True Health Is True Wealth!!: natural supplements

Showing posts with label natural supplements. Show all posts

Thursday, November 8, 2012

FDA Allows 45% Mold in Ketchup, But Attacks Safe Herbs & Vitamins!

The FDA allows 45% mold in ketchup, 30 fly eggs in a hundred grams of tomato sauce, 6% of chips to have rot, and 2 maggots per 100 grams of tomato juice—but attacks natural health products!

by Dr. Mercola

When Consumer Reports speaks, people listen – and this time the consumer advocacy agency is advising you on where to get your care – or not – if you need to go to the hospital. It’s the first time Consumer Reports has investigated hospital safety,¹ and the results show hospital ratings don’t always match public opinions. Some of the most well-known hospitals got the worst ratings.

Except for the Mayo Clinic’s various campuses, which have exceptionally good scores, others like Mass General and Mount Sinai in New York, didn’t rate as well as you might expect. One hospital, Sacred Heart of Chicago, scoring an abysmal 16 on a 100-point safety scale was ranked the most dangerous in the country. A clinic in Billings, Montana scored the highest. Hospitals were ranked according to six critera:²

Infections
Communications about safety issues
The degree to which you come right back in the hospital after you’ve been discharged
Situations in which too many imaging tests that expose you to radiation are being done
Common complications in unsafe hospital
Death rates for several conditions

An Epidemic of Health Care Harm…

“Infections, surgical mistakes, and other medical harm contributes to the deaths of 180,000 hospital patients a year, according to projections based on a 2010 report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Another 1.4 million are seriously hurt by their hospital care. And those figures apply only to Medicare patients.

What happens to other people is less clear because most hospital errors go unreported and hospitals report on only a fraction of things that can go wrong.

‘There is an epidemic of health-care harm,’ says Rosemary Gibson, a patient-safety advocate and author. More than 2.25 million Americans will probably die from medical harm in this decade, she says. ‘That’s like wiping out the entire populations of North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It’s a man-made disaster.’

… ‘Hospitals haven’t given safety the attention it deserves,’ says Peter Pronovost, M.D., senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore. Nor has the government, he says. ‘Medical harm is probably one of the three leading causes of death in the U.S., but the government doesn’t adequately track it as it does deaths from automobiles, plane crashes, and cancer. It’s appalling.’”

The above was written in Consumer Reports:³ To review the full listing of their safety scores, you need to be a Consumer Reports subscriber. However, there are also other sources that can help you evaluate the safety of a hospital, such as:

On Calling the Kettle Black…

Statistics like these make safety allegations against alternative forms of health care, including the use of herbal remedies and supplements in lieu of drugs, all the more ludicrous. Natural health modalities have repeatedly come under attack as being inherently risky. Risky compared to what? Clearly, these people do not know what they’re talking about when they claim conventional health care is superior to natural, holistic modalities.

Superior in what way? Putting you out of your misery quicker?

One such misguided person is Dick Durbin, current state senator of my home state, Illinois, which, as we now know is also home to the most dangerous hospital in the United States. I find this to be particularly ironic since Senator Durbin is a staunch pro-pharma supporter who time and again has tried to destroy alternative health and eliminate supplements. Earlier this summer, he tried to sneak in a last-minute anti-supplement amendment into an FDA bill. Fortunately, over 100,000 Americans called their Congressmen within 24 hours to defeat the amendment.

The Alliance for Natural Health reported:⁴

“One of the things we found alarming in this amendment saga was the amount of misinformation in Sen. Durbin’s speech on the Senate floor… Sen. Durbin [said], ‘No one tests dietary supplements… Companies that make these products may test them if they wish, there’s no requirement under law that they test them, and there’s certainly no agency of government that tests dietary supplements… There’s just no testing involved.’

This is completely untrue – supplement companies, by law, must comply with the Dietary Supplement Current Good Manufacturing Practices⁵ (CGMPs) and must conduct testing throughout the production process as well as testing the finished product for quality control. As with the pharmaceutical industry, the burden is on supplement companies to test their own products, because in the end they are liable should FDA choose to take enforcement action against them.

One reason we are so concerned about legislation like Sen. Durbin’s is that it is clearly intended to put us on a slippery slope toward a supplement pre-approval system – similar to the system being used by the European Union, where only those vitamins and minerals on the approved list may be used in food supplements, and only in very limited amounts. For example, if a supplement contains more beta carotene than is present in half a large carrot, it is banned. A regulatory framework like the EU’s is exactly what Sen. Durbin wants.”

Supplements Industry has an Unmatched Safety Record

Durbin is still on the war path against supplements, despite the fact that recent investigations in the US and the UK have concluded that supplements and herbal remedies have a sterling safety record. The UK-based, international campaign group, the Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH-Intl) recently revealed data⁶ showing that compared to supplements, an individual is:

Around 900 times more likely to die from food poisoning
Nearly 300,000 times more likely to die from a preventable medical injury during a UK hospital stay, which is comparable to the individual risk of dying that active military face in Iraq or AfghanistanAdditionally, the data shows that adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs are:
62,000 times more likely to kill you than food supplements
7,750 times more likely to kill you than herbal remedies

The data, which was collected from official sources in the UK and EU, demonstrate that both food supplements and herbal remedies are in the ‘super-safe’ category of individual risk – meaning risk of death from their consumption is less than 1 in 10 million.

