The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has introduced a proposal that would allow them to regulate complimentary and alternative therapies, as well as health supplements under The Federal Act that allows them to regulate the pharmaceutical industry.
What this means to consumers, according to the proposal as outlined in FDA Docket number 2006D-0480, is that things like vitamins and herbs would be controlled by the FDA, and could possibly require prescriptions from a naturopath, herbologist or some other physician, all of which would require you to pay a health insurance company and contribute to the already back-breaking cost of healthcare in America.
Even things like Massage Stones could be classified as “Medical Devices”.
There are those who do not trust the US government to act in the interest of its citizens over the interests of pharmaceutical companies and health insurance providers. Those people have good reason to feel this way, and the amount of dangerous – DEADLY, even – pharmaceutical drugs that get recalled (as you can see on this site on any given day) is testament to the fact that human beings can be used as guinea pigs because the FDA allows the pharmaceutical industry to release drugs that haven’t been properly tested.
Previous rant aside, this proposal would allow the FDA to control your access to “alternatives” to the broken, profit-driven, corrupt pharmaceutical industry here in the US.
On the other hand, it would provide more regulation to protect us from people selling snake oil or dangerous products and passing them off as alternative, complimentary, herbal or therapeutic medicine. It would ensure that you are getting what the label says you’re getting.
No matter which side of the fence you are on, now is your chance to take part in the Democratic process and make your voice heard. Go to https://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/default.htm and type in the docket number 2006D-0480 to read the proposal.
When you are ready to voice your opinion to the FDA, go here to submit your comments about the docket above.
The FDA needs to spend less time worrying about how much dandelion root someone takes and more time regulating the industries they were set up to regulate in the first place. How is it they don’t have time to keep killer-spinach and deadly dogfood off the shelves, but they can do this kind of crap?!
Half of America gets sick off of some vegetable, the other half has a heart attack from some medication that they let through, and they’re going to worry about the herbal industry? Sheeesh!
Well, the problem right now is that I could choose to sweep the crud off my kitchen floor, pack it into little capsules, and sell it as echinacea. There is absolutely no governmental authority out there to prevent me from doing so. It may be technically illegal, but there is no official system in place to test nutritional supplements, which means a LOT of companies get away with selling something other than what is labeled on the bottle. Check out http://www.consumerlab.com to see some of the sketchier (and more reliable) products out there.
I am a physician, and yes it is true that there is no “big brother-government” regulation of supplements and herbs. However, the FDA is not the answer to this problem and this docket would simply take away the right to choose…let me explain..
There are companies that don’t test their materials and don’t care. They can buy the lowest quality “under the refridgerator dirt” materials and sell it to you at walgreens or say the 99 cent bin at GNC.
Then there are some companies that test their raw materials to ensure that the species of herbs are what they ordered and that there are no additional chemicals or additives in the raw material. There are companies that will process the materials in a way that is not damaging to the activity of the products and then check the product afterward to ensure that it can be utilized by the body…etc….etc…
These good supplements and herbs are often reffered to as physicians grade. They can be identified by the fact that they are typically in the office of a complementary and alternative health care physician such as a chiropractor or a naturopath. (Doctors who actually have some training and knowledge about nutrition and diet) Also, These good supplement companies have physicians, PhDs, and chemists on staff.
If this docket goes through the right to make all vitamins, herbs, and supplements will be given to the pharmaceutical companies. Our natural remedies to prevent and cure disease will be considered “drugs” and will be regulated as such and then given away to big business drug companies for them to raise the costs and lower the supply.
There would be no more vitamin row at the walgreens and there would be no more GNC period.
Health insurance companies would become the gate keepers for all preventional medicine relating to natural methods, and we already know that they don’t pay a dime for preventional medicine.
And medical doctors would be the only physicians that would have distributing rights, funny thing is that in their training with herbs/supplements/vitamins/diet/nutrition typically lasts about a whole 2 hours in some optional elective class.
So if you want to see your friendly MD to ask him if it is ok for you to get a multivitamin and then have him bill the multivitamin to your health insurance for $100, of which the health insurance company only pays $20, and you get charged $80…..be my guest and I will move to some country where there is still some freedom left in healthcare and some room for preventative medicine.
