Wonder if they will try to ban KT?

[Guest guest]

Declaration Of War

To Oppose HR 3156

Bill Sardi, President

Knowledge of Health, Inc.

7-20-5

Be it hereby declared that the citizenry of the United States is at

war with its elected officials over free access to dietary supplements without

interference by federal health agencies that now distribute misinformation

regarding these products.

The threat is posed by HR 3156: Dietary Supplement Access & Awareness

Act

Elected representatives A. (CALIF), D. Dingell (MICH)

and Henry A. Waxman (CALIF) have introduced legislation, now in committee, that

would virtually destroy the dietary supplement industry.

The legislation is identified as the " Dietary Supplement Access &

Awareness Act, " but it does not address free access and only creates a negative

awareness of these products.

Guilt by assumption

That these elected representatives would write legislation, without

prior evidence that vitamin, mineral or herbal products pose a mortal or serious

risk to humans, and requires the public and their physicians to report to

federal health authorities within 15 days of the onset of any serious adverse

reaction, assumes the industry is hiding product hazards that have escaped

normal monitoring.

Dietary supplements relatively safe

For many years running the American Association of Poison Control

Centers has reported the mortality and morbidity associated with dietary

supplements to be relatively low, with no mortality associated with

multivitamins for a period of more than 8 years running. Even though dietary

supplements are safer than food (food borne infection strikes millions

annually), safer than table salt, and safer than many over-the-counter remedies

such as aspirin, these representatives have chosen to draft legislation that

would mandate onerous reporting requirements that are unjustified.

Mandates scare tactics

HR 3156 would require that millions of dollars of public money be

spent to educate the public to report alleged side effects to their physicians.

HR 3156 will likely result in labeling that will say " Report any serious adverse

reactions to your physician. " Or imagine listening to the radio and a government

sponsored ad says: " If you or a loved one experience a serious side effect such

as a stroke, heart attack, or even death) that you believe may be related to a

dietary supplement, please notify your physician. " Such efforts to label

products or educate the public in this manner only serves to create doubt in the

public's mind over the relative safety of these products and assumes serious

adverse reactions are a major but unreported problem.

Previous FDA Warning Eliminated One Dietary Supplement

Not long ago the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued just a

similar warning, asking physicians to report adverse reactions associated with

kava kava supplements, an anti-anxiety herbal product. The public was also

warned to report any side effects and the FDA warning was published in

newspapers and on TV news reports. Later, published studies cleared kava kava

from any suspicion, but the damage had been done. The public backed away from

kava supplements based upon the bulletin issued by the FDA, and today kava

farmers in the South Pacific have plowed up their fields. A $25 million product

was destroyed by FDA meddling. The same destruction will result from the passage

of HR 3156.

Timing of Legislation Questioned

HR 3156 appears misdirected. It comes at a time when the side effects

emanating from properly prescribed and ingested prescription drugs result in the

needless death of more than 100,000 Americans annually. Where is legislation

that would adequately protect the public from unsafe over-the-counter or

prescription drugs?

FDA inaction over unsafe drugs has prompted search for safer

alternatives

Furthermore, the public has become aware the FDA has approved drugs

that have not undergone adequate safety testing, and permitted pharmaceutical

companies to advertise these very same drugs on television, making

unsubstantiated claims of their effectiveness and safety, which resulted in the

demise of thousands of Americans. This has prompted millions of Americans to

search for safer alternatives to unsafe drugs, namely dietary supplements, to

allay symptoms posed by arthritis, headaches, menopause and other conditions.

Dietary supplements are concentrated foods, just as table salt is

concentrated sodium. Will physicians be required to report strokes induced by

patients who ingest excessive amounts of salt?

Guilt by association

Every physician who treats a patient that has had a stroke, heart

attack, or experienced sudden death, will now be obligated to report any dietary

supplements after an adverse event. This is guilt by association.

The Dietary Supplement Information Bureau reports that six in ten

Americans (59 percent) report taking dietary supplements on a regular basis.

Subsequent reports will read there is an association between mortal and

near-mortal events and dietary supplements. But there is little if any evidence

of cause and effect.

Imagine the government commissioned a study of hit-and-run

auto-pedestrian accidents and found that 95% of children hit by cars were

wearing tennis shoes. Would we then mistakenly conclude that the tennis shoes

caused the accidents? Such non-scientific associations would likely be aired in

news reports to frighten the public away from relatively safe products.

For example, this recently occurred when researchers at Harvard

Medical School published a report showing more lutein in fatty tissues of people

who have heart attacks. The researchers publicly suggested this was a concern

that required more investigation. But lutein accumulates in fatty tissues to

protect them from turning rancid, and individuals who

have more body fat will exhibit higher concentrations of lutein in

these tissues. There is simply no evidence that lutein, provided in spinach and

from marigold extracts in dietary supplements, causes heart attacks!

Would patients be in a position to report serious side effects?

Pray tell, how would a patient experiencing a serious side effect

(death, stroke, cardiac arrest, etc.) be in a position to even ascertain their

harmful health event was related to a dietary supplement? The average older

American takes 2.4 prescription drugs in addition to dietary supplements. Why

are the dietary supplements being fingered for reporting and not the more

hazardous drugs?

Drugs and other agents would be unreported

For example, a patient taking aspirin therapy to prevent a heart

attack, and steroids to treat arthritis, estrogen replacement therapy for

menopause, along with vitamin E, and experiences a heart attack, would have to

disclose to their doctor they were taking vitamin E pills. Aspirin, estrogen and

steroids deplete the body of vitamin C which weakens blood vessels, induces

their collapse, and can result in blockage of a coronary artery that produces a

heart attack. But the vitamin E might be unfairly blamed for inducing this

event. The patient may also be a smoker and/or alcohol drinker, which further

depletes vitamin C and increases the risk for a heart attack. But only the

vitamin E pills would be reported to the FDA!

No demonstration project

Virtually all patients and their physicians would be obligated under

HR3156 to report to the FDA such adverse events, at a cost of millions of

dollars, with no demonstration project that proves threats to public health

would be eliminated or the public welfare improved.

Launch recall efforts today!

The dietary supplement industry and the public must launch an all out

effort to recall elected representatives who submit overly onerous, restrictive

legislation that assumes all dietary supplements are unsafe and which will

likely frighten the public away from relatively safe alternatives to problematic

prescription drugs.

Therefore, and without hesitation, American health freedom fighters

have resolved to launch an all out recall effort against representatives ,

Dingel and Waxman, to begin today! Furthermore, HR 3156 shall be vigorously

opposed from every quarter in American society!

Sponsor: Rep , A. [CA-53] (introduced 6/30/2005)

Co-Sponsors: Rep Dingell, D. [MI-15] - 6/30/2005

Rep Waxman, Henry A. [CA-30] - 6/30/2005

To find out the status of this bill go to:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.3156.IH:

To read the bill: http://www.ahpa.org/05_0630_HR3156.pdf

To contact your elected representative: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Knowledge of Health, Inc

457 West Avenue #117

San Dimas, CA 91773

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[Guest guest]

Does this mean we will have to have another Boston Tea party?

CM Ross <cmross@...> wrote:

Declaration Of War

To Oppose HR 3156

Bill Sardi, President

Knowledge of Health, Inc.

7-20-5

Be it hereby declared that the citizenry of the United States is at

war with its elected officials over free access to dietary supplements without

interference by federal health agencies that now distribute misinformation

regarding these products.

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