Similarly, the latest data from the U.S. National Poison Data System (2010 report),⁷ NO deaths were attributable to vitamin and mineral supplements that year. And, as noted by Orthomolecular Medicine News Service last year,⁸ Americans easily take more than 60 billion doses of nutritional supplements every year, and with zero related deaths this is an outstanding safety record:

“Well over half of the U.S. population takes daily nutritional supplements. Even if each of those people took only one single tablet daily, that makes 165,000,000 individual doses per day, for a total of over 60 billion doses annually. Since many persons take far more than just one single vitamin or mineral tablet, actual consumption is considerably higher, and the safety of nutritional supplements is all the more remarkable.

Over 60 billion doses of vitamin and mineral supplements per year in the USA, and not a single fatality. Not one. If vitamin and mineral supplements are allegedly so ‘dangerous,’ as the FDA and news media so often claim, then where are the bodies?”

Senators Durbin, Blumenthal “Deeply Concerned” about Poor Manufacturing Standards

While supplements may be one of the safest industries, there’s certainly room for improvement, especially when it comes to quality standards. The good news is that even when quality is lacking, the risk you take relates more to the fact that the product will not provide you with the same benefits as a high-quality product might, as opposed to posing a life-threatening risk to your health – like drugs do. Still, the fact that you’re more likely to die from drowning in your bathtub than from a supplement or herbal remedy, supplements are still being attacked as “dangerous.”

If Senator Durbin truly cared about the safety of individuals, then he should be spending more time addressing the abysmal safety record of our hospitals, and the rampant prescriptions of dangerous drugs. Especially since the most dangerous hospital in the US is right in his backyard. But no. He’s got smaller fish to fry.

Senators Durbin and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) recently sent off letters to the Natural Products Association (NPA), the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) and the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), stating:

“We are deeply concerned about the poor manufacturing standards that expose consumers to potentially serious health risks. To ensure consumer safety, we are eager to hear of the industry’s plans for improving the successful adoption of current manufacturing practices.”

The hubbub stems from a June 30 article in the Chicago Tribune, which claims:⁹

“Federal inspections of companies that make dietary supplements – from multivitamins and calcium chews to capsules of echinacea and bodybuilding powders – reveal serious and widespread manufacturing problems in a $28 billion industry that sells products consumed by half of all Americans. In the last four years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found violations of manufacturing rules in half of the nearly 450 dietary supplement firms it has inspected, according to agency officials.”

The article goes on to describe how supplements are produced in “unsanitary factories.” One New Jersey-based protein powder manufacturer is alleged to have been mixing powders and supplements in “a facility infested with rodents, rodent feces and urine.”

Serious supplement adverse events are so rare that media and supplement critics repeatedly roll out Total Body Formula’s problems from back in 2008 (as Dateline NBC did in its March 18, 2012, broadcast) to beat the anti-supplement drum. The Tribune‘s reporter has a history of launching attacks against “alternative” medicine. The reporter’s inclusion of deaths linked to cough syrup made by a Panamanian pharmaceutical company in 2006 adds further proof of bias.

Beware the Double Standards

I’d like to remind everyone that the FDA allows all manner of contaminations in the processed foods you consume every day, and it thinks nothing of it.

For example, up to six percent of chips are allowed to have rot from pre- or post-harvest infection. Acceptable levels of mold go as low as 15 percent in canned tomatoes to as high as 45 percent for ketchup. Up to 30 fly eggs per every 100 grams of tomato sauce is okay, as is two maggots per every 100 grams of tomato juice. The FDA also will not mandate action unless 10 or more whole or equivalent Drosophila flies and 35 of its eggs are found per 8 ounces of raisins.

Ground turkey is allowed up to 49.9% positive testing for salmonella under USDA guidelines, with ground chicken allowed up to 44.6%. When it comes to food, a certain amount of bugs and other contaminants is considered safe by the FDA. I absolutely agree that the supplement industry needs to work hard to ensure high-quality products of high purity.

However, there’s no need to try to shut down the entire industry as unsafe, as all available data attests to the contrary! Can you get ill from a supplement or herb? Yes. But your chances of suffering a serious side effect or death from a drug is astronomically higher. Again, your risk of dying from an adverse drug effect is 62,000 times higher than that of a supplement. Your chances of dying from food poisoning is also FAR greater than having a lethal reaction to a supplement.

In the end it comes down to keeping things in perspective. If Congress wants to protect us from health care harm, they need to get their priorities in order. In response to Senator Durbin’s letter, the Natural Products Association replied, in part:¹⁰

“As the leading representative of the dietary supplement industry with over 1,900 members, including suppliers and retailers of vitamins and other dietary supplements, NPA has been the leader in educating the dietary supplement industry about current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs). GMP compliance is a serious issue and NPA has taken major steps to ensure our members are in compliance. NPA agrees consumers should have access to products that are safe and wholesome and we do not make excuses for any instances of non-compliance.

However, NPA believes the FDA’s reckless comments in the Chicago Tribune article distort the full picture of our membership’s overall safety record. In fact, supplements have an excellent safety record, but we appreciate this opportunity to provide more information to you…”

Although I do not promote the use of many supplements in general, believing it is far better to get your nutrition from food, there are exceptions to this rule, and if you choose to use them in lieu of drug therapy, you’re certainly reducing your risk of serious side effects. It is prudent, however, to make sure you’re using a high-quality product. Not only will this protect you from any potential harmful effects from contaminants, but such products will also offer the greatest possible benefits so that you’re not wasting your money on an ineffective product.

