WHERE ARE THE BODIES? - Drugs vs. Vitamins and Food Supplements

[Guest guest]

and thank you so much for that ray of sunshine. ;-D Dennis Draper <jdelta108@...> wrote: Lucian Leape, a Harvard University professor who conducted the mostcomprehensive study of medical errors in the United States, has estimatedthat one million patients nationwide are injured by errors during hospitaltreatment each year and that 120,000 die as a result.-- Harvard UniversityIn their study, Leape and his colleagues examined patient records athospitals throughout the state of New York. Their 1991 report found that oneof every 200 patients admitted to a hospital died as a result of a hospitalerror.That number of deaths is the equivalent of what would occur if a jumbo jetcrashed every day; it is three times the 43,000 people killed

each year inU.S. automobile accidents."It's by far the number one problem" in health care, said Leape, an adjunctprofessor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health.Researchers such as Leape say that not only are medical errors not reportedto the public, but those reported to hospital authorities represent roughly5 to 10 percent of the number of actual medical mistakes at a typicalhospital."The bottom line is we have a system that is terribly out of control," said Brook, a professor of medicine at the University of California at LosAngeles."It's really a joke to worry about the occasional plane that goes down whenwe have thousands of people who are killed in hospitals every year." Brook'srecognition of the extent of hospital errors is shared by many of medicine'sleaders.Care -- not treatment -- is the answer. Drugs, surgery and hospitals becomeincreasingly dangerous for chronic

disease cases. Facilitating the God-givenhealing capacity by improving the diet, exercise, and lifestyle is the key.Effective interventions for the underlying emotional and spiritual woundingbehind most chronic disease is critical for the reinvention of our medicalparadigm. These numbers suggest that reinvention of our medical paradigm iscalled for.World-Wide News On Medical MistakesStudy Slams Medical Error Rate in NationPhiladelphia Inquirer A panel of the National Academy of Sciences, in a highly critical report,yesterday called for a major national effort to reduce medical errors bydeveloping a mandatory reporting system and asking Congress to establish acenter to study them.The 220-page report, written by a 19-member committee of the Academy'sInstitute of Medicine, set as a goal a 50 percent reduction in the nation's"stunningly high rate of medical errors" within five years.It

estimated that errors from medical treatment kill up to 98,000 people inU.S. hospitals every year and characterized the problem as among thenation's leading causes of death and injury.Several members of the committee said in interviews yesterday that thereport was intended as a loud call to action for the health-care industry,which it said has not acted swiftly enough to address the causes of errors."What it says is 'enough already,' " said Lucian Leape, a committee memberand adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of PublicHealth. "It's a matter of holding people's feet to the fire and stop talkingabout errors and start doing something."Medical Mistakes Often UnreportedDetroit NewsBased on a recent report by the Institute of Medicine, which estimates 36error-related hospital deaths per 100,000 people, 3,534 Michiganians diedlast year due to medical mistakes.Patients reported 2,027

complaints about health care organizations to thestate, but Tom , director of the Michigan Bureau of Health Services,said those likely represent just a fraction of the mistakes.Medical MistakesNew York TimesThe NEW YORK TIMES reported that 5% of people admitted to hospitals, orabout 1.8 million people per year, in the U.S. pick up an infection whilethere. Such infections are called "iatrogenic" -- meaning "induced by aphysician," or, more loosely, "caused by medical care."Iatrogenic infections are directly responsible for 20,000 deaths amonghospital patients in the U.S. each year, and they contribute to anadditional 70,000 deaths, according to the federal Centers for DiseaseControl CDC). The dollar cost of iatrogenic infections is $4.5 billion,according to the CDC.National Patient Safety FoundationA new poll from the nonprofit National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF)finds that 42 percent

of people say they've been affected by physicianerrors, either directly or through a friend or relative.If the survey of roughly 1,500 people accurately represents the generalpublic, it could mean that more than 100 million Americans have experiencewith medical mistakes.More alarming, according to the survey, is the fact that in one out of threecases the error permanently harmed the patient's health.Dr. Leape is a board member of the NPSF, which was founded by the AmericanMedical Association in June of this year to improve health care safety.AMA leaders say it's time to bring the issue out into the open, rather thanliving in constant fear that any admission of error will launch a flood ofmalpractice lawsuits.Leape's own research has shown that the tally of medical mistakes made eachyear could reach 3 million, with total costs as high as $200 billion.The survey found that 40 percent of the people who had

experienced a medicalmistake pointed to misdiagnoses and wrong treatments as the problem.Medication errors accounted for 28 percent of mistakes.And 22 percent of respondents reported slip-ups during medical procedures.Half of the errors occurred in hospitals, and 22 percent in doctors'offices.Add to that the details cited below suggesting that legal, prescribed drugsare far more likely to result in death than trash bought illicitly on

thestreet:Number_of_United_States_Deaths_per_Year.________________________________________________TOBACCO__________________340,000_to_450,000_____________________________________________ALCOHOL._Not_including______________150,000+________50_percent_of_all___________________________highway_deaths_and__________________________65_percent_of_all_murders.______________________________________________________ASPIRIN._Including______________180_to_1000+________deliberate_overdose.____________________________________________________________CAFFEINE._From_stress,_______1000_to_10,000_________ulcers_and__________________________________triggering_irregular________________________heartbeats,_etc.________________________________________________________________LEGAL_DRUG_OVERDOSE._______14,000_to_27,000_________Deliberate_or_______________________________accidental._From_legal,_____________________prescri

