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Your supplements under attack by
FDA
"Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the
A.M.A."
Written and copyright 2003 by Andrew Saul, PhD, of
http://www.doctoryourself.com,
an online library of over 350 natural healing articles with
nearly 4,000 scientific references. Commercial use of the
website or the contents of this Newsletter is strictly
prohibited.
A QUACK IS ANY PHYSICIAN WHO gives twelve separate
courses of antibiotics to an infant under a year old. I know
more than one doctor who does.
Ray, a health professional himself, brought his 11-month-old son
Robbie to me. The child was very sick, and had been for over a
week. No one, and I mean no one, in their family had had any
sleep in a long time. They were up night after night with this
child, who had a high fever, glazed watery eyes, tons of thick
watery mucus, labored breathing, would not sleep, and did little
else but cry. Day and night, night and day.
Robbie was under the care of a pediatrician, who had been
prescribing serious antibiotics all along. Antibiotics were
clearly not working. This was all too apparent to Ray.
"Twelve rounds of antibiotics for a baby under a year old,
and all the doctor wants to do is give more antibiotics?"
he said. "That makes no sense at all."
"Ray, antibiotics are their knee-jerk answer to a lot of
things. There is a saying: 'When the only tool you have is a
hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.'"
"Well, we've thoroughly tried the medical route, and
cooperated one hundred percent with the pediatrician. At this
point," Ray said, "Robbie is worse, not better. We
have got to do something ourselves, and we are going to. My wife
is just as emphatic about that as I am."
She was home, taking care of the other children. I promptly
acquainted Ray with some vitamin C research. "So the bottom
line is to give Robbie as much vitamin C as he can hold without
having loose bowels," Ray said. "Yes."
"We can do that," he said. And he did, too.
So now I have a new case history record to offer: 20,000
milligrams of vitamin C daily for an under-20-pound baby of 11
months of age. That's how much it took to cure Ray's baby of
severe congestion, fever, and listlessness. That is over 1,000
milligrams of vitamin C per pound of baby per day; 2,200 mg
"C" per kilogram body weight per day, nearly twice
what Dr. Robert Klenner customarily ordered for patients. And
even at that huge amount, the baby never had diarrhea!
You have to marvel at where it was all going. More marvelous is
how quickly it worked. Ray kept in touch on the phone.
"Robbie was noticeably improved in under twelve hours, and
slept through the first night." Ray told me two days later.
"He was completely well in 48 hours. Symptoms free.
Completely well!"
Even without considering the harmful side effects of massive
antibiotic therapy, we can look at the futility of all those
repeated doses. Antibiotics are either going to work with the
first or second round, or they are not going to work at all,
period. There is no point in emptying twelve water fire
extinguishers on an electrical fire. More of the wrong thing is
just more wrong. And in a baby, just plain stupid.
One simply must find the best, safest, and most effective way,
especially with infants. The vitamin C quacks ( Linus
Pauling, Frederick
Robert Klenner, Emanuel
Cheraskin, William
J. McCormick, Irwin Stone, Robert F. Cathcart III, and,
ah... me) will tell you that you have a genuine option: consider
using vitamin C as your first choice antibiotic/antiviral.
http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html
http://www.doctoryourself.com/ortho_c.html
http://www.doctoryourself.com/klenner_table.html
http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerpaper.html
Taking enough C results in the three C's:
patient comfort, low cost, and parental control. Without
necessitating the use of invasive technology nor the trauma of
hospitalization, parents can regain confidence and mastery over
illness to a degree that they might never have thought possible.
We have now gone light years beyond the medical profession's
customarily paternalistic, condescending attitude towards
self-care.
For this reason, bowel-tolerance vitamin C therapy has
periodically been decried and denounced as irresponsible
quackery. It takes some real ego strength for a parent to stand
firm and say, "This is what I am going to do: I am going to
follow the Klenner/Cathcart
vitamin C protocol." The vitamin C doctors' shared
knowledge of how it is done is the buttress that makes such a
stance possible.