Big businesses have been buying up emerging supplement manufacturers similar to what we’ve witnessed in the organic industry. Nearly 70 percent of American adults are now taking supplements, and you can bet the drug industry and a few politicians will work hard to make this another model of control and profits for a few elite businesses. I’d recommend keeping close tabs on CT Sen. Richard Blumenthal and IL Sen. Dick Durbin. If you live in Illinois, please ask him about his inaccurate statements on the senate floor.

You can reach them here:

Sen. Richard Blumenthal:

90 State House Square, 10th Flr.
Hartford, CT 06103
Phone: (860) 258-6940
Fax: (860) 258-6958

Sen. Dick Durbin:

230 South Dearborn Street Suite 3892
Chicago, IL 60604
Phone:(312) 353-4952
Fax: (312) 353-0150

Sources:

Technorati Tags: ketchup,mold,Dr. Mercola,natural supplement,natural vitamins,herbs,FDA,watch the other hand,Consumer Report

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Pine Needles Are An Excellent Source of Vitamin C

Foragers like to make tea from White pine. It is reported that a cup of pine needle tea has the same amount of vitamin C as half a dozen lemons. It also contains a healthy dose of Vitamin A.

Several other varieties of pine work just as well. Each does have its own flavor. I use honey or sugar as a sweetener.

A couple of warnings:

Some people may be allergic to this tea..

Pregnant women should avoid this tea. It can cause abortions to take place within a day.

Some evergreens like yews are poisonous. Make sure you have the right tree's needles. The people working at health stores are trained to sell the products they have on their shelves. Or if you hook up with a forager, they'll know about this pine needle tea. They'll know plenty of places nearby to pick more than you could drink in a life time.

Too much vitamin C causes some people to have loose bowels.

Source(s): Forager. Master Gardener. Metzger, Gibbons or the Foxfire books should contain some additional information..

How to Make Tea From Pine Needles

Grab some fresh pine needles. You do not need very many needles for one cup, just one small bundle will do. Make sure that you grab needles that are fresh and green; the brown needles will not have many nutrients left in them. (Depending how many needles you used in your water the tea will range any where from a yellow to reddish tinge. The darker the more vitamin C.)

Boil water and place the pine needles in the tea pot. Allow it to steep for 30 minutes. The more that the pine needles steep, the more nutrients will leech out into the tea.

Pour your pine needle tea and enjoy. You now have a cup of herbal tea that is high in vitamin C and other beneficial nutrients, tasty, and free.

Source: How to Make Tea From Pine Needles | eHow.com

Monday, March 1, 2010

McCain’s Dietary Supplement Bill: An Attempt to Implement Codex Alimentarius

A bill recently introduced to the U.S. Senate, the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 (S. 3002), by Senators John McCain and Byron Dorgan is possibly the most direct assault on natural health freedom we have seen for some time. If passed into law, this bill would require all dietary supplement manufacturers, distributors, and holders all the way down to the retail store level to be comprehensively registered. It would also allow for the arbitrary banning of nutritional supplements by the FDA and the introduction of deceitful reporting of adverse events related to them.

supplements

The legislation effectively gives the FDA carte blanche to do whatever it wishes in regards to natural supplements.

The cover for this legislation is that it is designed to prevent both intentional and unintentional steroid adulteration of dietary supplements. The trigger, according to McCain, was six NFL players who were accused of doping with supplements tainted with steroids. Even with this being the case, however, the FDA already has the authority to regulate synthetic anabolic steroids via the Anabolic Control Act of 2004 which permits them to do just that. Nevertheless, under the guise of the behavior of six NFL players, an entire market that has been proven not only very safe but very healthy will be essentially regulated out of business. (NHF)

The Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 would require registration of any “business or operation engaged in manufacturing, packaging, holding, distributing, labeling, or licensing a dietary supplement for consumption in the United States,” definitions which could possibly include even retail stores that sell herbal and nutritional products. (DSSA p.2) Currently, under the Dietary Supplements and Non-Prescription Consumer Protection Act, small retailers are not required to register. This, however, will change with the passage of McCain-Dorgan’s bill. (NHF)

The switch from the current practices of Serious Adverse Event Reporting to that of simply Adverse Event Reporting is of concern as well. Existing law requires the reporting of serious adverse events related to the supplement in question to be reported for regulatory and recall purposes. The McCain-Dorgan bill, however, removes the language “Serious Adverse Event” and replaces it with the term “adverse event,” opening up the floodgates for the most ridiculous possible claims of adverse events such as bad taste or even dislike of packaging. This “report everything possible” stance is will vastly increase the numbers of complaints that will hence be used to add credence to the arguments for banning supplements in the future. Not only that, but more government bureaucracies will have to be created in order to organize and sort through all of the incoming “adverse event reports.” (NHF)

Yet the most frightening aspect of this bill is the immediate effects it would have on natural supplements. Currently, due to the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), all supplements on the market prior to October 15, 1994 can lawfully be sold in the United States. However, the legislation being proposed completely reverses this and defines a “new dietary supplement” as one that “is not included on the list of ‘Accepted Dietary Ingredients’, to be prepared, published, and maintained by the Secretary” (DSSA p.5-6). This seemingly slight change in language actually removes the grandfathering in of supplements on the market prior to 1994. These new dietary supplements will also be considered “adulterated” unless “there is a history of use or other evidence of safety establishing that the dietary ingredient when used under the conditions recommended or suggested in the labeling of the dietary supplement….” (DSSA p.5) The registrants are then required to create and maintain a “scientifically reasonable substantiation file” which is to be made available for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to inspect at his/her whim. These products are to be registered at least 75 days prior to market. (NSF)

