The Global Plight of Vitamin Consumers - London Observer article

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" Ingri Cassel " <vaclib

The Global Plight of Vitamin Consumers - London Observer article

 

 

> Dear Members and Friends -

>

> The below article is very important and should be forwarded widely. Very

> well done and to the point on how serious the Codex EU directives are. If

> you do not understand how serious this Pharma inspired stranglehold truly

is

> on our future access to natural remedies and health supplements, read

these

> two articles:

>

> Drugging America to Death by Lynne Born

> http://www.isreview.org/issues/33/druggingtodeath.shtml

>

> Codex Alimentarius Commission: A threat to mankind

> http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20040106.htm

>

> >From John Hammell of International Advocates for Health Freedom:

>

> IAHF List: The following article from the UK's Observer Magazine provides

an

> excellent wake up call to anyone you may know who doesn't realize the

> supplement industry is under global attack.

>

> Please mass forward it, and urge everyone to donate to the Alliance for

> Natural Health via http://www.alliance-natural-health.org for the second

> half of their legal campaign to overturn the EU FSD.

>

> The article quotes David Hinde from ANH. Far too many Americans,

especially,

> are oblivious to the dire need for consumers world wide to support ANH's

> legal and lobbying efforts. Anyone who needs help " connecting the dots " so

> as to understand why ANH's effort in England is so important to Americans,

> (and vitamin consumers world wide) should read Greg Ciola's interview with

> me in The Health Crusader Magazine at

> http://www.thehealthcrusader.com/pgs/article-0104-ban.shtml

>

>

> http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1157031,00.html

>

> Nil by mouth

>

> For thousands of Britons battling the debilitating effects of cancer,

> depression, even eczema, diet is crucial. They view the vitamins and

> minerals they take as vital in their fight against sickness. So why does t

he

> EU want to cut off their supply? Rose Shepherd makes the case for rescuing

> remedies

>

> Sunday February 29, 2004

> The Observer

>

> In the 21st century we live under siege. There are concerns about

> pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, GM, mobile phones, microwaves,

amalgam

> fillings, falling sperm counts, mad cows, MMR - even milk. Farmed salmon

is

> a Trojan horse for carcinogens. Obesity and diabetes are on the march.

There

> is a mass of documentation on all this. So what is the European

Commission's

> big idea? 'Let's clamp down on vitamins and minerals.'

> It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. While the EU has been busy

> drafting legislation, we seem to have been sleepwalking into a situation

> where chemists and health stores will be purged of hundreds of nutritional

> supplements.

>

> I'm sorry, maybe you are alert to this already. Maybe you have written to

> your MEP, marched with the Health Freedom Movement, joined the Alliance

for

> Natural Health or Consumers for Health Choice. Tens of thousands of people

> have been railing against this infringement of their rights, this insult

to

> their intelligence and, not least, this threat to their health. The

> psychotherapist, writer and long-time cancer survivor Beata Bishop, author

> of A Time to Heal speaks for many when she says, 'I feel passionately

angry

> about this.' I myself have been surprised, though, by how many others seem

> neither to know nor to care about any of what is afoot - and, still more,

by

> the complaisance of some commentators.

>

> What is at issue is couched in soothing terms in three EU directives.

First,

> the Food Supplements Directive (FSD), under the guise of harmonisation,

> creates a restricted list of vitamins and minerals, effectively a

'positive

> list' of allowable nutrients. EU member states will be mandated to market

> these 'harmonised' supplements, facilitating trade.

>

> However, from August 2005, nutrients not on the list will be banned. This

> may be good news for states in which the sales and dosages of supplements

> have hitherto been severely restricted, but it's bad news for the UK,

where

> our regulators have long regarded food supplements as foods, not

medicines.

> We face losing some 270 nutrient supplements, including 40 trace elements,

> most forms of the more bioavailable organic minerals, and most food-state

> vitamins. And it doesn't end with vitamins and minerals. By 2007, if not

> before, the directive requires the European Commission to put forward

> proposals for a similar list, to apply to all nutrient supplements.

