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March 01, 2010
John McCain Bill Threatens Vitamins and Supplements!
Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) has introduced a new bill called The Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) of 2010 (S. 3002), that, if enacted, would severely curtail free access to dietary supplements. Cosponsored by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the bill would essentially give the FDA full control over the supplement industry
New Bill Would Make Vitamins Too Costly for Your Health
Beware of McCain's Freedom-Destroying Dietary Supplement Regulatory Bill
Most are familiar with those commercials on television promoting prescription drugs that supposedly offer relief from a variety of ailments, if one would only pressure one’s doctor to obtain them. They have become a source of great entertainment and amusement to some, the kicker coming at the end of each commercial when the FDA-approved medication’s obligatory litany of warnings and dangerous side effects is recited: “Tell your doctor if....” and “Side effects may include.....” Some of the warnings are mild like diarrhea and constipation, some list serious effects like cancer or tuberculosis, and others admit that sometimes even death can result.
The point here is that these are all FDA-approved drugs being advertised and used extensively. Drugs that can cause serious diseases like lymphoma. Drugs that can kill. The FDA’s dismal safety record is well documented; even PBS ran a Frontline special that investigated and exposed the FDA’s unsafe drug record, the influence of Big Pharma inside the FDA, and lack of long-term testing and medical review of many, many dangerous drugs. The FDA seldom removes a drug from the market even after it proves to be harmful or deadly, however they do post quarterly reports with details of the latest potentially dangerous side effects of drugs currently under investigation.
Nonetheless, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants this same FDA, with its dismal safety record, to regulate dietary supplements. The Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA), S. 3002 (text of this bill posted on Senator McCain's website), that McCain has introduced with one cosponsor, would repeal key provisions of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) to “more effectively regulate dietary supplements that may pose safety risks unknown to consumers.”
Under attack by the DSSA is the once-protected field of supplements, as they have always been considered food. Potencies would have to be reduced to comply with what appears to be a plan modeled after the European Food Safety Authority. A new list of “Accepted Dietary Ingredients” would be “prepared, published, and maintained by the Secretary,” in the future. That’s a bit like being handed a blank check and told to fill it out later as one wishes. It could certainly be used to severely limit access to, and even production of, hundreds of life-sustaining and essential mineral, herb, and vitamin products.
All ingredients contained in each supplement would have to be disclosed at the time the company registers all of its “manufactured, packaged, held, distributed, labeled or licensed,” products with the FDA. An onerous burden would be placed on the shoulders of suppliers and retailers of dietary supplements, as they would have to “obtain written evidence” from the seller that the product is registered as required by law, and keep that documentation on file. Monetary penalties for non-compliance “may, in addition to other penalties imposed in this section, be fined not more than twice the gross profits or other proceeds derived from the manufacture, packaging, holding, distribution, labeling, or license of such dietary supplement.” Those are very broad dictates and most likely subject to even broader interpretation.
The McCain bill would change existing mandatory serious adverse reporting regulations, requiring minor adverse effects to be reported as well so that the FDA could arbitrarily pull supplements off the shelves or reclassify them as drugs.
This immediate recall authority would be granted to the “Secretary upon determination,” that there is a “reasonable probability” that the product is “adulterated” or “misbranded.” Adulterated in this bill takes on a whole new expanded definition: “A dietary supplement which contains a new dietary ingredient shall be deemed adulterated under section 402(f) unless there is a history of use or other evidence of safety.” The development of new products that contain newly discovered nutritional components may be entirely quashed.
The hypocritical contrast between the regulation of drugs that can kill and the proposed hyper-regulation for food products -- vitamins, minerals, herbs -- is as plain as the nose on everyone's face.
A Pandora’s box of intended and unintended legal complications and government harassment of nutritional supplement manufacturers and sellers could very well be unleashed if this bill is passed. There are already existing laws on the books that protect consumers from misbranded, fraudulent, or contaminated products. Granting the FDA additional regulatory authority over nutritional supplements seems a bit suspicious, especially considering the influence the enormous pharmaceutical industry has wielded over the research, development, and approval process inside the FDA. Let’s face it, the FDA has been no friend and often has been positively antagonistic toward the nutritional supplement industry. Therefore one wouldn’t set the wolf to guarding the sheep without dire consequences.
In this perverted overly-regulated country, food is now toxic, and drugs and chemicals are safe for ingestion, no matter the harm that results.
This inversion should remind us that those who best have the consumers health and safety interests at heart are the consumers themselves. It is big government that has a proven track record of not protecting the public.
And it is big government that is seeking to take away yet another individual freedom, the right to choose one’s own treatment. (Where is the pro-choice crowd on this one; the ones that claim, “my body, my choice?”)
Contact your federal legislators and urge them not to cosponsor, support, or vote for such a power-grabbing, bill. Let them know Americans want unrestricted access to nutritional supplements, and the government out of their health choices.