When I was a kid, everybody got miracle drugs. From sulfa to
Physohex, we followed the crowd from waiting room to
prescription counter. Our parents gave us "safe"
children's aspirin. Oops, not so safe for high fevers, it was
discovered. So then it was children's Tylenol (acetaminophen)
for everybody. Hmm: it turns out there's some liver and kidney
side effects with that, too. And, as drugs go, acetaminophen
is really safe. But drugs all carry side effects; you just
choose your poison carefully. Vitamins are vastly safer than
drugs.
LAW: The number one side effect of vitamins is failure to take
enough of them.
"BUT ** THAT ** MUCH VITAMIN C?" said Marta,
another client, aged 30, with a chronic viral illness.
"Well," I said, "If you are going to do it,
Marta, you might as well do it right. This means building up
your C level to saturation. That's bowel tolerance. "And
you mean that I might have to take much more than I'd expect to,
right?" Marta added.
"Yes," I said. "You do not take the amount of
vitamin C you think you should take; rather, you take the amount
of vitamin C that the body responds to. When your symptoms
leave, that's the right level for you at that time. As you get
better, you will not be able to hold as much of the vitamin. The
dose is self-adjusting, and you need no equipment to monitor it.
Just take as much as you can comfortably hold, just enough to be
symptom-free, but not so much as causes loose bowels."
Marta said, "How long will it be before I see any
progress?"
"It depends on how much vitamin C you take, and how much
vitamin C you need. A dry sponge holds a lot of water. The body
seems to have an enormous capacity for vitamin C when infected
with a virus. We'll all find out how much you need when we see
how much you can comfortably hold. It is not a contest; just do
what gets the healing." "What can I expect along the
way?" she asked.
"Look at it this way," I responded. "Let's say
you were in a plane taking off from Buffalo International
Airport in the middle of winter. It is snowing, dark, gray,
stormy and windy. Your jet takes off, and begins to climb. The
wind rocks the plane, the snow and sleet and hail come down, and
it's all dismally gray outside. The plane keeps climbing. All
you can see out the window is snow, darkness and the wings
shaking from the wind. The person next to you is turning a bit
green. Up you go, still in the winter storm. Then, all of the
sudden, the airplane breaks out on top of the clouds, and like
magic, there's bright sunlight and blue sky everywhere. Look
down: Far below you is the storm. It's like it never happened,
like you were never in it.
"That is exactly what it is like when you reach saturation
of vitamin C. At a certain altitude, higher than you expected,
your symptoms go away. This characteristically occurs with such
ease that it is hard to believe it until you experience it for
yourself. Precious few medical professionals have learned this.
The medical-dietetic industry has a real fear of flying if
vitamin C is the aircraft. Too bad, when it is the safest and
fastest plane in the air."
"OK," said Marta. "I guess I should get
started." She did.
It was not that long afterward that I had a follow-up
conversation with her. "All traces of the viral infection
are gone," Marta said, "And have been gone since I got
to saturation with the C. Do you want to know how much it
took?"
"You bet I do." "44,000 milligrams a day!"
she hooted. "Can you believe that? And at that much I
hardly had any bowel signs at all. So I dropped it to about 35
to 40 thousand and stayed there. That's it!"
That Dr. Klenner fellow. I'd have liked to have met him.
Right now there are a whole lot of researchers searching for a
new anti-viral wonder drug, or the ultimate six-pack of flu
wonder shots.
They are the blind leading the blind. They already have an
answer.
It would seem as if the pharmaceutical industry's mercenary
scientists and their medical doctor clones will, in fact, try
everything BUT megadoses of vitamin C. I think of them as birds
that are willing to land on any branch except one. Too bad,
because that one branch is the best in the entire forest.