bed_or_patent________________________medicines_and_or_mixing_____________________with_alcohol,_e.g.__________________________Valium_and_alcohol._____________________________________________________________ILLICIT_DRUG_OVERDOSE________3,800_to_5,200_________Deliberate__________________________________or_accidental._From_________________________all_illegal_drugs.______________________________________________________________MARIJUANA________________________________0______________________________________________Or this referring to the safety and efficacy of herbal and mineralsupplements:WHERE ARE THE BODIES?THE SAFETY OF VITAMINS AND FOOD SUPPLEMENTS(A presentation by W. Saul to the Government of Canada, House ofCommons Standing Committee on Health, specifically in reference to C-420, onMay 12, 2005, Ottawa, Canada.)Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen:Natural health

products, such as amino acids, herbs, vitamins and othernutritional supplements, have an extraordinarily safe usage history. In theUSA, close to half of the population takes herbal or nutritional supplementsevery day. That is over 145,000,000 individual doses daily, for a total ofover 53 billion doses annually.The most elementary of forensic arguments is, where are the bodies?To try to answer this question, we may turn to the 2003 Annual Report of theAmerican Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures SurveillanceSystem, published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Vol. 22,No. 5, September 2004.(available here as a PDF file)This report states that there have been four deaths attributed tovitamin/mineral supplements in the year 2003. Two of those deaths were dueto iron poisoning. That means there have been two deaths allegedly caused byvitamins, out of over 53 billion doses. That is a

product safety recordwithout equal.Pharmaceutical drugs, on the other hand, caused over 2,000 poisoncontrol-reported deaths, includingAntibiotics: 13 deathsAntidepressants: 274 deathsAntihistamines: 64 deathsCardiovascular drugs: 162 deathsIt would be incorrect to state that only prescription drugs kill people. In2003, there were 59 deaths from aspirin alone. That is a death rate nearlythirty times higher than that of iron supplements. Furthermore, there werestill more deaths from aspirin in combination with other products.Fatalities are by no means limited to drug products. In the USA in the year2003, there was a death from "Cream/lotion/makeup," a death from "Granularlaundry detergent," one death from "Gun bluing," one death from plain soap,one death from baking soda, and one death from table salt.Other deaths reported by the American Association of Poison Control

Centersincluded:aerosol air fresheners: 2 deathsnailpolish remover: 2 deathsperfume/cologne/aftershave: 2 deathscharcoal: 3 deathsdishwashing detergent: 3 deaths(and interestingly, weapons of mass destruction: 0 deaths)In America in 2003, there were 28 deaths from heroin, and yet acetaminophen("Tylenol") alone killed 147. Though acetaminophen killed over five times asmany, few would say that we should make this generally-regarded-as-safe,over-the-counter pain reliever require prescription. Even caffeine killedtwo people in 2003, a number equal to the two fatalities attributed tonon-iron vitamin/mineral supplements. Tea, coffee and cola soft drinks arenot sold with restriction, prescription, or in childproof bottles, andrather few would maintain that they need to be.A CLOSER LOOK AT ALLEGATIONS OF VITAMIN FATALITIESNutritional supplements are exceptionally safe. In 2003, there were

nodeaths from multiple vitamins without iron. There were no deaths from aminoacids. There were no deaths from B-complex vitamin supplements. There wereno deaths from niacin. There were no deaths from vitamin A. There were nodeaths from vitamin D. There were no deaths from vitamin E.There was, supposedly, one alleged death from C and one alleged death fromB-6.The accuracy of such attribution is questionable, as water-soluble vitaminssuch as B-6 (pyridoxine) and vitamin C (ascorbate) have excellent safetyrecords stretching back for many decades. "Vitamin problem" allegations areroutinely overstated and unconfirmed. The latest (2003) Toxic ExposuresSurveillance System report indicates that reported deaths are "probably orundoubtedly related to the exposure," a clear admission of uncertainty inthe reporting. (p 340)Even if true, such events are aberrations. For example, In 1998, theAmerican Association of Poison

Control Centers' Toxic Exposure SurveillanceSystem reported no fatalities from either vitamin C or from B-6. In fact,that year there were no vitamin fatalities whatsoever. For decades I haveasked my readers, colleagues, and students to provide me with any and allscientific evidence of a confirmed death from either of these two vitamins,or from any other vitamin. I have seen none to date.HERBAL SUPPLEMENTSThe 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers ToxicExposures Surveillance System(pdf file here)indicates a total of 13 deaths attributed to herbal preparations. Three ofthese are from ephedra, two from yohimbe, and two from ma-huang. I haveworked extensively in the alternative health field for nearly 30 years, andI have known of virtually no one who has taken ephedra, yohimbe, orma-huang, and certainly not in the deliberately abusive high quantities thatit takes to kill someone.