>

> Nor does it stop at nutrients. The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products

> Directive (THMPD), now working its way through the EU machine, promises to

> provide for a 'simplified pharmaceutical registration' for 'herbal

> medicines' - but only for substances that have been in safe use for 30

> years, 15 of them within the EU, singly or in the same combinations. Thus,

> medicinal herbs in centuries-long use outside the community cannot benefit

> from the fast-track licence procedure.

>

> The THMPD is a part of the existing Pharmaceuticals Directive, currently

> being amended to widen the scope of drug classification. According to the

> amendment, anything that 'restores, corrects or modifies physiological

> function' in the body will be deemed a drug. The directive will have power

> to take precedence over both the FSD and THMPD, even though they may all

be

> applicable to the same natural food supplement.

>

> Public safety is cited as the motivating force behind these directives.

> Their combined effect, however, could be to drive out, degrade or drive

> underground many of the herbs and nutrients to which some people swear

they

> owe their health. For the 40.9 per cent of us who use supplements to boost

> nutrition, this is no trivial matter, while to those using herbs and

> supplements to manage chronic pain or life-threatening disease, it must

seem

> like sabotage. Sceptics dismiss such individuals' experience as

'anecdotal',

> but when you are your own anecdote, it's hard not to be convinced.

>

> Beata Bishop's book - now, sadly, out of print - is a testament to the

value

> of a nutrient-rich diet, boosted by supplements. As she wrote in 1985: 'I

> should have died of malignant melanoma... around June 1981. When my

> secondary cancer was diagnosed in late 1980, I was suffering from

diabetes,

> incipient osteoarthritis, frequent knockout migraines and dental

abscesses.'

> Today, she is free of these and attributes her recovery to Gerson Therapy,

> the radical regime under which the body is detoxified and activated with

> ionised minerals and organic fruit and vegetables, whereupon, it is hoped,

> the natural healing process kicks in. I don't want to be glib or

simplistic

> about cancer. I know it comes in many guises and has multiple causes.

Having

> lost two grandparents, my father and my partner to it, I am in mortal

terror

> of it. Like most people, irrationally, I fear it more than I do the

> cardiovascular disease that took my other two grandparents and my mother.

I

> should find it hard to refuse the slash-and-burn approaches to it. But

when

> I try to think of it as being, like heart disease, a degenerative process,

I

> see the wisdom of Gerson.

>

> 'I have been described as disgustingly healthy,' Beata Bishop tells me,

'but

> when I was very, very ill, without those supplements I wouldn't have got

> well. I believe it's totally wrong to interfere in people's attempts to

> maintain their health. I'm willing to fight at the barricades if it comes

to

> that, because if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

>

> Or, you might say, if it ain't broke, don't break it. Despite occasional

> scare stories, the risk of death from food supplements is less than that

of

> being struck by lightning, and significantly less than that of dying of

> penicillin allergy. Should the EU plans prevail, however, consumers may in

> future have to resort to the internet, to order products from unregulated

> sources, with no guarantee of quality or authenticity. It sounds fanciful,

> but observers are predicting a black market. After next August, if someone

> sidles up to you and asks if you want to buy some 'E', think mixed

> tocopherols and tocotrienols, since almost the whole spectrum of naturally

> occurring vitamin E is off the positive list.

>

> 'In my opinion,' says OM columnist Dr John Briffa, 'the proposal to

restrict

> public access to nutritional supplements represents one giant retrograde

> step for the health of the nation. There is good evidence that the

> nutritional content of our diet has declined substantially over the past

few

> decades. At the same time, studies exist that show that long-term nutrient

> supplementation has the potential to prevent a range of conditions,

> including heart disease, cataracts and certain forms of cancer.'

>

> 'We, as a nation, have a huge problem in looking after our people,' says

Sue

> Croft, a director of Consumers for Health Choice, 'and those of us who

take

> the trouble to keep ourselves well should be encouraged. Yet the very

tools

> we need to do so are being taken away from us by Brussels, and our

> government is standing by and doing nothing.'

>

> 'It's disgraceful,' agrees shadow health minister Earl Howe.

'Traditionally,

> in this country, we've adopted a safety-based approach to licensing

products

> for sale. There's never been any suggestion that our vetting procedures

are

> inadequate in that respect. To have a harmonisation measure foisted upon

us

> for no good reason is a very retrograde step indeed, and consumers will

> suffer.'

