Fwd: Strngth of Connection of Supplement Adverse Reaction

[Guest guest]

arnoldgore

Sun, 21 Sep 2003 14:41:12 EDT

Strngth of Connection of Supplement Adverse Reaction

 

 

Hi Activists and Consumers,

Some have expresed cocern about the admittedly relatively low number of deaths

and adverse reactions to dietary supplements. Any death is of concern ut has to

be put in perspective. What are the numbers we are talking about?

They are very loose reports of " possible " connections to a dietary supplement

they were taking. In the entire population there are a small number of deaths

that will occur irrespective of what is taken. Even the FDA in its press release

of February 28,2003 on Ephedra clearly states that it may indicate a problem but

does not prove that one exists. This is a " weak form of scientific

evidence " .This might be of more concern if the numbers were higher as with

presription drugs.

 

From FDA Press Release 2/28/03 " HHS Acts to Reduce Potential risks of Dietary

Supplements containoing Ephedra "

Moreover, its review of some 16,000 adverse event reports revealed two deaths,

four heart attacks, nine strokes, one seizure, and five psychiatric cases

involving ephedra in which the records appeared thorough and no other

contributing factors were identified. RAND called such cases " sentinel events, "

because they may indicate a safety problem but do not prove that ephedra caused

the adverse event. The study recognized that such case studies are a weak form

of scientific evidence. Other unmeasured factors may have contributed, and such

serious adverse events are likely to happen (albeit at very low rates) among the

millions of users of ephedra anyway. The study also identified other such events

potentially associated with ephedra, in which other factors may have contributed

to the adverse events or in which records were inadequate

 

Call your US Senators and ask them to oppose the Supplement Safety Act S722 and

support the DSHEA Full Implemntation and Enforcement Act S.1538 which allows FDA

to assure safety under current law that they have not enforced. The local phone

numbers for Senators Clinton, Schumer and Feinstein who all co-sponsored S.722

are listed below.

Those of you in other states can find information on your US Senators,each

state has two senators at www.senate.gov

Sen. Charles Schumer New York City office tel. 212-486-443

Albany office 518-431-4070

Buffalo "

716-846-4111

Binghamton 607-772-6792

Hudson Valley 914-285-9741

Long Island 631-753-0978

Rochester 585-263-5866

Syracuse 315-423-5471

 

Washington,DC office 202-224-6542

 

E-mail: senator

 

Sen. Hillary Clinton

New York City office tel. 212-688-6262

Westchester 914-725-9294

Long Island 631-249-2825

Buffalo 716-854-9725

Syracuse 315-448-0470

Rochester 585-263-6250

North Country 315-376-6118

Washington,DC office 202-224-4451

E-mail: senator

Sen. Diane Feinstein

San Francisco office 415-393-0707

Los Angeles 310-914-7300

San Diego 619-231-9712

Fresno 559-485-7430

 

 

 

 

 

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