Nevertheless, accepting all seven deathsattributed to these products, we still find that there were 30 times as manydeaths from aspirin and acetaminophen.Only three deaths are attributable to other "single ingredient botanicals,"and oddly enough, their identity remains unnamed in the Toxic Exposuresreport.Millions of persons take herbal remedies, and have done so for generations.Indigenous and Westernized peoples alike have found them to be safe andeffective, and the 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison ControlCenters Toxic Exposures Surveillance System confirms this (p 388-389). Therehave been no deaths at all from "cultural medicines," including ayurvedic,Asian, Hispanic, and in fact, from all others.Additionally, we find:Blue cohosh: 0 deathsGinko biloba: 0 deathsEchinacea: 0 deathsGinseng: 0 deathsKava kava: 0 deathsSt 's wort: 0 deathsValerian: 0

deathsFurthermore, there have been no deaths from phytoestrogens, glandulars,blue-green algae, or homeopathic remedies.MINERAL SUPPLEMENTSOf the eight deaths in the category, five of them are from non-supplementsources rightly termed "electrolytes": two from sodium and three frompotassium (p 389). Two deaths were allegedly due to iron overdose. Since1986, there has been an average of two deaths per year "associated with"iron supplements. The sole remaining death was from calcium, a mineral thatis employed medically for its antidote properties. In fact, in 2003, calciumwas used as a lifesaving antidote in 5,228 cases (p 344). There is noevidence that the single listed calcium death was from a supplement, and theodds are overwhelming that it was not.AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTSIn 2003, poison control centers reported no deaths whatsoever from aminoacids. This is in itself a strong safety statement.IN

PERSPECTIVESupplementation's harshest critics have traditionally railed againstvitamins (especially in large doses) as being outright "dangerous" and atthe very least "a waste of money." Yet nutritional supplements are verysafe, and for much of the population, very necessary . . . To illustrate howextraordinarily important supplements are to persons with a questionablediet, consider this: Children who eat hot dogs once a week double their riskof a brain tumor. Kids eating more than twelve hot dogs a month (that'sbarely three hot dogs a week) have nearly ten times the risk of leukemia aschildren who ate none. (s JM, Preston- S, London SJ, Bowman JD,Buckley JD, DC. Processed meats and risk of childhood leukemia.Cancer Causes Control. 1994 Mar; 5(2):195-202.)However, hot-dog eating children taking supplemental vitamins were shown tohave a reduced risk of cancer. (Sarasua S, Savitz DA. Cured and broiled

meatconsumption in relation to childhood cancer. Cancer Causes Control. 1994Mar; 5(2):141-8.)It is curious that, while theorizing many "potential" dangers of vitamins,the media often choose to ignore the very real cancer-prevention benefits ofsupplementation . . . Media supplement-scare-stories notwithstanding, takingsupplements is not the problem; it is a solution. Malnutrition is theproblem.The number one side effect of vitamins is failure to take enough of them.Vitamins are extraordinarily safe substances. Drugs are not. There are over106,000 deaths from pharmaceutical drugs each year in the USA, even whenprescribed correctly and taken as prescribed. (Lucian Leape, Error inmedicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1994, 272:23, p 1851.Also: Leape LL. Institute of Medicine medical error figures are notexaggerated. JAMA. 2000 Jul 5;284(1):95-7.)Public supplementation should be encouraged, not

discouraged. Supplementsare a cost-effective means of preventing and ameliorating illness.Supplement safety is outstandingly high. Natural health products should beclassified as foods, not drugs.

What are the most popular cars? Find out at Autos

[Guest guest]

> Lucian Leape, a Harvard University professor who conducted the most

> comprehensive study of medical errors in the United States, has estimated

> that one million patients nationwide are injured by errors during hospital

> treatment each year and that 120,000 die as a result.

> -- Harvard University

>

> In their study, Leape and his colleagues examined patient records at

> hospitals throughout the state of New York. Their 1991 report found that

one

> of every 200 patients admitted to a hospital died as a result of a

hospital

> error.

>

> That number of deaths is the equivalent of what would occur if a jumbo jet

> crashed every day; it is three times the 43,000 people killed each year in

> U.S. automobile accidents.

>

> " It's by far the number one problem " in health care, said Leape, an

adjunct

> professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health.

>

> Researchers such as Leape say that not only are medical errors not

reported

> to the public, but those reported to hospital authorities represent

roughly

> 5 to 10 percent of the number of actual medical mistakes at a typical

> hospital.

>

> " The bottom line is we have a system that is terribly out of control, "

said

> Brook, a professor of medicine at the University of California at

Los

> Angeles.

>

> " It's really a joke to worry about the occasional plane that goes down

when

> we have thousands of people who are killed in hospitals every year. "

Brook's

> recognition of the extent of hospital errors is shared by many of

medicine's

> leaders.

>

> Care -- not treatment -- is the answer. Drugs, surgery and hospitals

become

> increasingly dangerous for chronic disease cases. Facilitating the

God-given

> healing capacity by improving the diet, exercise, and lifestyle is the

key.

>

> Effective interventions for the underlying emotional and spiritual

wounding

> behind most chronic disease is critical for the reinvention of our medical

> paradigm. These numbers suggest that reinvention of our medical paradigm

is

> called for.

>

>

> World-Wide News On Medical Mistakes

>

> Study Slams Medical Error Rate in Nation

> Philadelphia Inquirer

>

> A panel of the National Academy of Sciences, in a highly critical

report,

> yesterday called for a major national effort to reduce medical errors by

> developing a mandatory reporting system and asking Congress to establish a

> center to study them.

> The 220-page report, written by a 19-member committee of the Academy's

> Institute of Medicine, set as a goal a 50 percent reduction in the

nation's

> " stunningly high rate of medical errors " within five years.

>

> It estimated that errors from medical treatment kill up to 98,000 people

in

> U.S. hospitals every year and characterized the problem as among the

> nation's leading causes of death and injury.

>

> Several members of the committee said in interviews yesterday that the

> report was intended as a loud call to action for the health-care industry,

> which it said has not acted swiftly enough to address the causes of

errors.