As quoted above, the bill also mandates that an “Accepted Dietary Ingredients” list should be created by the Secretary of HHS which will replace the current guidelines. Such a list effectively gives the FDA carte blanche to do whatever it wishes in regards to natural supplements. The FDA is given absolute authority to determine what supplements are allowed on the “Accepted Dietary Ingredients” list, thereby granting it the authority to ban any supplement without due process, scientific merit, or even a hearing simply by refusing to place it on the ADI list. (NSF) The FDA will also be able to remove supplements from market even after it has allowed it to be included on its’ list. As the bill states,

“If the Secretary finds there is a reasonable probability that a dietary supplement or a product marketed or sold as a dietary supplement would cause serious, adverse, health consequences or death, or is adulterated or misbranded, the Secretary shall issue a cease distribution and notification order requiring the person named in the order to immediately – cease distribution of such dietary supplement or a product marketed or sold as a dietary supplement; notify distributors, importers, retailers, and consumers of the order; and instruct those distributors, importers, retailers, and consumers to cease distributing, importing, selling, and using the dietary supplement.”(DSSA p.9)

The cost of the recall, of course, will be absorbed by the retailer. (DSSA p.11)

While the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 is an egregious attack on Americans’ freedom of choice, it is also a symptom of an even larger problem. The McCain-Dorgan bill is not just another silly attempt by corrupt politicians to demonstrate that they still have some value to their constituents, but an attempt to implement Codex Alimentarius at the national level and move the United States away from our Common Law heritage. The European Union has already passed similar legislation in the European Union Food Supplements Directive which has decimated open access to natural dietary supplements. Canada has passed laws to the same effect in recent weeks as well.

Brandon Turbeville
Infowars.com - February 24, 2010

Works Cited:

“Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010.” February 2, 2010. http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=2fe2fa5d-636b-4705-97df-8318a24f718f

“Bullet Points on McCain’s Anti-Supplement Bill S.3002.” National Health Federation. http://www.thenhf.com/press_releases/pr_19_feb_2010.html

“McCain Anti-DSHEA Bill a Clear and Present Threat to Health Freedom.” http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4608

Codex Alimentarius

Having spent the past twelve months investigating Codex Alimentarius, I am deeply disturbed by the almost total lack of awareness (or even interest) with regard to the implications of this pernicious global Commission, particularly amongst those most affected by the excesses of this restrictive legislation. In the words of the National Health Federation[i], the aims and objectives of Codex Alimentarius are as follows: * Only low-potency, “me too” supplements available that will do nothing for your health. * All or most foods genetically-modified. * Beneficial supplements unavailable or sold by prescription only. For many people, this agenda is so outrageous, they cannot believe such goals are achievable; yet this may well be the reality as soon as 31st December 2009, if the Codex Alimentarius Commission continues to disregard input from those who offer a counter perspective to the combined forces of Big Farmer & Big Pharma.

And yes, this is for real… Never Heard of Codex… Well, That Is Exactly What They Want!! – Video

The Drug Story

Western Medicine - Forbidden Cures

Does anyone ever wonder why American medicine is so anti-holistic practices?? Think Rockefeller and progressives~

Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice: An Ethnobotanist Searches for New Medicines in the Amazon Rain Forest

America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving a Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty

John McCain Proposes Natural Supplement Regulation Bill

The Mark Of The New World Order – RFID Chips are part of the provisions already passed in the Stimulus Bill that will kick in if ObamaCare passes.

Corporate Threats to our Food Supply

Slavery or Freedom

Agenda 21

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Drug Companies Shift Emphasis to Vaccines

vaccines The extent to which the recession has cut into high-value research and development jobs in the pharmaceutical industry will be apparent soon as job losses in the industry climb to an additional 12,000.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the British drugs group, will announce plans for further restructuring with the loss of 4,000 jobs, nearly half in the research and development departments.

The job attrition reflects widespread unease among drug companies about the loss of revenues from a small number of blockbuster medicines.

For example, this year GSK will lose patent protection for Seretide, an asthma treatment worth $4 billion.

GSK started reshaping its business in 2007 by focusing on three areas: vaccines, over-the-counter medicines and non-medical products, and emerging markets. GSK diverted investment away from pure research and toward products that enabled the company to catch a greater share of the consumer dollar.

However, GSK is not the first drug company to announce job cutbacks and realignment of their target markets, with a path toward vaccines. Novartis, Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, and Sanofi Pasteur are just a few of the Big Pharma members that have done this within the past two years.

And while the recession definitely played a part in this, the truth is, plans to switch to the vaccine market were already in place, long before the recession began.

Posted by: Dr. Mercola
Sources:

The Times Online February 1, 2010

The-infoshop.com

Nature.com April 1, 2009

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

If nothing else, this announcement proves what I’ve been saying all along – that, contrary to what they’d like you to believe, vaccine makers are not philanthropists just looking to do benevolent philanthropy for the world with their products.
They are businesses, first and foremost, whose primary goal is to earn profits for their stockholders.

It has become clear to me that there is a major shift occurring. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find new blockbuster drugs so the new emphasis will be on introducing more and more mandated vaccines which provide nearly unending annuities to continue to increase their revenues

You will see more and more vaccines introduced as time goes on.