Sen. McCain described his bill as a “no brainer.” For constitutionalists it’s a “no brainer” that it should be rejected for the dictatorial, power-grabbing, choice-limiting attack on the nutritional marketplace and individual freedoms that it is.
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Fair and Equal Media Reporting?
How often do you see negative stories concerning nutritional supplements? It seems to be that, from time to time, the media takes a negative view of nutritional supplements, so, let's take a look at some cold hard facts.
According to the most recent information collected by the U.S. National Poison Data System (OMNS, January 19, 2010), there was not one death caused by a dietary supplement in 2008.
The new 174-page annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins; zero deaths from any of the B vitamins; zero deaths from vitamins A, C, D, or E; and zero deaths from any other vitamin. Additionally, there were no deaths whatsoever from any amino acid or herbal product.
This means no deaths at all from black cohosh, echinacea, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, kava kava, St. John's wort, valerian, yohimbe, Asian medicines, ayurvedic medicines, or any other botanical. There were zero deaths from creatine, blue-green algae, glucosamine, chondroitin, melatonin, or any homeopathic remedies.
Furthermore, there were zero deaths in 2008 from any dietary mineral supplement. This means there were no fatalities from calcium, magnesium, chromium, zinc, colloidal silver, selenium, iron, or multi-mineral supplements. Two children died as a result of medical use of the antacid sodium bicarbonate. The other "Electrolyte and Mineral" category death was due to a man accidentally drinking sodium hydroxide, a highly toxic degreaser and drain-opener. No man, woman or child died from nutritional supplements. Period. 61 poison centers provide coast-to-coast data for the U.S. National Poison Data System (NPDS), which is then reviewed by 29 medical and clinical toxicologists. NPDS, the authors write, is "one of the few real-time national surveillance systems in existence, providing a model public health surveillance system for all types of exposures, public health event identification, resilience response and situational awareness tracking."
Over half of the U.S. population takes daily nutritional supplements. If each person took only one tablet a day, that would total 154,000,000 individual doses per day, for a total of over 56 billion doses annually. Since many people take more than just one vitamin or mineral tablet on a daily basis, actual consumption is considerably higher and the safety of nutritional supplements is all that more remarkable. If nutritional supplements are allegedly so "dangerous," as the FDA and news media so often claim, then where are the bodies? Those who wonder if the media are biased against vitamins may consider this: how many television stations, newspapers, magazines, and medical journals have reported that no one dies from nutritional supplements?
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Wild Thing's comment.......
McCain bill threatens access to vitamins and supplements.
Herbal supplements are not classified as drugs but as dietary supplements. The main difference is that they do not have approved therapeutic claims unlike in the case of drugs. Moreover, dietary supplements could either contain vitamins, minerals, herbals, or amino acids, all aimed to add to or supplement the diet of an individual. They are not intended to be taken alone as a substitute to any food or medicine.
Damn you McCain!
This really ticks me off! John McCain in doing this, attempting to do this has now become even more of an enemy then he was before I saw this news.
I have been taking vitamins all, my life and even more as an adult. Adding in supplements and additional vitamins for the years. I get them from three main places and Richard who sent me this article has one of the places I get them from.
I can testify that taking vitamins and supplements DO make a difference, In energy, skin, strength, alertness, memory, and a persons immune system, plus just their general health is improved.
One time a doctor I was going to when I lived in Malibu, Calif. joked that he did not take vitamins and got a kick out of how I believe in vitamins and supplements. LOL I just smiled and said no problem you don't have to , but for myself I will always take them. One year later on my next physical when he was done, he said to come in his office and have a seat. I did and the first thing he did was he reached across his desk and put a package of daily vitamins in front of me. hahaha I asked him what was this? He said, " they are mine and as you know I had a heart attack and now I take vitamins every day. " I again smiled and said I am sorry you had a heart attack, but I am very glad to see you taking vitamins. They won't be 100 % why a person does not have a heart attack but they sure can help keep you healthier so that maybe you will have a chance and your heart will be healthier too.
McCain should know better then to do this idiotic BILL of his. He is not a well man and needs all the help he can get. To do this would make it very costly for people to buy necessary vitamins and supplements to keep healthy and stay fit and well. People that have surgery are often told to take certain vitamins to aid in healing and fight off side effects. I could go on for hours about how good they are but I won't. haha It is up to the individual imo and McCain the POS wants to mess with something that messes with anyone wanting to be as healthy as possible.
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....Thank you Richard for sending this to me.
If anyone would like to contact Richard about his vitamins and supplements his email is.
Posted by Wild Thing at March 1, 2010 02:48 AM
Comments
Pelosi said, there would be 400,000 new jobs created immediately. All bureaucrats to come between you and your doctor. 400,000 people who have no clue what they are doing, no clue about the Medical Profession, and worst of all don't care about the medical profession and will be deadbeats on the federal payroll, that in the end the American People will be paying for.