CHRONICALLY SICK CHILD CURED WITH VITAMIN C MEGADOSES
http://www.doctoryourself.com/immune.html
INFLUENZA AND COLDS
http://www.doctoryourself.com/colds.html
MORE ON MEGADOSE VITAMIN C THERAPY:
SAFETY AND EFFECTIVENESS
http://www.doctoryourself.com/mccormick.html
http://www.doctoryourself.com/mccormick1951.html
VITAMIN C MEGADOSE THERAPY book written
by a medical doctor:
http://www.doctoryourself.com/levy.html
"Big Bro. Is At
It Again"
NOW THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WANTS
FDA TO CONTROL YOUR ACCESS TO SUPPLEMENTS
A so-called "Dietary Supplement Information
Act" (H. R. 724) has been introduced into the House
of Representatives "to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act" and bring supplements under direct and
absolute FDA control. (Read the full text of the House bill at http://thomas.loc.gov/,
where you simply type "HR 724" into the search
box to get a copy.)
While this particular bill commences primarily with
"registration," it is well within the world's memory
that dictatorial powers have often begun organized repression
and extermination with just such a move.
The FDA's agenda is to control, and then eliminate, public
access to high-dose vitamin preparations because they are direct
competition for the Agency's pet customers: the pharmaceutical
industry.
This is nothing new. FDA Deputy Commissioner for Policy David
Adams, at the Drug Information Association Annual Meeting, July
12, 1993, said: "Pay careful attention to what is happening
with dietary supplements in the legislative arena... If these
efforts are successful, there could be created a class of
products to compete with approved drugs. The establishment of a
separate regulatory category for supplements could undercut
exclusivity rights enjoyed by the holders of approved drug
applications."
And the FDA Dietary Task Force Report, released June 15, 1993,
said: "The task force considered many issues in its
deliberations including to ensure that the existence of dietary
supplements on the market does not act as a disincentive for
drug development."
The most ominous parts of the House bill, H.R. 724, are
these:
1) The Secretary of the FDA is given all the power to
"conduct a clinical evaluation of each serious adverse
experience reported." This means total FDA control, and do
not let anyone tell you otherwise.
2) Even trivial experiences will be included, and indeed sought
out: "With respect to the receipt of information on adverse
experiences that are not serious, a manufacturer of the dietary
supplement involved shall submit reports to the Secretary
annually, or at such shorter intervals as the Secretary may
require. Each such report shall meet such requirements as the
Secretary may establish." FDA would be handed the power to
dictate terms, no matter what those terms may be.
"In carrying out such program, the Secretary shall seek the
cooperation of appropriate public and private entities,
including entities that respond to medical emergencies."
This means all medically-biased organizations nationwide will
have a free-for-all feeding frenzy attacking high-dose vitamins,
with the FDA cheering them on.
3) "The term 'adverse experience regarding a dietary
supplement' means any adverse event associated with the use of
such supplement in humans, whether or not such event is
considered to be related to the supplement by a person referred
to in paragraph (1) who obtains the information." Vitamins
may be accused as culprits when innocent, and found guilty even
if innocent, all by a single person: the Secretary of the Food
and Drug Administration.
4) The idea that FDA wants, specifically, a "SURVEILLANCE
PLAN" (their wording) for supplements reveals their
orientation most clearly. FDA has already assumed that
supplements are the problem, as they historically have done.
FDA intends to regulatory language exactly as if supplements
were quack devices, namely:
"Section 704 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
(21 U.S.C. 374) is amended (in subsection (a)(1), in the
third sentence,) by striking `or restricted devices' each place
such term appears and inserting `restricted devices, or dietary
supplements'; and (in the fourth sentence) by striking `and
devices' and inserting `devices, and dietary supplements.'"
This is an outrage, and the worst form of political power grabs.
Since FDA really means "Favors Drugs Always," I think
this bill, and the Senate's equally misguided S. 722,
present a very serious danger to your family's health.
Additionally, all supplements would have to have, printed on the
label of every bottle, the FDA's toll-free "telephone
number, and the address of the Internet site, maintained by the
Secretary for purposes of the medical product reporting program
(MedWatch or any successor program)." And, for a nice serio-comic
touch: The FDA will be allowed to charge supplement companies
for the costs of their registration.
This bill, if made into law, will complete the FDA's twin,
underlying
purposes: to gain control over supplements, and to treat them as
drugs. Sure, 2004 is twenty years after "1984." But
Big Brother is patient, and George Orwell was looks to have been
quite right.