The Big Picture

Please remember that collectively the drug cartels make over half a TRILLION dollars every year by selling their product. That amount of money yields enormous power and leverage and they are focused on earning even more.

And how do they do that?

By finding a product they can manufacture in massive quantities and sell to infinite numbers of people at whatever price they want to charge. For a long time, psychotropic drugs and therapeutic medicines were the yellow brick road to that Wall Street goal.

Just a few years ago drug giants like Merck, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, and Astra Zeneca were dancing in the land of Oz with blockbusters like Vioxx, Zyprexa, Paxil, and Seroquel. But when the Emerald cities they’d built with these drugs became blighted with a cyclone of lawsuits, their profits quickly began to melt.

Add in pending expirations of patents on key products, and accusations by the European Commission that they purposely delay generic medicines by offering payments to rival manufacturers, and these companies knew they had to change the road they were on, even before the recession hit.

It’s All about the Money

The line up of Big Pharma companies that have been announcing job cutbacks and realignment of their product lines over the past two or three years is impressive:

Novartis announced in December 2007 that it planned to cut 2,500 jobs worldwide by 2010 in an attempt to save $1.6 billion. Citing expiring patents, generic competition, and increased industry costs, Novartis said that poor US pharmaceutical sales had forced this reorganization.

Noting that it had experienced “strong growth” in its vaccines and diagnostics division, Novartis said it planned to expand its presence in emerging markets in Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

Merck announced job cuts in its US sales force a month ago, saying that the cutbacks were part of its merger with Schering-Plough. In all, the newly married company plans to reduce its global workforce by 15 percent, for a savings of nearly $3.5 billion.

But even before Merck and Schering-Plough became a couple, Merck had already begun making job cutbacks, as part of its 2005 restructuring plan.

A major focus of that plan, Merck told its stockholders in 2005, would be to enter, and become a leader in, emerging markets, which “provide enormous opportunity” for Merck’s medicines and vaccines.

Saying that the company planned to rely less on US markets and more on global initiatives, Merck told Nasdaq in December 2009 that 40 percent of its job cuts would be in the US, as the company moved its market focus to worldwide ventures.

But Merck and GSK aren’t the only ones totake this route: Johnson & Johnson announced in November 2009 that it was cutting 8,000 jobs.

Pfizer said it was cutting 20,000 jobs, or 20 percent of its workforce, as part of its merger with Wyeth; Eli Lilly said it was making a 13 percent reduction totaling 5,000 jobs; Astra Zeneca it was cutting 7,000 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce.

But simultaneously with job cut announcements, they all have alluded to, or plainly said, emerging markets are where their new focus lies.

Of course, it’s all about the money and the bottom line – which isn’t a bad thing, since these companies are for-profit entities. But what is this thing, “emerging markets,” anyway, and how do drug companies’ desires to follow emerging markets affect the rest of the world?

Emerging Market ‘Inoculations’

The Wall Street Journal probably said it best when it called this new pharma marketing strategy emerging market inoculations.Referring to Novartis’ purchase of an 85 percent stake in a Chinese vaccine maker, and a similar investment by Sanofi Aventis, the WSJ used this term to describe the drug companies’ plans to expand production and sales in vaccines.

Emerging markets are areas of the world that are beginning to show promise as a profitable venture for many products, including vaccines. And emerging markets – primarily in developing countries in Southeast and Central Asia, and Africa – have been on vaccine makers’ radar for quite some time.

One reason that vaccine makers are interested in these parts of the world is that that’s where most of the world’s deaths from major infectious diseases occur.

World health leaders have long believed that most, if not all, of these diseases could be prevented by vaccines.

The only problem has been that, until recently, making vaccines for undeveloped countries with no money to pay for them, was not exactly a profitable goal for vaccine makers.

In 2001, an article in Tropical Medicine & International Health chastised the pharmaceutical industry for thinking too much about the bottom line, and not investing more in neglected diseases. Accusing them of being more interested on return in investment than in global health needs, the article’s author urged drug companies to re-evaluate their priorities.

It also urged national and international reorientation of public health policies:

“New and creative strategies involving both the public and the private sector are needed to ensure that affordable medicines for today's neglected diseases are developed,” the article said.

The article made several suggestions as to how these new policies could come about, from a legal and regulatory standpoint, as well as from research-and-development and distribution of needed drugs for mainly third-world countries.

And Then Something Changed

Fast-forward to February 10, 2010. Suddenly, third-world countries are exactly where the previously maligned drug companies want to be. In a market study released this month, these companies said that vaccines are the new bottom line.

“The developed world has been the initial focus of vaccine makers due to the better healthcare and higher price levels,” the report said. “However, facing increasingly saturated markets in the West, companies are looking to expand into new geographies, such as Asia's emerging markets.”

You have to purchase it to see the complete study on emerging markets. But GSK has its May 2009 emerging market planposted, free, on the Internet. Listing the top 10 countries that are “big and growing fast,” GSK said these countries represent 85 percent of emerging market potential.

Emerging markets will soon outgrow developed markets by hundreds of billions of dollars, the GSK report says. One way to make that happen will be to “build and capture” the vaccine market, the report explains.

And the way to do that, it goes on to say, is through growing government attention to the public health agenda, capitalizing on birth cohorts for pediatric vaccines, and by concentrating on new vaccine products.

Say ‘Hello’ to Advance Market Commitments

So what happened between 2001, when world health leaders were criticizing drug makers for not making exactly this kind of investment, and the past couple years, when vaccine makers suddenly started beating a path to third-world countries?