Everything will be regulated, rationed or restricted. From you availability to see your doctor to prescriptions you may need, to therapy, medical devices and on and on. If you smoke, are obese, or just too sick you will either be denied care or by the time you turn comes up it will be too late for any treatment.
obama wants to do away with the Specialist, Heart Surgeons, Internists, Orthopedics you name it, he wants to do away with it, he wants more GP's which is fine but the Specialists saves lives.
Without this bill, its bad enough to try to get an appointment talking directly to the Doctors office, now we will have to go through some half-witted bureaucrat in washington trying to get Permission...excuse me, permission ?
Once the American people get wind of all of this there will be hell to pay.
Posted by: Mark at March 1, 2010 07:38 AM
Attention John McCain (RINO) shut the fuck up!
Posted by: Eddie (Enemy of the State) at March 1, 2010 10:20 AM
Damn McCain is at it again. He is a liberal most of the time. Also an egotist. It would not surprise me if this bill is passed that it becomes The McCain ------- Act.
Supplementary vitamins and minerals are among the few medicines Americans still have a choice over. It is amazing how many medicines and medical equipment we can only obtain with a doctor's Rx. Now McCain wants the govt. to control more of our medical needs. Let's hope that McCain loses his primary.
Posted by: TomR at March 1, 2010 11:17 AM
This is just McCain’s progressive side showing! He is slipping more and more into RINOism and our liberty will be the casualty! He reaches so far across the aisle that he is frequently on the WRONG side of it. Why is it that people like him can't just leave us alone? It is our lives and our bodies and we should be able to do with them what we want. If we want to exercise and take supplements then we should be able to, if we choose not to do so then that should be our right as well.
The plain fact is that with our busy life styles we just don't have the time to prepare good nutritional foods like we should and even finding them is a real problem as most everything we eat is over processed, even raw / fresh produce that is supposed to be good for us is not always so anymore as commercial growers grow produce that is pleasing to the eye and nets them the most dollars per acre that they can get. They do NOT grow the best nutritional foods unless there is a cost advantage to them so what we get is mass produced good looking produce that sells good in the local supermarket but that may be lacking in nutritional value and grown with methods that may not be in the best interest for our health either, remember the recalls on lettuce, tomatoes, etc??
The bottom line is that we are NO longer an agrarian society that knows where our food comes from and how it was grown. Top that off with the lack of time for exercise and that creates a big problem. Are supplements the total or even the best solution? Probably not, but they are just one way to make up for what we no longer get in our diets. With over processed foods to start with; then many nutrients are lost in the cooking process by the time it gets to our plate it is nothing more than filler with little or no nutritional value left in our food. Any wonder then our bodies are in desperate need of supplements? We are slowing being malnourished by the very foods we eat everyday.
So how to right what is wrong? If you are able plant a garden and grow as much of your own food as you can, then you will know how it has been grown and it will be fresher than anything you get at the supermarket. Then take high quality supplements to give your body what you don’t get in your daily diet.
Also one must remember that as in all things in life you get what you pay for! Can you get supplements just about anywhere? Yes, but what about their quality? One must seek out and get the best supplements that they can get, remember it is your body and your health that you are trying to improve!
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Or call 800-777-7094 to place a phone order. Just give the operator this number when you call ZO 1706992. You can $ave money on any of these products by signing up as a preferred customer and get wholesale dealer pricing. Everything will be shipped right to your door.
We must take care of ourselves and remain strong to continue this fight against the progressive / liberal onslaught to our liberty and our country! We must not do it just for ourselves but for our posterity. Liberty one lost is lost forever. I for one do not want to tell my grandchildren of a free country that we once had and that we have it no more! Call it what you wish progressivism, socialism, liberalism, and communism. It is NOT the American way and it is NOT what made this country great! We must stop this and we must stop this now before it is too late!!
Posted by: Richard at March 1, 2010 12:56 PM
Supplements like any other drug is just that a drug but not specified as such. Whenever a patient checks into a hospital they have to list all supplements and vitimins, if not they do so at their own risk, they are taking along with any other medicine via Rx they are taking. There's always a chance of drug interaction that can cause complications beyond what they'd expect if the patient was taking nothing. You can bet the farm if this health care bill passes there will be super regulation on over the counter supplements.
The body is a finely tuned chemical temple if a supplement seems to be working or not working, it is affecting that balance. Maybe not as much as Klendimyacin but with that supplement combined the results could be catastropic. Or Grapefruit products and the Statin drugs, the ones used to control Cholesterol LDL and HDL, can cause a bunch of complications and some severe.
On the other hand I don't want the government regualting just to be in the business of control of what you are taking, that's part of our Liberty. Like anything else common sense goes along with the responsibility of what you put into your body. But we are not pharmacologists either.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with supplements but caution and research shoule be the watch word. It's what you don't know that can hurt you.
Posted by: Mark at March 1, 2010 10:04 PM
Thank you all for your input about this. I agree too like you said Mark about caution.
Posted by: Wild Thing at March 2, 2010 12:43 AM
