In the beginning, there were nutrients for procuring health.
Today, there are drugs, drugs and more drugs. This is the result of the drug company business model. It utilizes an arsenal of techniques to influence the government in order to minimize competition from nutritional supplements.
The cold hard fact of this business model has become clear:
Health in America has been fractured.
The health of U.S. children is worse in virtually all categories relative to children in other industrialized countries.
At least 80% of seniors have at least one chronic disease and 50% have at least two according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Understanding these techniques serves as a how-to guide for avoiding government-mandated drug addiction and remaining healthy.
First, education on the proper use of nutritional substances to achieve good health was removed from the medical school curriculum over 85 years ago.
There is not a medical doctor practicing today who has been trained in medical school on the prophylactic use of nutritional supplements.
This explains the reluctance of medical doctors to teach patients about natural alternatives, they don't know about them.
Through self-education, a select few medical doctors have become excellent advisors on proper use of nutraceuticals.
Second, the FDA has stonewalled ALL nutritional supplement manufacturers from educating their clients on nutritional supplements by passing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).
This act prohibits supplement manufacturers to market or claim that their products "cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent" any given disease or illness. Instead, they can only make general statements about their products.
As a result, nutritional supplements carry labels that are intentionally vague and misleading to consumers. Finding which nutritional supplements to take for any given illness has become close to impossible.
DSHEA also gave the FDA the authority to remove any nutritional supplement from the market if it "proved" to be unsafe.
Because of their broad definition of "unsafe" and because most anything, even water, is unsafe in large amounts, the FDA can now ban any nutritional supplement which poses as competition to its pharmaceutical partners.
Ephedra is a perfect example. Green tea extract may be next.
Third, lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry has enabled the drug community to influence the media to set a negative tone on the use of nutritional supplementation.
More often than not, the message is that natural alternatives to prescription drugs are ineffective and dangerous. Unable to distinguish between the truth and profit motives, the general public has turned away from nutritional supplements to embrace pharmaceutical drugs.
And finally, on the worldwide front, the pharmaceutically-compliant World Trade Organization (WTO) is working rigorously to convince the nations of the world that ALL human beings require the EXACT same amount of nutrients and that anything above this amount is dangerous.
Under the guise of protecting vitamin consumers, the WTO is using what is known as the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISION (CAC) to further restrict the free use of nutritional supplements within the United States and worldwide.
Specifically, the CAC is setting "Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements." These guidelines are more restrictive and will supercede current U.S. regulations by dictating to the U.S. which nutrients are safe, the maximum and minimum amounts allowed in a product, and related packaging and labeling requirements.
The CAC stands firm in their conviction that these guidelines are for the safety of others. But if safety were the priority, then the WTO could use the CAC to protect us from prescription drugs, which kill and estimated 100,000 people every year in the United States.
Instead, they waste time on nutritional supplements, which have killed less people than rabid squirrel attacks.
The success of the aforementioned techniques lies in fear. This fear is secured by the vested interests of professional alarmists within the government who promote it in order to minimize drug competition. The end result - drug companies secure their lion's share and profit from your pain.
References:
1. Starfield, Barbara. U.S. child health: what's amiss, and what should be done about it? A strong primary care infrastructure is key to improving and reducing disparities in children's health. Health Affairs (Millwood). 2004 Sep-Oct;23(5):165-70.
2. Starfield, Barbara. Journal of the American Chemical Society, July 26, 2000-Vol 284, No.4.
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