I can assure you it wasn’t because the 2001 chastisement shamed them in to it. Rather, I can just about bet next week’s paycheck that it had more to do with the promise of a new bottom line – sales of vaccines through something called Advance Market Commitments – than anything else.

Between 2001 and 2005, several vaccine researchers and market developers responded to the 2001 chastisement by writing numerous articles about why drug companies were getting out of the vaccine business. Declining markets, increased costs, and regulatory issues were the top three reasons.

Fix those problems, and everybody would be happy to concentrate on vaccines for developing countries, the responses all said.

Concerned that developed countries would have little or no resources for addressing serious infectious diseases if vaccine makers continued their pull-out, the World Health Organization and the G8 – the top developed countries in the world – responded with a plan for inducing vaccine companies to stay in the business.

That plan was called Advance Market Commitments. Under AMCs, developed countries make legal, binding agreements to purchase vaccines that are needed in low-income countries. The purchase guarantees a bottom line for the manufacturers. In return, the manufacturers promise to sell those vaccines at reduced prices in the countries where they are most needed.

Dozens of New Vaccines in the Pipeline

Do an Internet search on Advance Market Commitments and you will find a whole new vaccine world you most likely didn’t know existed. Start by going to the WHO website, and by reading its August 2007 draft global policy on AMCs. The document focuses on financing and funding health research and development of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics for neglected diseases.

The WHO acknowledges in this document that private, public and not-for-profit donations and investments have helped fight neglected diseases – infections that are prevalent in mostly low-income, third-world countries. But those investments are not enough, the WHO says. And that is why AMCs are necessary, the WHO says.

It sounds like a good plan: Establish a market that heretofore was considered not profitable and, therefore, not worthy of investing in. Promise incentives to lure vaccine makers in to the research and development of new vaccines. And then, stimulate market competition through increased sales and reduction of costs in vaccine programs.

To show how well it could work, a pilot Advance Market Commitment was launched in February 2007 for pnuemococcal vaccines. In June 2009, the WHO and the GAVI announced that that plan had finally come to fruition. Now, thanks to AMCs, a $70 pneumococcal vaccine can be distributed in desperately poor countries for just $3.50.

Sounds like a win-win situation – at least for vaccine makers and the countries where the vaccine’s going.

Serious Concerns about this Program

The reason I’m wary of this plan is that legally binding, advance market commitments to purchase vaccines that are mostly needed in third world countries could backfire on developed countries that don’t need – or want – certain vaccines.

Think about it: The top neglected diseases that world health leaders want to address with AMCs besides pneumonia are HIV-AIDS, malaria, human papilloma virus (HPV), rotavirus, and tuberculosis.

And what do you see?

Standing out big and clear are HPV and rotavirus – two diseases that are relatively rare in the US and other developed countries. (There are over 100 HPVs; the new vaccines address four HPVs that cause 70 percent of cervical cancer and genital warts. In developed countries, death from cervical cancer is very rare, while in third world countries, it is a leading cause of death in women.)

Yet, these are diseases with new vaccines that, for some reason or other in the past few years, have been recommended by the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for babies (rotavirus) and adolescents (HPV).

While the ACIP only recommends vaccines, states are free to do what they choose, and we all know where that leads: to mandates of vaccines that more and more people are beginning to question the need for.

And that’s why I am leery of vaccine makers who announce they’re on their way to third world countries in an effort to boost their bottom line. I don’t fault any profit-driven business for wanting to do things that will make share holders happy.

But I do question where these ventures are headed.

Many scientific journal reports have already revealed that a malaria vaccine is on the verge of being marketable. It only leaves me wondering if that will be the next one on the ACIP’s list.

So stay tuned.

Dozens of other vaccines are in the pipeline, from one for strep throat to another for simple ear infections. I promise this won’t be the last you hear of AMCs and mandated vaccines in the US – what better way is there to “guarantee” a vaccine market than through mandates to help pay for it?

If ObamaCare is forced through against the will of the American people, medical care and the dangers of uncertainty and profit first will come to the forefront for every patient and their family.

More vaccines that people don’t need or are even harmful; more questionable medications; centralized medical records that will me monitored and controlled by the government with unbelievable powers and loss of freedoms for Americans; and progressive John McCain just introduced an bill for more government regulation of natural remedies and supplements that will only help Big Pharma and reduce options for the average person.

McCain Proposes Natural Supplement Regulation Bill

Avandia Recall… Finally After Senate Report – Just Wait Until the Gov’t really controls healthcare and drugs. Avandia is suspected in the cause of 300,000 heart attacks

Sunday, February 7, 2010

McCain proposes Natural Supplement Regulation Bill

I get updates from Dr. Rima from the Natural Solutions Foundation. She has been continually fighting for the freedoms and right for Americans to obtain healthy food (non GMO) and natural supplements if we so desire. She also has continually warned about the prospects of UN like Codex Alimentarius regulations to be forced on the American people. And now, McCain (a Progressive and member of the CFR) has introduced the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010. This bill will encroach and regulate the natural supplement availability to all consumers. This is another attempt to give government (FDA) even more control over our everyday lives. If you take supplements and want to continue the freedom to do so, please act now. Check out McCain's website as well, they are making an example of some athletes who took Ephedra some years ago. Big Pharma has everything to gain from the FDA control over supplements. By giving the FDA authority over the supplement industry it will put many of the manufacturers at risk of going out. Please research and if you agree fight back! I am tired of the government imposing what they think is good for all. Don't we have choices anymore?