>

> And so we will, one way or another. Consider HRT, associated with an

> increased breast cancer risk. For this and other reasons, women are

turning,

> in preference, to alternative remedies, at the very time when these

remedies

> seem threatened with extinction. 'The mineral boron is very useful,' says

Dr

> Marilyn Glenville, a specialist in women's health and prolific author.

> 'There are good clinical trials on its effect on bone health. If you get a

> good multivitamin that's designed around the menopause, boron will be in

> there.' But boron is off the positive list, guilty until proved innocent,

> under European Napoleonic law.

>

> Boron could even now be reprieved. The European Food Safety Authority, a

> faceless organ of the European Commission, will consider dossiers

submitted

> on banned nutrients. With a deadline of 12 July 2005, however, and with

> compiling costs of anything from £80,000 to £250,000 per substance, the

race

> will be to the swift and to the rich. Some big manufacturers are working

on

> dossiers. But with no guarantee they will be accepted and no possibility

of

> a patent on the nutrients they champion, there can be scant incentive to

do

> so. Hence, a kind of nutritional dumbing down is underway, with

> manufacturers reformulating products.

>

> So much for boron. How about the herbal supplements black cohosh and dong

> quai? Both can be effective against hot flushes, but their future looks

> uncertain under the THMPD and amended Pharmaceuticals Directive.

>

> The THMPD is, in some ways, the most Eurocentric directive. In his 1997

> King's Fund lecture on integrated healthcare, the Prince of Wales said:

'No

> knowledge, experience or wisdom from different traditions should be

> overlooked in efforts to help the suffering.' This directive could

scarcely

> be less in that spirit. We plunder the world's larder, the world's table,

> yet set our face against the herbal medical traditions on which two-thirds

> of the world relies, when they could have much to give us.

>

> Witness Carctol. At the inaugural conference of the British Society of

> Integrated Medicine last November, Dr Rosy Daniel introduced four cancer

> patients, all doing well on a dairy-free, vegetarian diet and this

Ayurvedic

> preparation. 'We have a traditional remedy that has been brought from

> India,' says Daniel, founder of Health Creation, which offers holistic

> healthcare stuff and support. 'But because three of the eight herbs in

> Carctol are classed as medicine, they are prohibited from putting out any

> information about it, as this is construed as advertising.'

>

> The law is spacious enough to allow doctors to prescribe an unlicensed

> medicine if they believe it may be effective. Patients have to be told

that

> the medicine is unlicensed, and to sign a consent form. What doctors

cannot

> tell patients is what they think the stuff will do, since this would be to

> make a medicinal claim. Importers Cankut Herbs are similarly constrained.

> 'It's a bizarre paradox, isn't it,' says Daniel, 'that when something

> actually does work, and has some medical activities, nobody can talk about

> it?'

>

> Well, Gillian Gill, at least, can talk. When she was diagnosed with an

> inoperable ovarian tumour, she was offered radiotherapy but, having made

her

> own risk-benefit assessment, declined. A combination of meditation, Reiki

> healing and a non-dairy, vegetarian diet effected some improvement. Then,

> when progress stalled, with some trepidation she went on Carctol. 'It

was,'

> she recalls, 'like a splint to my brain. Suddenly the panics, the awful

> thoughts and feelings didn't come any more, and there was no looking back.

> With each six months I had more energy. I feel fitter now than I did

before

> I had cancer. Eighteen months ago my oncologist gave me the best present I

> could have. She said, " Gillian, I'm seeing something I've never seen

> before. " My tumour had been so big they said they'd never seen anything

like

> it. Now it's about the size of an orange, and it seems to have transformed

> into a cyst with fluid.'

>

> In the course of her recovery, Gill wrote and published a book, Where's

the

> Meat? Acid-free Vegetarian Dishes. It is available from Health Creation

and

> costs £6. Hospital dieticians still tell cancer patients to combat

cachexia,

> or wasting, with high-calorie cakes, pork pies and burgers. However,

> pioneers of integrated medicine, such as Dr Julian Kenyon at the Dove

> Clinic, near Winchester, propose a wholefood regime free of meat, dairy

> products and sugar, designed to push the acid/alkaline balance of the body

> towards an alkaline environment, in which, they say, tumours cannot

thrive.

