit big for poisons, that we find out later are even more harmful than they are telling us. The FDA needs a complete overhaul! The truth is, most informed people seek out alternative medicines only when they have done a little research on the subject. I agree that the weight loss industry part of things has some questionable tactics, but there are plenty of well meaning companies that stand by their products. Do you ever wonder Why the market is growing everyday? Because most of their products WORK! Don't you think the health food stores would be quickly out of business if all they were selling was snake oil? You ought to read a magazine called Alternative Medicine or Natural Health. If you take mainstream drugs, actually look into alternatives, and once you find some vits and minerals etc, that are actually improving your health, you might realize how precious that kind of choice is. The danger is to support more regulations on it, because Big Pharma will go to any length and I mean any length to preserve what they think is all theirs! They are getting nasty about it because they are nervous that the sheeple are finally catching on to the fact that synthetic drugs just make people sicker! They know that there is a good chance they will be out of business! Bottom line is money. Big Pharma could care less if you're healthy-in fact it is more profitable for them if you're not!!!

[diamidue]

11. Go Ron Paul!!

"Its adoption would shift FDA resources from over-regulation of safe food substances (e.g., Dietary Supplements) to what should be their main task: protecting people from truly dangerous drugs and medical devices."

There is a war being waged against dietary supplements by the medical establishment who want complete control of our healthcare. Let the FDA worry about dangerous substances coming in from China, and leave my Vitamin C and my herbs alone.

[Bucky]

12. Wow, more "Caveat Emptor" laws from the Republicans. Thank YOU, Ron Paul

This law takes the shackles of regulation off of health food advocates and charletans alike.
.

[Avalux]

14. BAD BILL.

When it comes to people's health/lives, this is not a freedom of speech issue. The FDA sucks in a lot of ways, but the principal behind what they do is sound - to protect all of us from inferior and or/potentially harmful drugs, whether they be pharmaceuticals or neutraceuticals. And yes, even vitamins are drugs.

Claiming a product 'may' cure a health problem is on par with claiming the earth is 6000 years old. The benefits and risks have not been proven in controlled clinical trials, so therefore the public should not be led to believe otherwise.

Do you not think the manufacturers of neutraceuticals are out to make a buck?

Can you prove to me that supplement you're taking is doing what the bottle tells you and not harming you in any way?

This bill is horrible.

[diamidue]

15. What I think is "horrible"

is taking away any choice from people, and putting all decisions into the hands of the pharmaceutical industry and their puppets in the FDA. I can't believe how quick some people are to toss away their freedoms, and how gullible they can be to believe the FDA or any agency connected to this government cares a whit about you or me.

[Avalux]

16. I watched someone die taking a product that supposedly cured AIDS.

The product didn't do it, but his belief it would work and failure to seek medical help did. If anyone's gullible, it's people who believe the claims made about 'safe and natural' products. The public should demand the manufacturers present scientific proof to back them up. I can't believe the amount of money wasted by trusting individuals who blindly accept what's printed on the packaging without a thought that it might not work or even harm them.

[mdmc]

17. God Bless Dennis Kucinich

and Ron Paul