Campaign Launched Against Dietary Supplements by Bill Sardi

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Campaign Launched Against Dietary Supplements

 

by Bill Sardi

 

 

 

At a time when the Food and Drug Administration is under criticism for

approving unsafe drugs, and when pharmaceutical companies are being

called to task for not disclosing negative studies of their products,

a concerted effort is being launched against dietary supplements. The

obvious reason - don't let the public discover dietary supplements as

alternative to prescription drugs that can duplicate the biological

action of most prescription medicines with far lower costs and side

effects.

 

Harvard Medical School in a joint effort with the FDA and the

Institute of Medicine, has released a report that says: " Unlike drugs,

which must be proven safe before they can be sold, the current law

allows sale of supplements unless the Food and Drug Administration can

prove them harmful. "

 

The assumption is that prescription drugs are safer than supplements

because they have undergone an FDA approval process. But a review of

data from the US Poison Control Centers indicates vitamin and mineral

supplements are linked with few if any deaths over the past few years

and deaths linked to use of herbal products, except for ephedra, are

few. For comparison, just the use of non-steroidal pain relievers like

aspirin and ibuprofen cause an estimated 16,000 deaths annually. Side

effects from properly usedprescription drugs, administered by nurses

in hospitals, result in over100,000 deaths annually. The FDA approval

process does not guarantee safety.

 

Public Citizen, the Ralph Nader group, indicates 181 FDA-approved

drugs should be recalled because they are not as safe as other drugs

or are ineffective. An FDA drug reviewer, Dr. David Graham, had to

publish his report on the hidden dangers of Vioxx outside of the

country in the British Medical Journal. His job was later threatened

for not following FDA protocol even though an estimated 139,000

Americans died prematurely from the use of Vioxx.

 

Many drug side effects are the result of nutritional deficiencies

caused by the medications themselves. But the FDA is stubbornly

resistant to warn the public how to avoid drug side effects by taking

companion supplements. For example, statin cholesterol-lowering drugs

deplete the body of coenzyme Q10 which can result in a mortal

condition called rhabdomyolysis.

 

Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is toxic to the liver and acetaminophen use is

the leading cause for liver transplants. The antidote for

acetaminophen poisoning is N-acetyl cysteine, a sulfur-based dietary

supplement. The FDA has resisted appeals to combine these nutrients

into the drugs or mandate that supplements be prescribed as companions.

 

Another mistaken complaint is that dietary supplement manufacturers

don't have to report adverse reactions as do drug companies. Yet the

FDA is obviously working in league with the drug companies to hide

negative reports that could trigger the recall of many drugs.

 

Another false assumption in the report is that dietary supplements

interfere with prescription medications. Hilary Tindle, MD, a research

fellow at Harvard Medical School, and lead author of the report, says:

" This is especially critical as more becomes known about the adverse

effects associated with individual dietary supplements as well as

their interactions with prescription drugs. " But vitamins and minerals

are essential for life and it is the drugs that interfere with the

nutrients, not the other way around.

 

There is a concerted effort to regulate dietary supplements, which is

in reality a smoke screen to limit dosages of vitamins and minerals

that can replace many prescription drugs. For example, high-dose

vitamin B6 and vitamin C reduce blood pressure equally as well as

prescription medications.

 

High-dose folic acid is a safe anti-depressant. High-dose vitamin D is

as effective as many blood pressure pills. High-dose vitamin C can

prevent a form of unstable plaque that causes most sudden-death heart

attacks.

 

Pharmaceutical companies are attempting to patent altered vitamin D

molecules to treat cancer when high-dose vitamin D is inexpensive and

has the same biological action.

 

Later in the year, CODEX, a trade organization linked with the World

Health Organization, hopes to limit dosages of vitamins and minerals

under the presumption high doses cause significant side effects. The

Institute of Medicine report appears to be softening up the public for

these limitations.

 

The report discloses the real reason for restrictions against dietary

supplements - in their own words: " In the past five years the biggest

change was an increase in use of herbal supplements. " The

Parmaceuticals companies see herbal remedies advancing while their

problematic nostrums are being discredited.

 

The dietary supplement industry is continually characterized as some

giant behemoth that must be curbed. The industry was responsible for

$18.7 billion in sales in 2002. For comparison, the sales of just one

class of drugs, statins for cholesterol, nearly equal the entire

annual sales of dietary supplements.

 

Both the Harvard and Institutes of Medicine reports advised users of

dietary supplements to disclose their supplement regimens to their

doctors. But doctors are poorly educated in the use of vitamins,

minerals and herbal products and would offer little help to consumers.

 

January 19, 2005

 

Bill Sardi [send him mail] is a consumer advocate and health

journalist, writing from San Dimas, California. He offers a free

downloadable book, The Collapse of Conventional Medicine, at his website.

 

2005 Bill Sardi Word of Knowledge Agency, San Dimas,

California.

Not intended for commercial use or posting on other websites.

Permission to reprint should be obtained from the author.