>

> Derek Ritchie is a Dove Clinic patient. He has mesothelioma, an

> asbestos-related cancer of the lung lining. It is slow-growing, but the

> prognosis was depressing: two years at best. Yet six-and-a-half years

later,

> here he is, about to fly to Spain, sustained by a regime that has included

> high-dose vitamins, herbal remedies and food supplements. He admits he's

> 'lost a bit of weight and one thing and another', but says, 'Quality of

life

> is not bad. And all I know is, if I hadn't been taking these things from

the

> very beginning, I wouldn't be here.'

>

> Kenyon prescribes the remedies that he favours, always with an eye to

> quality and emerging research, on an informed consent basis. 'I am aware

of

> impending legislation,' he says, 'and I am making every effort to comply

> completely with all regulatory issues.' But such remedies will disappear

if

> their manufacturers go to the wall once the shop shelves are stripped.

>

> How can such ostensibly benign and well-intentioned legislation be so

> onerous? To understand, look first at which products are berthed in the

safe

> harbour of the FSD positive list, and which cast adrift. The positive list

> overwhelmingly excludes natural, organic substances, which, say

campaigners,

> are the most innovative and most readily absorbed.

>

> But, then, the list has not, as you'd imagine, been drawn up on the basis

of

> scrupulous research into the safety and efficacy of available supplements.

> The permitted substances are those listed under the Directive on Foods for

> Particular Nutritional Use (Parnuts) which determines what may be added

for

> nutritional purposes to adult dietetic foods. The list is literally one

they

> made earlier, and is inappropriate to the consideration of food

> supplementation. Critics point to the fact that it sanctions the use of

> sodium and potassium hydroxides, powerful caustic agents that no one would

> want to supplement ('If swallowed,' runs the safety advice for the former,

> 'drink plenty of water and call for immediate medical help.')

>

> At the same time, highly valuable nutrients are absent. Take selenium, a

> mineral in which the British diet is known to be deficient. Inorganic

> selenite and selenate are on the list, but two organic forms,

> selenomethionine and selenium yeast, are not. This despite the fact that

> selenomethionine (the primary form, in foods such as Brazil nuts) and

> selenium yeast are safer and more bioavailable.

>

> 'With cancer,' says Ralph Pike, director of the National Association of

> Health Stores (NAHS), 'selenium is the most important mineral. There is a

> big company in the process of compiling a dossier on selenium yeast. It's

> cost them far in excess of £250,000. They've just completed a two-year rat

> study. People will find it abhorrent that the only way that selenium yeast

> can stay on the market is by killing untold rats. They've actually told us

> animal studies are not necessary. This is one of the myths surrounding the

> directive. Every time you talk to the Commission, they say " absolutely not

> necessary " , but if you're going to show how selenium yeast goes through

the

> body and where it ends up in tissues, you've got to start doing histology,

> and autopsies, and tissue samples.'

>

> 'The science simply does not add up,' says David Hinde, legal director of

> the Alliance for Natural Health. The Alliance has mounted one of two

> separate legal challenges to the FSD (alongside the NAHS and the Health

Food

> Manufacturers' Association), which were heard in the high court on 31

> January, when Mr Justice Richards was persuaded that both had 'an arguable

> case' and agreed that both should be referred to the European Court as

soon

> as possible.

>

> 'At the heart of the challenge is, first, the contention that the alleged

> legal basis for the directive under Article 95 is invalid under EU law,'

> Hinde continues. 'The European Union doesn't have the right to legislate

> just any old way. It's subject to very strict rules. Then there is the

> principle of subsidiarity. That means that decisions should always be

taken

> as close to the rock-face as possible, so if a member state is capable of

> regulating its own food supplements, they shouldn't be regulated by the EU

> unless there is a very good reason.'

>

> In court, the government was put in the invidious position of defending

the

> directive proposed by the European Commission in Brussels. When asked why

> there was this prohibition, says Hinde, 'They were reduced to saying,

" Well,

> because of safety. " That's a bit like saying we are incapable of

regulating

> our supplements as food in this country, even though we've done so for

many

> years.'

