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Mon 24 Jan, 2005 12:58 pm
I had no idea all of this was going on. I knew the FDA had tried to take over the vitamin / supplement industry several years ago, but didn't realize it was a world wide thing.
Quote:Fighting a New War
Health Alert 241
You can hear the missiles whistling by, one after another, aimed straight for the alternative health industry. And next August, international governments plan a massive attack. An assault that will wipe out vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements by 2007 if it goes unchecked.1
That means thousands of supplements Americans use to improve their health will disappear. You won't be able to walk into a store and buy vitamin E. Or amino acids. Or essential fatty acids. You won't even be able to buy enough vitamin C to do you any good. You'll have to go to a pharmacy. And pay three to four times more!2
Today I'll tell you what you can do to keep your right to manage your own health-and continue to have access to vitamins and minerals at a reasonable cost.
* Dealing the Deathblow to Supplements *
For over a decade world governments have tried to restrict your access to supplements through something called the Codex Alimentarius. The Codex was set up among 165 nations to govern food standards...supposedly to ensure international food safety.
But like most things governments get their hands on, it turned into something much different.
In the late '90s German drug companies got Codex to start pushing the idea to classify all supplements as DRUGS! Plus, under the German proposal, Codex would create its own list of "approved" supplements. All others become illegal.3 Two years ago, the European Union accepted this directive and plans to enforce it starting next August. It is a deathblow to supplements in Europe.
I thought the U.S. would never adopt such an extreme restriction but I've had to think again. In 1997, only an 11th-hour blitz by consumer advocates prevented it from happening here. And the matter has come under consideration again.
But Codex isn't the only threat to supplements in the U.S. A recent action in Europe- spearheaded by the Germans-may still get those restrictions enacted another way: through the World Trade Organization.4
When we signed on with the WTO, we agreed to revise our
Read the Rest here
Actually, I'm seeing exactly the opposite. Yes, the FDA has acted on subtances that have proven dangerous, such as ephedra. At the same time, they just considered allowing statins to be sold OTC. Claritin and other drugs formerly available only with a prescription can now be purchased anywhere. And the result? Higher costs for the consumer. Where a person could once get a 100-day supply for a $5 or $10 copay, now the cost is closer to $1/day.
The FDA has sold out to the drug companies. Anything that works without doctors and drugs, from vitamins to alternative cures, is steadily being squeezed. There are plenty of shysters out there, so they blanket them all under the guise of going after the shysters.