Congress needs to receive your letters of objection right away.
Be sure to ask for a response. (You can get your Congressman's
address easily at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home
or with a Google search.
Here are a couple more congressional responses that readers have
forwarded to me:
SENATOR PAT ROBERTS (R, Kansas)
"Consumers should have access to dietary
supplements that meet quality standards, are free from
contamination, and are accurately labeled. The proposed rule
will not limit consumers' access to dietary supplements. It will
give consumers greater confidence that the dietary supplement
they use will have the identity, purity, quality, strength, and
composition that is claimed on the label."
Sincerely,
Pat Roberts
Roberts@senate.gov
DOCTOR YOURSELF COMMENT:
I think the Senator is quite incorrect: the bill
will most assuredly limit access to any supplement for which
there is even one single adverse report, a report than does not
even have to be true. I think your senator should read S. 722
before commenting on it.
CONGRESSMAN MARTIN OLAV SABO (D, Minnesota)
"I appreciate having been informed of your
views and will keep your comments in mind as the House of
Representatives considers legislation related to dietary
supplements."
Sincerely,
Martin Olav Sabo
http://www.house.gov/sabo/
The Newsletter reader, and letter-writer,
comments:
"I have no idea where he stands on the issue and how he
plans to vote on S. 722 or H.R. 724. This is very
unclear, frustrating and confusing for me."
Darn straight. Write again and ask him how he will vote. Or
better yet, tell him how to vote. You pay his salary.
READERS SAY:
Gary Headley, of Fayetteville, AR writes:
"Love your stuff, as usual. Just wondering,
though: do you think the vitamin industry should police itself?
With more and more people taking nutritional supplements, it is
a huge business. Isn't it likely that some people will get into
the game and advertise that their product contains one thing but
in reality, it will contain something else? Or not the right
dosage? I think there should be some FDA regulation of the
industry, just as there should be regulation of any food
product. Big businesses will get away with whatever they can in
order to cut corners and save a buck. As much as I'd like to
think otherwise, I know that not everyone in the vitamin
industry is looking after our health."
FDA has always had the authority to take any mislabeled or
adulterated or fraudulent product off the market immediately.
They have such authority today. The supplement industry knows
this, and overall does a commendable job of self-regulating.
Could they do it better? Probably. But the government knows that
there is not even one death per year caused by vitamins. The
real issue concerns dangerous pharmaceuticals that are unfairly
marketed as "supplements." FDA has always had the
power to instantly remove any harmful product from the shelves.
They have this power today as well. No new legislation is
needed.
THE "SAFETY" SMOKESCREEN
So far, most elected officials responding to
readers' letters are saying pretty much the same thing: "I
support access and I support safety."
You and I are also in favor of safety and access. This recent
FDA-fed legislative call for "more safety" is bogus,
in my view, and the worst kind of public deception. If the FDA
and pharmaceutical lawyers have their way, by the time they are
done manipulating any safety issue that involves supplements,
access will be curtailed.
I am probably rather cynical about government regulation. This
may be due to all the lobbying I did to help get congress to
pass the DSHEA in 1994. Truly, that law (for the US at
least) is all we need to ensure manufacturing safety. . . and
that law is already in force and on the books, and it guarantees
our freedoms as well.
Historically, this has all been tricky going. I think nearly
every
governmental attempt to stop misleading products (potency pills
and magic dieting aids, which I very much disapprove of, come to
mind) has tarred vitamins and minerals with the same, very big
legislative brush. I think we need to err on the side of
liberty, or our government(s) will go the way of the European
Union. EU demonstrates what I think G. B. Shaw said: "The
road to hell is paved with good intentions." And lawmakers
listen to the
pharmaceutical companies more than anyone, again as EU
illustrates, resulting in completely foolish "upper
limits" for, say, B-6 or niacin in Britain.
Most Americans (and their lawmakers) are unaware that FDA has
always had, and still has, the power to remove any dangerous or
fraudulent product at any time. An example of just how extreme
this power can be was when FDA took L-tryptophan off the market
(http://www.doctoryourself.com/prozac.html).