>

> " What it says is 'enough already,' " said Lucian Leape, a committee member

> and adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public

> Health. " It's a matter of holding people's feet to the fire and stop

talking

> about errors and start doing something. "

>

>

> Medical Mistakes Often Unreported

> Detroit News

> Based on a recent report by the Institute of Medicine, which estimates 36

> error-related hospital deaths per 100,000 people, 3,534 Michiganians died

> last year due to medical mistakes.

>

> Patients reported 2,027 complaints about health care organizations to the

> state, but Tom , director of the Michigan Bureau of Health

Services,

> said those likely represent just a fraction of the mistakes.

>

>

> Medical Mistakes

> New York Times

> The NEW YORK TIMES reported that 5% of people admitted to hospitals, or

> about 1.8 million people per year, in the U.S. pick up an infection while

> there. Such infections are called " iatrogenic " -- meaning " induced by a

> physician, " or, more loosely, " caused by medical care. "

>

> Iatrogenic infections are directly responsible for 20,000 deaths among

> hospital patients in the U.S. each year, and they contribute to an

> additional 70,000 deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease

> Control CDC). The dollar cost of iatrogenic infections is $4.5 billion,

> according to the CDC.

>

>

> National Patient Safety Foundation

>

> A new poll from the nonprofit National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF)

> finds that 42 percent of people say they've been affected by physician

> errors, either directly or through a friend or relative.

>

> If the survey of roughly 1,500 people accurately represents the general

> public, it could mean that more than 100 million Americans have experience

> with medical mistakes.

>

> More alarming, according to the survey, is the fact that in one out of

three

> cases the error permanently harmed the patient's health.

>

> Dr. Leape is a board member of the NPSF, which was founded by the American

> Medical Association in June of this year to improve health care safety.

>

> AMA leaders say it's time to bring the issue out into the open, rather

than

> living in constant fear that any admission of error will launch a flood of

> malpractice lawsuits.

>

> Leape's own research has shown that the tally of medical mistakes made

each

> year could reach 3 million, with total costs as high as $200 billion.

>

> The survey found that 40 percent of the people who had experienced a

medical

> mistake pointed to misdiagnoses and wrong treatments as the problem.

> Medication errors accounted for 28 percent of mistakes.

>

> And 22 percent of respondents reported slip-ups during medical procedures.

>

> Half of the errors occurred in hospitals, and 22 percent in doctors'

> offices.

>

> Add to that the details cited below suggesting that legal, prescribed

drugs

> are far more likely to result in death than trash bought illicitly on the

> street:

>

> Number_of_United_States_Deaths_per_Year.____

> ____________________________________________

> TOBACCO__________________340,000_to_450,000_

> ____________________________________________

> ALCOHOL._Not_including______________150,000+

> ________50_percent_of_all___________________

> ________highway_deaths_and__________________

> ________65_percent_of_all_murders.__________

> ____________________________________________

> ASPIRIN._Including______________180_to_1000+

> ________deliberate_overdose.________________

> ____________________________________________

> CAFFEINE._From_stress,_______1000_to_10,000_

> ________ulcers_and__________________________

> ________triggering_irregular________________

> ________heartbeats,_etc.____________________

> ____________________________________________

> LEGAL_DRUG_OVERDOSE._______14,000_to_27,000_

> ________Deliberate_or_______________________

> ________accidental._From_legal,_____________

> ________prescribed_or_patent________________

> ________medicines_and_or_mixing_____________

> ________with_alcohol,_e.g.__________________

> ________Valium_and_alcohol._________________

> ____________________________________________

> ILLICIT_DRUG_OVERDOSE________3,800_to_5,200_

> ________Deliberate__________________________

> ________or_accidental._From_________________

> ________all_illegal_drugs.__________________

> ____________________________________________

> MARIJUANA________________________________0__

> ____________________________________________

>

>

>

> Or this referring to the safety and efficacy of herbal and mineral

> supplements:

>

> WHERE ARE THE BODIES?

>

> THE SAFETY OF VITAMINS AND FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

>

> (A presentation by W. Saul to the Government of Canada, House of

> Commons Standing Committee on Health, specifically in reference to C-420,

on

> May 12, 2005, Ottawa, Canada.)

>

> Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen:

>

> Natural health products, such as amino acids, herbs, vitamins and other

> nutritional supplements, have an extraordinarily safe usage history. In

the

> USA, close to half of the population takes herbal or nutritional

supplements

> every day. That is over 145,000,000 individual doses daily, for a total of

> over 53 billion doses annually.

>

> The most elementary of forensic arguments is, where are the bodies?

>

> To try to answer this question, we may turn to the 2003 Annual Report of

the

> American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures

Surveillance

> System, published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Vol. 22,

> No. 5, September 2004.

>

> (available here as a PDF file)

>

> This report states that there have been four deaths attributed to

> vitamin/mineral supplements in the year 2003. Two of those deaths were due

> to iron poisoning. That means there have been two deaths allegedly caused

by

> vitamins, out of over 53 billion doses. That is a product safety record

> without equal.

>

> Pharmaceutical drugs, on the other hand, caused over 2,000 poison

> control-reported deaths, including

>

> Antibiotics: 13 deaths

>

> Antidepressants: 274 deaths

>

> Antihistamines: 64 deaths

>

> Cardiovascular drugs: 162 deaths

>

> It would be incorrect to state that only prescription drugs kill people.

In

> 2003, there were 59 deaths from aspirin alone. That is a death rate nearly

> thirty times higher than that of iron supplements. Furthermore, there were

> still more deaths from aspirin in combination with other products.

