Anti-Supplement Measure Slips into Reform Bill Passed by the House; Please Take Action to Prevent Same in the Senate

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Catalog May 2010Quick OrderSearch Ask Dr. SlagleNewsletters Good health and good sense are two of life's greatest blessings.Syrus (Publilius Syrus) NAMASTE AND WELCOME TO THE WAY UP FREE HEALTH NEWSLETTER TO WHICH YOU HAVE SUBSCRIBED

Anti-Supplement Measure Slips into "Financial Reform" Bill Passed by the House; Please Take Action to Prevent The Same in the Senate

Rep. Henry A. Waxman - 30th District of California is a powerful and well known opponent of the dietary supplement industry. Rep. Waxman wants supplements regulated like drugs, a step that would effectively put an end to them, or put them into the domain of the drug companies. I am sure that many who are users of and support the idea of the availability of nutritional supplements are not specifically aware of Waxman's persistent militance against the supplement industry. Rep Waxman has vested interests in the drug companies and in catering to their causes. Supplements are perceived as competition to the drug industry. Is it preferential to get sick and have to take drugs rather than to become and remain healthy by proper eating, a healthy lifestyle, and use of selected nutritional supplements? Such supplements are not supplying anything foreign to the body, as do drugs, not supplying anything the body has not evolved to need for ultimate health and life maintainance. Drugs are foreign agents introduced after body functions have gone awry and not without some significant risks and potential interference with normal body processes. What better way is there for a nation to cut health care costs than to encourage healthy eating and informed nutritional supplementation? Yet those in charge choose to suppress information about the benefits of nutritional supplementation. What a shame that we individuals who are motivated to take extra responsibility for being and staying healthy should have to be ever vigilant against government efforts to take away the area of our health freedom relating to availability of nutritional supplements. What a shame that I and others writing newsletters have to regularly ask you to be aware of the consistent, sometimes insidious efforts to limit your health choices re natural alternatives. There has been a persistent effort to undermine the supplement protective 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which governs dietary supplement regulation by the FDA. It has now happened again, this time hidden away in what was supposed to be the financial reform legislation. In the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173), recently PASSED in the House of Representatives, Rep. Waxman inserted language which could be used as an impediment to the above mentioned DSHEA. This is a covert attack on our health freedom. Making a direct attack on supplements would require an amendment to DSHEA, since that legislation governs FDA regulation of supplements. Previous more direct threats to the DSHEA have been met with public outcry. So Rep. Waxman has left DSHEA alone, and instead used his position to insert language into the Wall St. “reform” bill that gives the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) important new powers that could be used to circumvent key supplement protections in DSHEA. The chief mission of FTC is to combat commercial fraud. It has full authority to pursue companies making fraudulent claims. But the FTC can’t set other regulatory requirements, without advance approval of Congress. The FTC previously had this regulatory “rule-making” authority, and lost it in the 1980’s when Congress thought the Agency was abusing it power. Do we again want to open the door to this abuse of power? The language inserted into the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173) by Rep Waxman reinstates the FTC’s rule making authority allowing them to create a new legal requirement for all supplement companies. Supplements are already regulated by the FDA under DSHEA. Rep. Waxman’s provision (if included in the final Wall St “reform” bill), will give the FTC the power to override the limited protections for supplements that already exist under DSHEA. Although the FDA would still have to respect DSHEA, the FTC would not be so restrained. Emord, renowned constitutional attorney in Washington D.C., stated “The provision removing the ban on FTC rulemaking without Congressional pre approval contained in H.R. 4173 invites the very same irresponsible over-regulation of the commercial marketplace that led Congress to enact the ban in the 1980s. FTC has no shortage of power to regulate deceptive advertising; this bill gives it far more discretionary power than it needs, inviting greater abuse and mischief from an agency that suffers virtually no check on its discretion.” The main point is the FTC would be given power to regulate areas they don’t understand, and it is well known that their first order of business would likely be to over regulate supplements, an area far outside their area of expertise. The Senate may be voting on this bill as early as this weekend. The Senate Wall St “reform” bill, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (S. 3217), currently does not contain the Waxman provision. But Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) may offer an amendment including Waxman’s language. WE MUST STOP THIS NOW! Click on TAKE ACTION to help maintain access to low cost, high quality supplements. Tell your senators not to support any amendments that give FTC unchecked power to over-regulate areas they don’t understand, including dietary supplements. The regular newsletter will be coming out in a few weeks, but this obviously could not wait. Peace and Health,Priscilla Slagle M.D. "The obstacle is the path". Zen saying.

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