While I do believe that products should be monitored to verify that they contain the listed items, I am completely against the FDA making my decisions for me. I am also against the necessity of a doctor in obtaining vitamins of any kind. People need to be aware of what they are buying, the intended purpose, and not abuse the products they obtain. But making it prescription only, or needing a doctor to obtain it, doesn’t guarantee that it will not be abused. Prescription abuse is in abundance and the prevalence of doctors selling prescriptions for drugs that aren’t clinically needed is constantly in the news. Making vitamins and health associated products obtainable only through a doctor will only serve to hurt those of us who are educated in health related products. I do not want this bill passed. There has to be another way to weed out “snake oil” and still allow us our liberty! People still have the freedom to consult a physician regarding health products but making it a requirement is unconstitutional and appointing as governors of these products the very people profiting from this bill is unethical.
I believe that in the near future there needs to be some type of verification for the qaulity,and purity of dietary supplements this could possibly be done by an independant third party company,similar to what the organic foods idustry has done. On the other hand good research can reveal sources of pharmaceutical and “beyond” organic dietary supplements that are the real deal.Try qnlabs.com or metagenics for starters.
We all need to band together and tell or senators to vote NO on S.1082 and put a stop to FDA docket #2006D-0480.Ask them what THEY are doing to change the bill to make sure dietary supplement consumers are protected.Suggest third party independant verification for instance.
As a nurse in a rural health family practice, I see firsthand the powerful results of natural herbs and vitamins taken by some of our patients. Everyone needs to use common sense when using vitamins and herbs. They’ve been around a lot longer than billion dollar pharmaceutical companies. I personally saw a decrease in cholesterol levels by 71 points in 3 months because one of our patients used red rice yeast. The FDA should be spending all of their time looking into the harmful ingredients in our foods and let people make their own choices about vitamins and herbs. I feel like I’m taking a gamble when I pick up a package of ground beef without an ingredient list.
I really do not believe that this proposal has anything to do with the health of the US.
herbs are good they are here for all living things.some you can take all the time .some just for a short time, some you cant take at all. the pharm industry and the goverment only care about profit and control not health.they profit from you being sick,they make you better they dont get any money.and yes they give you a drug to cover something and it causes other proplems ,so they sell you more drugs.people need to wake up come together and run these greedy ones out for good.i dont take pharm drugs at all! if they wipe out healthfood and herbs ill be digging up roots and picking herbs out of the fields and forest how are they going to stop that.they would destroy it all if they could.you see good will win over evil .herbs for life.
Well, the fact is LIKE ANY OTHER PRODUCT…you have to know what you are buying! If you spend 99 cents on motor oil at Handi-Qwick do you expect the best? If you buy vitamins, do a little research. You don’t need FDA-pharma-bribed-monkeys telling you whom you buy from and what you can buy!
Herbs, vitamins, and organics are essential for a healthy life.
I’m a health-food freak since 1973. I probably read too much for my own good. I probably take more nutritional supplements than I need, but I haven’t trusted the FDA for 30-odd years. If they didn’t ban cigarettes way back when and, more recently, fast food and soy products that destroy thyroid function, all of which should be banned if anything should be banned, why are they messing with harmless things like Vitamin C? I have the memory of a gnat but I am almost positive I was reading about FDA doing this thing with the Vitamin C back in the 1990s – trying to declare it a drug so they could regulate it, tax it out the wazoo, require a prescription to get it so they could raise the price, and make people stand in line to get it. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY SHOULD BE DOING WITH PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, most of which have horrendously dangerous side-effects, most having to do with kidney or liver dysfunction or both. Those TV ads that spout that cliche of the century (the 20th century, not this one) say “Ask your doctor if this drug is right for you” — THAT’S WHAT SHOULD BE BANNED. I’ll NEVER ask my doctor for a drug; he’s supposed to tell me when I need one, right?? I suppose the pharmaceutical industry pleads “free speech.” I say the First Amendment, like the Second Amendment, should not apply to psychopaths. Well, I’m sure the health-food industry is corporate greed run amok like eveything else, but I trust it more than the FDA, the mainstream food industry, and the pharmaceutical industry, because I know from personal experience that I am healthier at 78 than I was at 40; in fact I’m healthier at 78 than almost anyone I know of any age.
I’d much rather see the FDA legalize marijuana, regulate it, tax it, and make people stand in line to get it – because in my opinion marijuana is much less dangerous than most of the prescription drugs on the market today