>

> Fatalities are by no means limited to drug products. In the USA in the

year

> 2003, there was a death from " Cream/lotion/makeup, " a death from " Granular

> laundry detergent, " one death from " Gun bluing, " one death from plain

soap,

> one death from baking soda, and one death from table salt.

>

> Other deaths reported by the American Association of Poison Control

Centers

> included:

>

> aerosol air fresheners: 2 deaths

>

> nailpolish remover: 2 deaths

>

> perfume/cologne/aftershave: 2 deaths

>

> charcoal: 3 deaths

>

> dishwashing detergent: 3 deaths

>

> (and interestingly, weapons of mass destruction: 0 deaths)

>

> In America in 2003, there were 28 deaths from heroin, and yet

acetaminophen

> ( " Tylenol " ) alone killed 147. Though acetaminophen killed over five times

as

> many, few would say that we should make this generally-regarded-as-safe,

> over-the-counter pain reliever require prescription. Even caffeine killed

> two people in 2003, a number equal to the two fatalities attributed to

> non-iron vitamin/mineral supplements. Tea, coffee and cola soft drinks are

> not sold with restriction, prescription, or in childproof bottles, and

> rather few would maintain that they need to be.

>

> A CLOSER LOOK AT ALLEGATIONS OF VITAMIN FATALITIES

>

> Nutritional supplements are exceptionally safe. In 2003, there were no

> deaths from multiple vitamins without iron. There were no deaths from

amino

> acids. There were no deaths from B-complex vitamin supplements. There were

> no deaths from niacin. There were no deaths from vitamin A. There were no

> deaths from vitamin D. There were no deaths from vitamin E.

>

> There was, supposedly, one alleged death from C and one alleged death from

> B-6.

>

> The accuracy of such attribution is questionable, as water-soluble

vitamins

> such as B-6 (pyridoxine) and vitamin C (ascorbate) have excellent safety

> records stretching back for many decades. " Vitamin problem " allegations

are

> routinely overstated and unconfirmed. The latest (2003) Toxic Exposures

> Surveillance System report indicates that reported deaths are " probably or

> undoubtedly related to the exposure, " a clear admission of uncertainty in

> the reporting. (p 340)

>

> Even if true, such events are aberrations. For example, In 1998, the

> American Association of Poison Control Centers' Toxic Exposure

Surveillance

> System reported no fatalities from either vitamin C or from B-6. In fact,

> that year there were no vitamin fatalities whatsoever. For decades I have

> asked my readers, colleagues, and students to provide me with any and all

> scientific evidence of a confirmed death from either of these two

vitamins,

> or from any other vitamin. I have seen none to date.

>

> HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS

>

> The 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers

Toxic

> Exposures Surveillance System

>

> (pdf file here)

>

> indicates a total of 13 deaths attributed to herbal preparations. Three of

> these are from ephedra, two from yohimbe, and two from ma-huang. I have

> worked extensively in the alternative health field for nearly 30 years,

and

> I have known of virtually no one who has taken ephedra, yohimbe, or

> ma-huang, and certainly not in the deliberately abusive high quantities

that

> it takes to kill someone. Nevertheless, accepting all seven deaths

> attributed to these products, we still find that there were 30 times as

many

> deaths from aspirin and acetaminophen.

>

> Only three deaths are attributable to other " single ingredient

botanicals, "

> and oddly enough, their identity remains unnamed in the Toxic Exposures

> report.

>

> Millions of persons take herbal remedies, and have done so for

generations.

> Indigenous and Westernized peoples alike have found them to be safe and

> effective, and the 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison

Control

> Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance System confirms this (p 388-389).

There

> have been no deaths at all from " cultural medicines, " including ayurvedic,

Asian, Hispanic, and in fact, from all others.

Additionally, we find:

Blue cohosh: 0 deaths

Ginko biloba: 0 deaths

Echinacea: 0 deaths

Ginseng: 0 deaths

Kava kava: 0 deaths

St 's wort: 0 deaths

Valerian: 0 deaths

Furthermore, there have been no deaths from phytoestrogens, glandulars,

blue-green algae, or homeopathic remedies.

MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS

Of the eight deaths in the category, five of them are from non-supplement

sources rightly termed " electrolytes " : two from sodium and three from

potassium (p 389). Two deaths were allegedly due to iron overdose. Since

1986, there has been an average of two deaths per year " associated with "

iron supplements. The sole remaining death was from calcium, a mineral that

is employed medically for its antidote properties. In fact, in 2003,

calcium

was used as a lifesaving antidote in 5,228 cases (p 344). There is no

evidence that the single listed calcium death was from a supplement, and

the

odds are overwhelming that it was not.

AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTS

In 2003, poison control centers reported no deaths whatsoever from amino

acids. This is in itself a strong safety statement.

IN PERSPECTIVE

Supplementation's harshest critics have traditionally railed against

vitamins (especially in large doses) as being outright " dangerous " and at

the very least " a waste of money. " Yet nutritional supplements are very

safe, and for much of the population, very necessary . . . To illustrate

how

extraordinarily important supplements are to persons with a questionable

diet, consider this: Children who eat hot dogs once a week double their

risk

of a brain tumor. Kids eating more than twelve hot dogs a month (that's

barely three hot dogs a week) have nearly ten times the risk of leukemia as

children who ate none. (s JM, Preston- S, London SJ, Bowman JD,

Buckley JD, DC. Processed meats and risk of childhood leukemia.

Cancer Causes Control. 1994 Mar; 5(2):195-202.)

However, hot-dog eating children taking supplemental vitamins were shown to

have a reduced risk of cancer. (Sarasua S, Savitz DA. Cured and broiled

meat

consumption in relation to childhood cancer. Cancer Causes Control. 1994

Mar; 5(2):141-8.)