Tryptophan is still unavailable in the US, and there is no
recourse that I am aware of.
I think that the attack on supplement safety is actually an
attack on supplement efficacy. It seems to me that practically
all proposed legislation starts out in the name of safety and
ends up as a medical pharmaceutical industry opportunity.
That opportunity is first restriction and then prescription. I
do not think we should have to accept the ridiculousness of
living in a nation where it is easier to buy a shotgun than to
get a bottle of high-potency vitamin C tablets.
TELL IT TO THE FDA
In addition to writing to your Senators and
Congressman, you can voice your opinion directly to the FDA
regarding new supplement rulemaking at the Dockets Management
Branch (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630
Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. You can also
submit your comments at
http://www.fda.gov/oc/mcclellan/chbn.html.
DR. ABRAM HOFFER WRITES:
"Governments are not to be trusted too much. The message
is, "Thou shalt not tamper with my right to buy these safe
products as I wish, in the same way I do not want anyone to tell
me what I can eat or not eat."
READERS (AND THEIR WEBSITES) SAY
http://www.geocities.com/miamimystic23/blog
:
"I simply do not want to be on medications
when I'm older. Believe it or not, there are some elderly people
in good health who don't take any meds! If I'm fortunate enough
to live a long life, I'd like to be one of these people. Now,
I'm not a fanatic. If someone has a pressing need to be on meds,
they should be on their meds. But people need to be more
informed about alternatives. There are other ways to manage
chronic conditions besides synthetic prescription drugs.
"I was on a lot of meds for a lot of years, trying to
manage my blood pressure and sinus problems. The pills I was
taking wound up causing other side effects. Phantom pains
doctors couldn't give a reason for. Escalated depression. Fuzzy
thinking. Vivid, frightening and morbidly sad dreams. Chronic
fatigue. And on and on.
"I'm happy for websites like Dr. Saul's Doctor Yourself - a
very handy site filled with commercial free information about
how to take care of your own health concerns. I refer to this
site a lot. Now, I don't happen to agree with everything on
there - but that's okay. It's still got tons of great
information. And, unlike a lot of health related sites that sell
products, Dr. Saul isn't selling anything. He drops some hints
about his books now and then - but he's not pushing any
particular vitamin product or brand. In my eyes, this gives him
a lot of credibility. There should be more nutritionists and
alternative healthcare workers like this guy on line giving
thoughtful, expert advice - without an agenda."
FREE VITAMINS FOR THE
POOR
Our vitamin dispensary for the poor in
Rochester, NY has stepped up operation as the cold weather and
flu season come upon us. For some time now, our dispensary has
enabled homeless and other poor people to receive a high-potency
multivitamin along with their free lunch. There is no waste with
this program: the vitamin is only given to those who want it,
one per customer. Currently, around 50 or more people every day
are benefiting from this all-volunteer, entirely free-of-charge
service.
While sales of my book
(http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html)
help fund this project, the effort needs donations.
DOCTOR YOURSELF ON THE AIR
My next radio interviews will be:
Tuesday, Dec 9, California: KSMA
(twice between 7 am and 9 am Pacific Time, AM 1240)
Tuesday, Dec 9, Tennessee: 8-9 am Eastern Time
on WWSR (105.7 FM)
Tuesday, Dec 9, Pittsburgh PA: 11 am - 12 pm
Eastern Time on WKHB (AM 620)
Wednesday, Dec 10, Rhode Island: 1:05 pm
Eastern Time, WOON (AM 1240) and
live on the Internet http://www.onworldwide.com
Friday, Dec 12, Illinois: 9:05 am Central Time,
WDDD (107.3 FM)
Tuesday, Dec 16, South Dakota: 8:35 am Central Time,
KORN (AM 1490)
Thursday, Dec 18, Alabama: 8 - 8:30 am Central Time,
WQLS (AM 1200)
Thursday, Dec 18, Texas: 9:30 - 10 am Central Time,
(AM 860). Networked by ABC and ESPN.
You go to the links made available in this article
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