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Senator John McCain is introducing a horrific bill, the "Dietary Supplement Safety [sic] Act of 2010" (DSSA) designed to end your access to high potency supplements by giving the bloated, corrupt and dangerous FDA MORE power to destroy supplement access. This bill is absolutely NOT to be confused with DSHEA, the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (1994), which says nutrients are food and, as food, you can have them in any form - and any amount - you like. If we allow DSSA to pass, we will be living - and dying - under something very much like the European Food Supplements Directive's anti-supplement restrictions, implementing Codex Alimentarius' dietary supplements and nutritional restrictions, to the "T" -- effective as close to immediately as the Fraud and Death Administration can manage it. Listen to the Dr. Rima Reports as Dr. Rima interviews Sarah Schons, MD, a renowned German Immunologist practicing natural medicine in Germany: . Food Supplements are going the way of the dodo in the EU. The US is clearly next unless we act now - in massive numbers, once for each member of your family, at:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714

Your legal right to access supplements and herbs will, quite frankly, be a thing of the past. As we predicted years ago, the end of the first decade of the new millennium was intended to be when we lost our Health Freedom. Will you let that happen?

For several years, the Natural Solutions Foundation has kept you abreast of the battle for our food, our health, our freedom, indeed, as we documented and discussed in our 2010 Health Freedom War Council last month, our very lives. We have predicted that the FDA's Big Pharma Phriendly policies would bring Codex-style restrictions home to us as "safety" when, in fact, they are nothing short of health tyranny.

Take away high potency nutrients, herbs and other nutritional aids and what do you have? Pharma triumphant and health freedom defeated -- a total rout, and the end of the DSHEA freedoms we rely on. Since the unanimous adoption by Congress of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) we have seen a blossoming of advanced, leading-edge, high potency nutrition sought out by hundreds of millions to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. We've warned these freedoms were under sustained attack. Senator McCaine has just escalated the attack.

Once again, the Natural Solutions Foundation brings you the important stories -- we warned you, within hours of McCain announcing his intent, that this was happening,http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2010/02/mccain-bill-poses-threat-to-dshea-and.html.

We call upon you to act now! By clicking here, http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714, you are joining those who have acted upon this important information and have begun to awaken the public to this threat. It's time to move to ACTION.
Read more about this dangerous bill here - http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4608

Here is the Action item which you must take now, once for each member of your family, IF you value your health, your supplements and your freedom.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campai...
We are in active contact with our friends in Congress and with key opinion makers, seeking powerful alliances to stop the McCain bill and its companion "Food Safety [sic]" Bill, s510. It would appear that the ploy (you might call it a "conspiracy") is to combine the two "Food Safety [sick] Bills into one, combining her worst features of each, of course.

We will keep you posted as the story unfolds, but there is literally no time to wait or waste. This MUST be nipped in the bud so deeply that it never arises again! THIS IS WHERE PUSH BACK TURNS INTO TAKE DOWN!

McCain: Pharma Tool, Globalist Fool. But, as foolish as he may be, his bill poses a major threat to you right now! [Question: if pro is the opposite of con, does that mean Congress is the opposite of Progress?]

The only thing they listen to is numbers; we proved that when we Pushed Back with over 2.8 million emails, against the planned, mass, forced "Swine Flu" vaccine -- and the threat evaporated. Let's do it again! Let's set a goal of 1 million emails to the Senate, 1 million emails to the White House and 1 million emails to HHSSecretary Sebelius, 1 million emails to the Senate "HELP" committee where the dangerous companion to McCain's bill, S510, the (sic) "Food Safety Bill" has been stalled since our Push Back campaign in December, will be joined shortly by this latest assault on our freedom.

That's a lot of emails, right? Well, our email system allows you to send an email to your Senator, Pres. Obama, Sec. Sebelius and HELP committee chair Harkin with one click of your freedom mouse.

Further more, take the action once for each member of your family and pass it along to everyone you know who uses, has used, or might some day use supplements. That's how we can make this Push Back effort go viral and become effective Take Down!

We need to inundate the Senate HELP committee, since Tom Harkin said in November, in response to the over 150,000 emails that we generated in one weekend, that "DSHEA … governs the law here, not Codex standards…" and that the provision in S510 allowing FDA to "make recommendations including whether to harmonize with Codex does not signal any intent to move in a different direction on DSHEA…"

Now it's time for Senator Tom Harkin to keep that pledge and stop the McCain Anti-DSHEA Bill!
See: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4014 for Senator Harkin's comments.
See: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4608 for the dangerous terms of the McCain bill.

Read what Ron Paul says in The Daily Paul in opposition to this bill here:http://dailypaul.com/node/124135

I found this web site looking at the bill.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510
Follow the link to MAPLight.org to see if campaign contributions from employees of these organizations are correlated with how Members of Congress voted on this bill.

I am not sure how to read this correct, but it seems like McCain may make a lot of money if this passes. Am I correct?
http://maplight.org/map/us/interest/A1400
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.php

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26714

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Big Pharma and the FDA: Suppress the Science, Ban the Natural Substances, Sell the Drugs!

In 2005, an up-and-coming pharmaceutical company made a big mistake: they invested millions of dollars into developing a drug only to discover that the only active ingredient of the drug, pyridoxamine, was really a common, naturally occurring substance that has been sold for decades at low cost to consumers in the form of a dietary supplement, and has always been available in commonly consumed foods such as chicken and brewer’s yeast.