It is curious that, while theorizing many " potential " dangers of vitamins,

the media often choose to ignore the very real cancer-prevention benefits

of

supplementation . . . Media supplement-scare-stories notwithstanding,

taking

supplements is not the problem; it is a solution. Malnutrition is the

problem.

The number one side effect of vitamins is failure to take enough of them.

Vitamins are extraordinarily safe substances. Drugs are not. There are over

106,000 deaths from pharmaceutical drugs each year in the USA, even when

prescribed correctly and taken as prescribed. (Lucian Leape, Error in

medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1994, 272:23, p

1851.

Also: Leape LL. Institute of Medicine medical error figures are not

exaggerated. JAMA. 2000 Jul 5;284(1):95-7.)

Public supplementation should be encouraged, not discouraged. Supplements

are a cost-effective means of preventing and ameliorating illness.

Supplement safety is outstandingly high. Natural health products should be

classified as foods, not drugs.

--

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[Guest guest]

Great post .

Totally backs up what I've come to know both from a research and

personal point of view.Here's what I've come to believe in:

http://lifecoach.usana.com

Cheers,

>

> (Note from Jan Bolen - Okay group, this is a very long posting. I

was thinking of asking to shorten it, but the article and it's

sources are so comprehensive and the subject so timely and important,

I'm including the whole thing as originally sent it...)

>

> Lucian Leape, a Harvard University professor who conducted the most

> comprehensive study of medical errors in the United States, has

estimated

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

Thank you for your great compilation. I suggest you use it as a template

entitled " Let it be light " and bradcast it as far and wide as you can. I

practice Natural Medicine and the number of disappointed people grows every day

BUT the number of misinformed people grows even faster.

I figure that the horrendous prices pharmaceuticals carry these days are not

used just to fund more research into new concoctions but rather to continue the

cohercive and ganster-like practices against our " free " press. TV, Universities

and Goverment-politicians. It is shameful the way that a whole generation of

Americans think of medicines as a necessary fact of life, like food, water or

air This is a horredous brainwashing paid by the indecent profits of the pharma

cartel and perpaetuated by the feeble-minded political class.

I am sorry if I sound radical, believe me I am not but this sheep-like attitude

by the public and the inability of our politians to act on debunking the myth

that you can only be " healthy " with the ingestion of synthetic pills is

worrysome.

Once again my thanks for a great job

WHERE ARE THE BODIES? - Drugs vs. Vitamins and Food

Supplements

(Note from Jan Bolen - Okay group, this is a very long posting. I was thinking

of asking to shorten it, but the article and it's sources are so

comprehensive and the subject so timely and important, I'm including the whole

thing as originally sent it...)

Lucian Leape, a Harvard University professor who conducted the most

comprehensive study of medical errors in the United States, has estimated

that one million patients nationwide are injured by errors during hospital

treatment each year and that 120,000 die as a result.

-- Harvard University

In their study, Leape and his colleagues examined patient records at

hospitals throughout the state of New York. Their 1991 report found that one

of every 200 patients admitted to a hospital died as a result of a hospital

error.

That number of deaths is the equivalent of what would occur if a jumbo jet

crashed every day; it is three times the 43,000 people killed each year in

U.S. automobile accidents.

" It's by far the number one problem " in health care, said Leape, an adjunct

professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Researchers such as Leape say that not only are medical errors not reported

to the public, but those reported to hospital authorities represent roughly

5 to 10 percent of the number of actual medical mistakes at a typical

hospital.

" The bottom line is we have a system that is terribly out of control, " said

Brook, a professor of medicine at the University of California at Los

Angeles.

" It's really a joke to worry about the occasional plane that goes down when

we have thousands of people who are killed in hospitals every year. " Brook's

recognition of the extent of hospital errors is shared by many of medicine's

leaders.

Care -- not treatment -- is the answer. Drugs, surgery and hospitals become

increasingly dangerous for chronic disease cases. Facilitating the God-given

healing capacity by improving the diet, exercise, and lifestyle is the key.

Effective interventions for the underlying emotional and spiritual wounding

behind most chronic disease is critical for the reinvention of our medical

paradigm. These numbers suggest that reinvention of our medical paradigm is

called for.

World-Wide News On Medical Mistakes

Study Slams Medical Error Rate in Nation

Philadelphia Inquirer

A panel of the National Academy of Sciences, in a highly critical report,

yesterday called for a major national effort to reduce medical errors by

developing a mandatory reporting system and asking Congress to establish a

center to study them.

The 220-page report, written by a 19-member committee of the Academy's

Institute of Medicine, set as a goal a 50 percent reduction in the nation's

" stunningly high rate of medical errors " within five years.

It estimated that errors from medical treatment kill up to 98,000 people in

U.S. hospitals every year and characterized the problem as among the

nation's leading causes of death and injury.

Several members of the committee said in interviews yesterday that the

report was intended as a loud call to action for the health-care industry,

which it said has not acted swiftly enough to address the causes of errors.

" What it says is 'enough already,' " said Lucian Leape, a committee member

and adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public

Health. " It's a matter of holding people's feet to the fire and stop talking

about errors and start doing something. "

Medical Mistakes Often Unreported

Detroit News

Based on a recent report by the Institute of Medicine, which estimates 36

error-related hospital deaths per 100,000 people, 3,534 Michiganians died

last year due to medical mistakes.