>

> The judge, most helpfully, wants to push things along. It normally takes

18

> months to two years to get a decision, but the ANH is hopeful we'll get

one

> before the ban is set to come in on 1 August 2005.

>

> Hinde is not just a professional but a personal advocate of

supplementation,

> having made the engagingly boyish mental leap from internal combustion

> engine to human organism. 'I was your typical male. I'd whack a Lean

Cuisine

> in the microwave, take some salad, and think I was doing a good job for

> myself.' He then discovered that if he put clean, high-octane petrol in

his

> car it went better, and he saw the light. 'I started taking supplements,

and

> couldn't believe the increase in energy. I thought, " These things work! "

> Then I began to look into this whole area, and discovered the fundamental

> thesis that is missing from our health paradigm is the link between

> micro-nutrition deficiency and illness. Your body is remarkably resilient.

> If you're missing key nutrients, it gets by, but eventually things begin

to

> go wrong.'

>

> That was the way Dr Max Gerson's thoughts were running in the 1920s, in a

> far less toxic world. And it is how Dr Robert Verkerk's thoughts are

running

> now. Previously a research fellow at Imperial College, Dr Robert Verkerk

> left to set up the ANH. Researching sustainable agriculture, he had seen

how

> impoverished our soil, and hence our food supply, was becoming. 'There are

> few drugs that can demonstrate the cancer-defying properties of natural

> substances,' he says. 'Why on earth is the EU wanting to ban them? How

many

> leading cancer research institutes, still besotted by chemical and

radiation

> treatments, have put together the poor nutrition, plus poor lifestyle,

plus

> toxic chemical puzzle?'

>

> 'Let food be thy medicine,' said Hippocrates, yet precious few of the

> doctors who have sworn the Hippocratic oath, or one of its revisionist

> versions, have embraced this tenet. In his Editor's Choice column in the

BMJ

> of 24 January, Richard Smith wrote: 'Although many patients are convinced

of

> the importance of food in both causing and relieving their problems, many

> doctors' knowledge of nutrition is rudimentary. Most feel much more

> comfortable with drugs than foods, and the " food as medicine " philosophy

of

> Hippocrates has been largely neglected.' Smith goes on to make the

> 'unadventurous prediction' that we will be hearing much more about the

> science, medicine and politics of food, and concludes, 'Hippocrates would

be

> pleased.' Not with the FSD, he wouldn't.

>

> The idea of setting safe maximum limits on supplements is also highly

> questionable. In many EU countries, they are limited to three times the

> recommended daily amount, and this could be imposed across the board. But,

> with RDAs, you need to think bog standard, not gold standard.

>

> 'I call them the Ridiculous Dietary Arbitraries,' says Patrick Holford,

> founder of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION), and author of The

> Optimum Nutrition Bible. 'The RDA is not a scientifically robust score for

a

> nutrient. It's the level that prevents overt deficiency, and if you take

the

> case of vitamin C, it started at 30mg, then went to 45mg, then 60mg, while

> in America it's 85mg. Now, 30mg does prevent scurvy, but scientists on the

> panels who decide RDAs are gradually thinking that more might be better.

We

> [the ION] work from what is arguably the most scientific position, which

is

> to ask, " What is the optimal intake of a nutrient? " What level of, say,

> vitamin C confers maximum protection against infections? And we know that

it

> is around 1,000mg.'

>

> The official EU classification of a drug, meanwhile, throws up some

> priceless anomalies. There are two parts to the definition of a drug. One

is

> the 'presentation' limb, that anything that claims to treat, prevent or

cure

> a disease is a medicine. 'So, if you say, " An apple a day keeps the doctor

> away, " and you're selling the apple,' says Holford, 'you've just

contravened

> the Medicines Act.' The other is the so-called 'function' test: ie, if

> something 'restores, corrects or modifies physical function' in the body,

it

> can be classified as a drug (that apple, again). Does this mean that, to

> reverse the logic, if anything remains on the positive list and is not

> reclassified as a medicine, we can assume it does not restore, correct or

> modify physical function? If so, who is going to rush out to buy

supplements

> that can claim, at best, to have no effect?

