Fwd: Big brother is coming to the health food store near you

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Fri, 9 May 2003 14:10:00 -0500

WC Douglass

Big brother is coming to the health food store near you

 

Daily Dose

May 9, 2003

 

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One more step toward " governmentalizing " your supplements

 

Forget terrorism for a minute, because right now it's time

to activate the level orange bureaucracy alert...

 

Last year, I wrote in Real Health about our government's

attempt to wrap their greedy tentacles around the supplement

industry with a bill before Congress ironically monikered

the " Dietary Supplement Fairness Act. " To refresh your

memory (or bring you up to speed if you weren't one of my

readers back then), this bill ostensibly provided tax-based

subsidization for vitamin and nutrient supplements -

" nutraceuticals " by their nomenclature. Sounds good, right?

 

Not really, because a major provision of the bill stipulates

that recipients undergo a battery of tests to determine the

need for supplements - and their effectiveness once you've

taken them. Also, they'll have to be controlled and

authorized via a supervising doctor, just like...

 

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS!

 

The reason I bring this shameless sham up again is because

of a news story I came across in Reuters a few weeks ago. It

outlined a new series of proposed supplement-industry

production standards - quality control measures, in other

words. And guess who'd be holding the reins? You got it: Big

Brother himself, the good old FDA...

 

You know, the guys that regulate PRESCRIPTION DRUGS!

 

According to the article, an FDA spokesperson claims that

both the American public and the supplement industry itself

(!) want these measures in place to guard against false or

inaccurate claims about what's in their supplement bottles -

or against tainted or contaminated products. Again, sounds

pretty sweet, doesn't it?

 

Well, think again. Like the " Dietary Supplement Fairness

Act, " these measures (which are scheduled to take effect

next year) are just one more in a long line of thinly veiled

attempts to insert big government into previously

unregulated areas of your lives and health. Why? Because

with increased regulation come increased tax revenues - both

from your wallet and from the industry's coffers. In this

respect, it'd be kind of like...

 

PRESCRIPTION DRUG business!

 

Yes, it's time to face the hard, depressing fact that as

long as the American public gravitates toward alternatives

to mainstream medicine - like safe and natural dietary

supplementation - those vultures up on The Hill are going to

try to wrap their fat little fingers around them until

they're over-priced, politicized, over-regulated, and

ineffective.

 

Kind of like - oh, I don't know...

 

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS?

 

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The trouble with " tubbing " ...

 

You've heard of " black lung, " right?

 

It's the deadly disease miners get from years of inhaling

coal dust - and it's one of many such illnesses we can get

from inhaling things we shouldn't. Now, we can add a new one

to this list - but it doesn't come from mining, iron

smelting, asbestos removal, or any of the typical sources

one would expect a respiratory disease would stem from...

 

No, this one's called HOT TUB LUNG!

 

That's right - all you hardcore party-ers are in grave

danger, according to a recent article in the Wall Street

Journal. Described in the piece as the country's

newest " lifestyle ailment, " Hot Tub Lung debuts as

potentially the most serious such malady in a list that

includes Tennis Elbow, Turf Toe, and Swimmer's Ear.

 

Doctors believe the condition is caused by a troublesome,

resilient microbe called Microbacterium avium carried in the

water-vapor mists that swirl and rise above hot tubs -

especially when the water jets are turned on. Indoor hot

tubs appear to be the main culprits!

 

Among the most adept at diagnosing this growing malady are

the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. They liken the

disease to Humidifier Lung, Pigeon-keeper's Lung, Mushroom-

picker's disease, and Maple-bark Stripper's Lung (all real

diseases, I swear!).

 

I'm not the least bit surprised to learn of this condition.

I've been warning people for years about the dangers of

inhaled toxins and bacteria from just a daily hot shower

with municipal tap water!

 

Of course, treatment for Hot Tub Lung involves an aggressive

program of prescription steroids and antibiotics.

 

Action to take: You can drain and sterilize the tub, and

NEVER use it again. But you don't have to be that drastic,

and you can use hot tubs safely. There's not room here, but

I'll give the instructions on how to avoid this problem in

the July issue of Real Health, my medical newsletter. (Hey,

not all of the best things in life are free!)

 

Sounding the level orange bureaucracy alert,

 

William Campbell Douglass II, MD

 

 

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