We’re taught as children that when you make a mistake, you should own up to it and face the consequences. Apparently the pharmaceutical company in question, Biostratum, Inc., has yet to learn that lesson. Instead of owning up to their mistake, Biostratum tried to game the system to their advantage by asking the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to declare supplements containing pyridoxamine “adulterated” and effectively ban anyone but Biostratum from selling pyridoxamine.

Sadly, Biostratum’s desparate ploy to save their investment worked. Earlier this year the FDA agreed to ban companies from selling pyridoxamine as a dietary supplement. They denied the request to declare products containing pyridoxamine “adulterated,” but instead they declared that such products are not dietary supplements at all—claiming they are excluded from the definition of dietary supplements under the “prior market clause” [21 U.S.C. 321(ff)(3)(B)(ii)] and so may not be marketed as such.

Please note that nowhere in the FDA’s response letter is anything said about safety concerns. In fact, the FDA’s letter specifically says that “to allow such an article to be marketed as a dietary supplement would not be fair to the pharmaceutical company that brought, or intends to bring, the drug to market.” Fair to the pharmaceutical companies? What about fairness to consumers, some of whom rely on affordable pyridozxamine supplements to provide the levels of vitamin B-6 required for their survival? Is it fair to force those consumers to pay for expensive prescription drugs and doctors’ visits to supply their B-6 needs when they could get the exact same thing for a fraction of the cost in the form of a supplement? Isn’t this why our health care system is so ineffective?

This is hardly the first time the FDA has attacked naturally occuring substances. On October 17, 2005, the FDA banned information about the health benefits of cherries from appearing on websites—scientifically proven benefits, such as tart cherries’ ability to reduce the risk of colon cancer because of the anthocyanins and cyanidin contained in the cherry. Cherries, according to the latest research, help ease the pain of arthritis and gout; reduce risk factors for heart disease and diabetes; help regulate the body’s natural sleep patterns, aid with jet lag, prevent memory loss, and delay the aging process; and helps lower body fat and cholesterol—risk factors associated with heart disease. Moreoever, Scientists at Johns Hopkins have found that tart cherry anthocyanins reduced painful inflammation as well as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, indomethacin.

When the 2005 ban was instituted, the FDA sent warning letters to twenty-nine companies that market cherry products. In these letters, they ordered the companies to stop publicizing scientific data about cherries. According to the FDA, when cherry companies disseminate this peer-reviewed scientific information, the cherries become “unapproved new drugs” and are subject to seizure. The FDA warned that if those involved in “cherry trafficking” continue to inform consumers about these scientific studies, criminal prosecutions would ensue.

But fresh fruit and vegetables are not the FDA’s only target: As we reported in this newsletter recently, General Mills was recently issued a warning letter by the FDA for illegally marketing Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal. The problem was the claim on the cereal box that Cheerios can lower cholesterol 4% in six weeks, and the statement on their website that “diets rich in whole grain foods can reduce the risk of heart disease.” The letter, dated May 5, 2009, called the above claims “serious violations” of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and applicable regulations.

FDA stated that based on the claims made, Cheerios is now an unapproved drug, and must go through FDA new drug approval process.Note that the FDA isn't disputing the claim. It's disputing the company's right to make the claim.

As one newspaper columnist humorously put it, “One of these things is not like the others: morphine, penicillin, aspirin, Cheerios. Most drugs, if taken improperly, will kill the consumer or cause substantial bodily harm. An entire bottle of aspirin at one sitting will harm or kill. If Cheerios is a drug, therefore, one should be able to commit suicide by consuming the entire box.”

For years, the FDA barred health claims about the benefits of fish oil for heart, cancer, depression, body pain, and various other conditions until a drug company paid a great deal of money to go through the approval process. This type of enforcement effectively censors scientific information and greatly restricts consumer access to scientific studies that provide valuable information.

In the case of pyridoxamine, the FDA did not act out of concern for public safety. This is about money, and about a profit-seeking corporation taking advantage of what is supposed to be a public health organization in order to save their skins.

Source: American Association for Health Freedom

Posted: True Health Is True Wealth

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Lycopene in Tomatoes May Ward Off Heart Disease, Stroke, and Prostate Cancer

Scientists say the naturally occurring antioxidant lycopene, found in abundance in tomatoes, helps block the body from absorbing “bad” LDL cholesterol. This bad cholesterol is primarily responsible for clogging arteries.

In its natural form, lycopene gives tomatoes their red color, but is also poorly absorbed by the human body. Now scientists at the British Cardiovascular Society say a new supplement derived from tomatoes “can reduce the oxidation of harmful fats in the body to almost zero within eight weeks,” according to a report by the BBC. The supplement, Ateronon, provides a modified form of lycopene that is readily used by the body. The modified lycopene compound was originally developed by Swiss food giant Nestle.

Early evidence suggest that the supplement “could be much more effective than statin drugs currently used by doctors to treat high cholesterol,” according to the report.
We are eager to hear the reaction of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They have created a “Catch-22” situation in which:

All drugs must be FDA-approved.
The FDA defines “drugs” as “articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease,” even if those substances are naturally occurring.
If a substance has not been declared an FDA-approved drug, no health claims may be made about it, regardless of the scientific backing for the claim.

Case in point: In 2005, the FDA banned information about the scientifically proven health benefits of cherries from appearing on websites, calling cherries “unapproved new drugs.” And more recently, they said the maker of Cheerios cannot claim any health benefits of the cereal lest they too be declared a new drug.