>

> This is not to say that there are no concerns about the use of herbs and

> supplements, and in particular about how they interact with prescription

> drugs. Dong quai, feverfew, St John's wort and ginkgo, for instance, are

> contraindicated with warfarin. But, then, so is cranberry juice.

>

> Warfarin is the sodium salt form of rat poison. Cranberry juice is rich in

> antioxidants and potent against cystitis. Anyone on warfarin should be

> advised to avoid it, but it would be a strange inversion of reality to say

> that cranberry juice is dangerous.

>

> In the matter of St John's wort, if we apply the same risk-benefit

criteria

> as are used in the licensing of medicines, we may well find in favour of

an

> antidepressant herb that has far fewer side effects than its chemical

> counterparts.

>

> In February 1992, the consumer research body Social Audit reported, on the

> basis of four studies between 1981 and 1988, that more than 10,000

hospital

> beds are taken up at any one time by people suffering adverse reactions

> (ADR) to prescription drugs. While the side effects of drugs is a

recognised

> problem, it is one with which we are prepared to live, much as we are

> prepared to live with the car, for all the hazards it poses.

>

> While we know that cars kill, however, we are less conscious that drugs

are

> a major cause of mortality in the Western world. In May 1998, The Journal

of

> the American Medical Association reported that 'each year, prescription

> drugs injure approximately 1.5m people so severely that they require

> hospitalisation, and 100,000 die.' That puts the health concerns over

herbs

> into perspective. Not that we want a free-for-all. There are some horrible

> products out there, but if you use a legislative purse-seine net to trap

the

> fishiest ones, you inevitably get a huge and unacceptable by-catch.

>

> 'Herbs are powerful,' acknowledges actress Jenny Seagrove, a stalwart of

> Consumers for Health Choice, 'which is why they work when used properly,

and

> why they can cause problems when used incorrectly. However, they're not as

> powerful as the synthetic versions, which are prescription drugs. I

believe

> there should be some kind of regulation, but not the kind they're

> suggesting. I think they should have spot checks of every manufacturer's

> products each year, and people who sell herbs should have to do some kind

of

> training. Products should be labelled with health warnings, then people

> could make educated choices.'

>

> Not the least depressing aspect of this whole debate is the orgy of

> vivisection it could unleash. Animal rights campaigners, who point out

that

> ADRs are rife in medicines that have passed animal tests, must be feeling

> nauseated at this point.

>

> The Alliance for Natural Health at least has the green light to make its

> case to the European Court. 'The doors are closing,' says Robert Verkerk,

> 'but our recent court success tells us that the EU may have overstretched

> its powers. We believe that bringing this case to the European Court of

> Justice might elicit the paradigm shift needed by our healthcare system,

> currently splitting at the sides.'

>

> The fight doesn't end there. Today Europe, tomorrow the world.

Similarities

> have been noted between the EU's Food Supplements Directive and the Codex

> Alimentarius Draft Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Supplements. Codex

is

> about harmonisation on a global scale. US health freedom campaigners are

> watching nervously, mindful that the US will have one vote, compared with

> the expanded EU's 25-strong block vote. If the legal challenges succeed,

it

> will pose a potent obstacle to the plan to impose Codex worldwide. If they

> fail... Well, ultimately you have to ask yourself, cui bono?

>

> This is what the Americans term a wake-up call. I prefer the English word

> 'alarm'. Be alarmed. Be very alarmed.

>

> · Alliance for Natural Health 01252 371 275;

> Consumers for Health Choice 020 7222 4182;

> Health Creation helpline 0845 009 3366

>

>

> For Health Freedom,

> John C. Hammell, President

> International Advocates for Health Freedom

> 556 Boundary Bay Road

> Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA

> http://www.iahf.com

> jham

> 800-333-2553 N.America

> 360-945-0352 World

>

> ****************

>

> Ingri Cassel, director

> Vaccination Liberation

> P.O. Box 457

> Spirit Lake, Idaho 83869

> (208) 255-2307/ (888) 249-1421

> vaclib <vaclib

>

> www.vaclib.org <http://www.vaclib.org>

> " Free Your Mind....

> >From the Vaccine Paradigm "

>

> " When we give government the power

> to make medical decisions for us,

> we, in essence, accept that the state

> owns our bodies. "

> ~ U.S. Representative Ron Paul

>

>