Patients reported 2,027 complaints about health care organizations to the

state, but Tom , director of the Michigan Bureau of Health Services,

said those likely represent just a fraction of the mistakes.

Medical Mistakes

New York Times

The NEW YORK TIMES reported that 5% of people admitted to hospitals, or

about 1.8 million people per year, in the U.S. pick up an infection while

there. Such infections are called " iatrogenic " -- meaning " induced by a

physician, " or, more loosely, " caused by medical care. "

Iatrogenic infections are directly responsible for 20,000 deaths among

hospital patients in the U.S. each year, and they contribute to an

additional 70,000 deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease

Control CDC). The dollar cost of iatrogenic infections is $4.5 billion,

according to the CDC.

National Patient Safety Foundation

A new poll from the nonprofit National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF)

finds that 42 percent of people say they've been affected by physician

errors, either directly or through a friend or relative.

If the survey of roughly 1,500 people accurately represents the general

public, it could mean that more than 100 million Americans have experience

with medical mistakes.

More alarming, according to the survey, is the fact that in one out of three

cases the error permanently harmed the patient's health.

Dr. Leape is a board member of the NPSF, which was founded by the American

Medical Association in June of this year to improve health care safety.

AMA leaders say it's time to bring the issue out into the open, rather than

living in constant fear that any admission of error will launch a flood of

malpractice lawsuits.

Leape's own research has shown that the tally of medical mistakes made each

year could reach 3 million, with total costs as high as $200 billion.

The survey found that 40 percent of the people who had experienced a medical

mistake pointed to misdiagnoses and wrong treatments as the problem.

Medication errors accounted for 28 percent of mistakes.

And 22 percent of respondents reported slip-ups during medical procedures.

Half of the errors occurred in hospitals, and 22 percent in doctors'

offices.

Add to that the details cited below suggesting that legal, prescribed drugs

are far more likely to result in death than trash bought illicitly on the

street:

Number_of_United_States_Deaths_per_Year.____

____________________________________________

TOBACCO__________________340,000_to_450,000_

____________________________________________

ALCOHOL._Not_including______________150,000+

________50_percent_of_all___________________

________highway_deaths_and__________________

________65_percent_of_all_murders.__________

____________________________________________

ASPIRIN._Including______________180_to_1000+

________deliberate_overdose.________________

____________________________________________

CAFFEINE._From_stress,_______1000_to_10,000_

________ulcers_and__________________________

________triggering_irregular________________

________heartbeats,_etc.____________________

____________________________________________

LEGAL_DRUG_OVERDOSE._______14,000_to_27,000_

________Deliberate_or_______________________

________accidental._From_legal,_____________

________prescribed_or_patent________________

________medicines_and_or_mixing_____________

________with_alcohol,_e.g.__________________

________Valium_and_alcohol._________________

____________________________________________

ILLICIT_DRUG_OVERDOSE________3,800_to_5,200_

________Deliberate__________________________

________or_accidental._From_________________

________all_illegal_drugs.__________________

____________________________________________

MARIJUANA________________________________0__

____________________________________________

Or this referring to the safety and efficacy of herbal and mineral

supplements:

WHERE ARE THE BODIES?

THE SAFETY OF VITAMINS AND FOOD SUPPLEMENTS

(A presentation by W. Saul to the Government of Canada, House of

Commons Standing Committee on Health, specifically in reference to C-420, on

May 12, 2005, Ottawa, Canada.)

Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen:

Natural health products, such as amino acids, herbs, vitamins and other

nutritional supplements, have an extraordinarily safe usage history. In the

USA, close to half of the population takes herbal or nutritional supplements

every day. That is over 145,000,000 individual doses daily, for a total of

over 53 billion doses annually.

The most elementary of forensic arguments is, where are the bodies?

To try to answer this question, we may turn to the 2003 Annual Report of the

American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance

System, published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Vol. 22,

No. 5, September 2004.

(available here as a PDF file)

This report states that there have been four deaths attributed to

vitamin/mineral supplements in the year 2003. Two of those deaths were due

to iron poisoning. That means there have been two deaths allegedly caused by

vitamins, out of over 53 billion doses. That is a product safety record

without equal.

Pharmaceutical drugs, on the other hand, caused over 2,000 poison

control-reported deaths, including

Antibiotics: 13 deaths

Antidepressants: 274 deaths

Antihistamines: 64 deaths

Cardiovascular drugs: 162 deaths

It would be incorrect to state that only prescription drugs kill people. In

2003, there were 59 deaths from aspirin alone. That is a death rate nearly

thirty times higher than that of iron supplements. Furthermore, there were

still more deaths from aspirin in combination with other products.

Fatalities are by no means limited to drug products. In the USA in the year

2003, there was a death from " Cream/lotion/makeup, " a death from " Granular

laundry detergent, " one death from " Gun bluing, " one death from plain soap,

one death from baking soda, and one death from table salt.

Other deaths reported by the American Association of Poison Control Centers

included:

aerosol air fresheners: 2 deaths

nailpolish remover: 2 deaths

perfume/cologne/aftershave: 2 deaths

charcoal: 3 deaths

dishwashing detergent: 3 deaths

(and interestingly, weapons of mass destruction: 0 deaths)

In America in 2003, there were 28 deaths from heroin, and yet acetaminophen

( " Tylenol " ) alone killed 147. Though acetaminophen killed over five times as

many, few would say that we should make this generally-regarded-as-safe,

over-the-counter pain reliever require prescription. Even caffeine killed

two people in 2003, a number equal to the two fatalities attributed to

non-iron vitamin/mineral supplements. Tea, coffee and cola soft drinks are

not sold with restriction, prescription, or in childproof bottles, and

rather few would maintain that they need to be.

