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"Waxman Amendment" To Return?

Written by Wellness Club on August 4, 2010 – 4:48 pm -

Will The “Waxman Amendment” Be Back To Threaten Your Freedom Again?

Nurse Mark Thinks “Yes!”

 

Opinion By Nurse Mark

 

HealthBeat News readers will remember that I recently wrote about a piece of political shenanigans that has come to be known as “the Waxman Amendment”. Rep. Henry Waxman (D, CA) attempted to insert his unrelated legislative language into The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173) – an underhanded ploy that we exposed in this HealthBeat article: HEALTH FREEDOM ALERT – URGENT ACTION NEEDED! The offensive language was eventually stripped from the bill, thanks to the efforts of people like you: Waxman Amendment Fails – You Win!

But beware – the enemies of your vitamins, supplements and natural remedies are nothing if not patient.

I wrote an article two years ago describing the propaganda – er, public relations – efforts that were underway then and that no doubt continue today. EXPOSED: FDA’s Self-Critical Report is a PR Scam

Why do I bring all this up now?

You may have noticed over the past few days and weeks that there have been a increasing number of news articles about vitamins, minerals, and supplements – all warning of the dangers faced by anyone foolish enough to use these things instead of FDA approved drugs and treatments.

A WebMD article warns us that Calcium causes heart attacks.

A drugs.com press release tells us that the FDA warns people not to use Miracle Mineral Solution, an oral liquid solution also known as “Miracle Mineral Supplement” or “MMS.” warning that it produces bleach and can cause serious harm.

A recent news article produced by Consumer Reports breathlessly warns of the dangers of a “dirty dozen” dietary supplements and bemoans the powerlessness of the FDA to quickly and easily remove products from the market.

Even the Consumer Reports article that goes on to list 11 supplements that it feels might be beneficial is grudging and guarded in it’s language.

A common thread running through many of these articles is a cry to give the FDA increased powers to “protect” consumers and dewy-eyed hand-wringing that the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) protects dietary supplements from the FDA and prevents the FDA from regulating them as if they were drugs.

While much is made of the rare cases where people have gotten themselves into trouble by mis-using (or abusing) dietary supplements, like the woman who developed a bluish skin discoloration from the chronic overuse of colloidal silver or the overweight and out-of-shape baseball player who became dehydrated and collapsed and died with ephedra in his system at spring training camp, we rarely hear about the serious, even fatal side effects of common, FDA-approved prescription drugs.

Oddly enough, we hear little about those people foolish enough to take topical analgesic gels by mouth, or others who find themselves in need of liver transplants after abusing common Tylenol, or who suffer heart attacks or stroke after using Advil, Motrin or Aleve… or the any number of other medical disasters that can ensue from the use of these “safe and effective” FDA approved drugs.

And really now, why would anyone worry about such a minor little inconvenience like rhabdomyelosis and liver damage from statin drugs, or skin necrosis (death) from several commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals, or the fatal “side effects” and “adverse reactions” that can be a part of taking so many of the FDA’s “approved” drugs… after all, they are “approved”, and they are profitable.

Here is my prediction: we are going to see an increasing number of “news” articles detailing the “dangers” of dietary supplements over the next few months. These stories will be replete with heart-breaking anecdotal tales of personal pain and suffering endured by the unwary “victims” of the unregulated vitamin industry.

The well-meaning writers of these stories will point to the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act as being the reason that the FDA cannot adequately “protect” the public from these dangers.

In time there will be some example of harm that will be suffered by some celebrity or sports star or there will have been enough negative press and “the public will demand action.” At this point a legislator will step forward with a solution and that solution will, strangely enough, look a lot like Henry Waxman’s failed initiative.

This solution will call for new powers to be given to the FDA to allow it to “protect consumers” by regulating vitamins, minerals, and supplements as strictly as any synthetic offering from Big Pharma. This, of course, will have the effect of driving many vitamin and supplement makers out of business and raising the prices of any surviving vitamins or supplements so high as to make prescription drugs seem like a bargain.

Watch for it. It is coming. Americans reportedly spend $26.7 billion a year on vitamins, minerals, and supplements.

Big Pharma jealously covets that money.

The Waxman Amendment will return. It is already written and it’s just waiting for the right time, the right incident, the right politician. The DSHEA will be attacked. We are seeing the foundations for that attack being laid now.

Those who have been in the military will be familiar with the concept of this sort of repeating attack; it is known as “BOHICA” – which stands for “Bend Over, Here It Comes Again!”

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