Legislation Alert: Oppose Dietary Supplement & Non-Prescription Consumer Protection Act-DURBIN

The Dietary Supplement and Non-Prescription Consumer Protection Act, (S.3546 & H.R.6168), by its title appears to benefit American consumers, but this is far from the truth. Anti-supplement and anti-health freedom proponents, particularly Durbin, using the good name Hatch has garnered over past years, will aggressively try to fast track this legislation through during the Lame Duck session beginning November 13th and possibly lasting at least a week. Big Pharma wants this legislation passed, and interestingly enough, we understand that they generously contributed to Orrin Hatch's election fund, most probably hoping to ensure future favors. Let your representatives know that you want this legislation STOPPED NOW!

This extremely flawed legislation will mandate needless FDA regulations that will treat supplements like drugs (repealing DSHEA), raise the price of supplements to consumers, and obligate supplement manufacturers, packers and distributors to notify the FDA of serious adverse events reports (AERs) associated with the use of a dietary supplement that result in death, a life-threatening experience, inpatient hospitalization, persistent or significant disability, congenital abnormality or birth defect, or an event that requires a medical or surgical intervention to prevent such outcomes. The bill's use of the words "associated with" rather than the words "caused by" could result in "guilt by association", whereby any serious adverse event experienced by any one of the 70% of Americans who consume dietary supplements could be attributed to their supplements rather than to their cigarette or alcohol use, prescription drug use, poor dietary habits, etc. As such, this bill could potentially destroy the availability of effective dietary supplements in America by associating their usage with serious health events.

We can defeat this legislation in the Lame Duck session by bombarding our Congressional leaders, both in the House and the Senate with our protests. This must be done by phone, letters, and e-mails, this upcoming week, and we encourage that you do all three. We must here and now, set the tone for our strong consumer voice in opposition of congressional efforts to undermine health freedom in the months to come. This is one of the tactics that NHF members do best, so we are counting on you and all others who want the freedom to choose their health options now, and in the future without government restrictions.

Don't let politicians do Big Pharma's dirty work and help eliminate your basic health rights. Fight back along with the National Health Federation to retain DSHEA rights before its too late. Help the NHF protect your rights to buy and use supplements.

(Go to http://www.thenhf.com/S3546_sample_petition_letter_2.htmto easily fill in the action form input boxes provided below.)

Speaking of Milk Thistle...a women was told she had to have a liver transplant...she was put on the list. Someone recommended Milk Thistle...she started taking 3 caps a day. In 3 months when a liver came available, she went in for testing. The docs found her liver was completely normal. Of course, the docs ask how can this be? LOL...

I'm absolutely amazed at your comments about supplements on this thread. They show a real lack of knowledge on the subject. I will say, you are the kind of patient doctors and pharmaceutical companies love. Me, I don't suffer from White Coat Syndrome and learned to do research and think for myself.

And, no, that's not DU Tinfoil thinking, it comes from years of knowledge and experience and research -- and more, I work in the medical industry and see how the pharmaceuticals push the latest and greatest drug to doctors.... those drugs don't always turn out to be what they are made out to be. Vioxx is a good example, Celebrex is almost as bad, though not pulled like Vioxx.... yet a simple herb called Boswellia is a natural anti-inflamatory and tests have shown it as effective as both Vioxx and Celebrex without the potentially deadly side effects....

So go ahead and have your misconceptions and help Senator Durbin to worsen the health of millions of Americans and in turn cost the taxpayers millions in increased cost of medical care and prescription costs.

>> Of course not. Now, let's say the FDA bans Taurine and SAMe as quack medicine, suckering gullible people with mood disorders away from mainstream treatment. Should the federal government make such decisions, or should it be your call? <<

According to the article, the bill's beef with the treamtents is not that they are inadequately proven to help, but that they are dangerous. So the issue of big, bad government deciding for me what is quackery is a fake issue. What is at issue is the practice of government maintaining tight controls over legitimate medicine, while pacifying hippies with a loophole.

>> Me, I don't suffer from White Coat Syndrome and learned to do research and think for myself. <<

No, you don't do research for yourself. You don't find thousands of test-subject volunteers; you don't pay staffs of research associates to administer the drugs to the volunteers, monitor their compliance and research their medical histories. You don't run statistical regression analysis to find possible causes of masking or correlations.

What you do is you read other people's anecdotes and unsubstantiated assertions, filter them through your own preconceived notions, and then self-medicate accordingly. If you're even competent to evaluate someone else's research, you are lightyears ahead of 99% of the audience of the original article.

You didn't research Vioxx; you're quoting popularly held misconceptions that are pure myth... Vioxx was pulled because it was being prescribed for wholly inappropriate uses. Intended for chronic, severe and otherwise untreatable pain, people were taking it for mild headaches and such. In an age of internet prescriptions, Vioxx's makers were afraid they could be sued by people who claimed they were unaware of the proper usage of it, in spite of the self-publicized counter-indicators.

If you want to use Frankincense (Boswellia) for your headaches, fine. But why, pray tell, should a Boswellia pusher be less liable for the liver damage associated with it than the makers of Tylenol are, when it's the makers of Tylenol who have spent tens of millions determining when Tylenol is safe to use?

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