A CLOSER LOOK AT ALLEGATIONS OF VITAMIN FATALITIES

Nutritional supplements are exceptionally safe. In 2003, there were no

deaths from multiple vitamins without iron. There were no deaths from amino

acids. There were no deaths from B-complex vitamin supplements. There were

no deaths from niacin. There were no deaths from vitamin A. There were no

deaths from vitamin D. There were no deaths from vitamin E.

There was, supposedly, one alleged death from C and one alleged death from

B-6.

The accuracy of such attribution is questionable, as water-soluble vitamins

such as B-6 (pyridoxine) and vitamin C (ascorbate) have excellent safety

records stretching back for many decades. " Vitamin problem " allegations are

routinely overstated and unconfirmed. The latest (2003) Toxic Exposures

Surveillance System report indicates that reported deaths are " probably or

undoubtedly related to the exposure, " a clear admission of uncertainty in

the reporting. (p 340)

Even if true, such events are aberrations. For example, In 1998, the

American Association of Poison Control Centers' Toxic Exposure Surveillance

System reported no fatalities from either vitamin C or from B-6. In fact,

that year there were no vitamin fatalities whatsoever. For decades I have

asked my readers, colleagues, and students to provide me with any and all

scientific evidence of a confirmed death from either of these two vitamins,

or from any other vitamin. I have seen none to date.

HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS

The 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic

Exposures Surveillance System

(pdf file here)

indicates a total of 13 deaths attributed to herbal preparations. Three of

these are from ephedra, two from yohimbe, and two from ma-huang. I have

worked extensively in the alternative health field for nearly 30 years, and

I have known of virtually no one who has taken ephedra, yohimbe, or

ma-huang, and certainly not in the deliberately abusive high quantities that

it takes to kill someone. Nevertheless, accepting all seven deaths

attributed to these products, we still find that there were 30 times as many

deaths from aspirin and acetaminophen.

Only three deaths are attributable to other " single ingredient botanicals, "

and oddly enough, their identity remains unnamed in the Toxic Exposures

report.

Millions of persons take herbal remedies, and have done so for generations.

Indigenous and Westernized peoples alike have found them to be safe and

effective, and the 2003 Report of the American Association of Poison Control

Centers Toxic Exposures Surveillance System confirms this (p 388-389). There

have been no deaths at all from " cultural medicines, " including ayurvedic,

Asian, Hispanic, and in fact, from all others.

Additionally, we find:

Blue cohosh: 0 deaths

Ginko biloba: 0 deaths

Echinacea: 0 deaths

Ginseng: 0 deaths

Kava kava: 0 deaths

St 's wort: 0 deaths

Valerian: 0 deaths

Furthermore, there have been no deaths from phytoestrogens, glandulars,

blue-green algae, or homeopathic remedies.

MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS

Of the eight deaths in the category, five of them are from non-supplement

sources rightly termed " electrolytes " : two from sodium and three from

potassium (p 389). Two deaths were allegedly due to iron overdose. Since

1986, there has been an average of two deaths per year " associated with "

iron supplements. The sole remaining death was from calcium, a mineral that

is employed medically for its antidote properties. In fact, in 2003, calcium

was used as a lifesaving antidote in 5,228 cases (p 344). There is no

evidence that the single listed calcium death was from a supplement, and the

odds are overwhelming that it was not.

AMINO ACID SUPPLEMENTS

In 2003, poison control centers reported no deaths whatsoever from amino

acids. This is in itself a strong safety statement.

IN PERSPECTIVE

Supplementation's harshest critics have traditionally railed against

vitamins (especially in large doses) as being outright " dangerous " and at

the very least " a waste of money. " Yet nutritional supplements are very

safe, and for much of the population, very necessary . . . To illustrate how

extraordinarily important supplements are to persons with a questionable

diet, consider this: Children who eat hot dogs once a week double their risk

of a brain tumor. Kids eating more than twelve hot dogs a month (that's

barely three hot dogs a week) have nearly ten times the risk of leukemia as

children who ate none. (s JM, Preston- S, London SJ, Bowman JD,

Buckley JD, DC. Processed meats and risk of childhood leukemia.

Cancer Causes Control. 1994 Mar; 5(2):195-202.)

However, hot-dog eating children taking supplemental vitamins were shown to

have a reduced risk of cancer. (Sarasua S, Savitz DA. Cured and broiled meat

consumption in relation to childhood cancer. Cancer Causes Control. 1994

Mar; 5(2):141-8.)

It is curious that, while theorizing many " potential " dangers of vitamins,

the media often choose to ignore the very real cancer-prevention benefits of

supplementation . . . Media supplement-scare-stories notwithstanding, taking

supplements is not the problem; it is a solution. Malnutrition is the

problem.

The number one side effect of vitamins is failure to take enough of them.

Vitamins are extraordinarily safe substances. Drugs are not. There are over

106,000 deaths from pharmaceutical drugs each year in the USA, even when

prescribed correctly and taken as prescribed. (Lucian Leape, Error in

medicine. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1994, 272:23, p 1851.

Also: Leape LL. Institute of Medicine medical error figures are not

exaggerated. JAMA. 2000 Jul 5;284(1):95-7.)

Public supplementation should be encouraged, not discouraged. Supplements

are a cost-effective means of preventing and ameliorating illness.

Supplement safety is outstandingly high. Natural health products should be

classified as foods, not drugs.