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To: Phil Fontanarosa, MD Drummond Rennie, MD; Catherine D.DeAngelis, MD, MPH authors of The Need for Regulation of Dietary SupplementsLessons From Ephedra
(JAMA Editorial Vol. 289 No. 12, March 26, 2003
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v289n12/ffull/jed30017.html
Dear Dr.Fontanarosa et al:
On April 15, 1998 JAMA stated that drug side effects are the fourth leading cause of death in the world. Side effects from properly physician prescribed prescription drugs kill more Americans every year than WW2 and the Vietnam War combined, and there will be no end to the costly litigation against pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and physicians as a result.
Could the REAL reason for your editorial attacking the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act and our going into Iraq actually be to protect the world's largest investment industry, the pharmaceutical industry from imminent collapse as more and more people learn of the healing power of dietary supplements? Matthias Rath, MD believes this. See his ad which was published in the New York Times on Februrary 28, 2003 and also in other leading newspapers world wide http://www.rathf.org/pdf/nytad280203.pdf (Rath and the late Linus Pauling, PhD developed the nutritional solution to the world's #1 killer disease: cardiovascular disease, this and other discoveries about the healing properties of dietary supplements threatens to blow the pharmaceutical industry sky high, and that is what you seek to stop.)
Your editorial titled The Need for Regulation of Dietary Supplements: Lessons From Ephedra in JAMA, calling for the repealing of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 in JAMA is unscientific, outrageous, inflammatory, biased, misleading, and its conclusions are not only unjustified- but the direction you are attempting to head in will not be tolerated by the millions of enraged vitamin consumers who voted with their feet against FDA overregulation via passage of DHSEA in '94.
Since that time, a growing GLOBAL movement around the world seeks the SAME access to dietary supplements that we Americans persently enjoy- and on March 13, 2002 vitamin consumers outraged by the threat posed by the mindlessly restrictive EU Food Supplement Directive crashed the server at the European Parliament http://www.vitamins-for-all.com/english/default.html On June 15th, 2003 demonstrations will be held in London and numerous other cities across Europe in protest against the EU Vitamin Directive, and lawsuits will undoubtedly be filed to block its implementation, especially in England. http://www.healthfreedommovement.com This ad by Matthias Rath, MD http://www.rathf.org/pdf/nytad280203.pdf was published in the NY Times
Properly researched, regulated, prescribed and properly used drugs are the fourth most common cause of death – but they are never reported. (Source, Journal of the American Medical Association April 15, 1998 - Range 90,000 to 160,000 deaths per year.) That's a Boeing 747 crashing every day! 46 people die every day from Aspirin alone in the USA.
By comparison, dietary supplements are extraodinarily safe as you can see from this information http://www.laleva.cc/petizione/english/ronlaw_eng.html especially this table http://www.laleva.cc/petizione/ron_law_tables/tabella.html Here you can see that the likelihood of being killed by a dietary supplement is far less than dying from a bee sting, from any insect bite, from being hit by lightening, or from walking across the street. 33,527 vitamin consumers so far have signed this petition http://www.laleva.cc/petition/modulo.php3 on the Italian Health Freedom website La Leva Di Archimede against global Pharma Cartel efforts to regulate our access to safe dietary supplements and each time someone like you publishes an article that angers us, the number of signatures on this petition increases.
I read your article and must inform you that dietary supplements ARE being regulated, and they're being regulated the way we, the people of this country WANT them to be regulated- that is to say, we DEMANDED ACCESS to these SAFE SUBSTANCES back in 1994 when we sent the largest volume of mail ever received by the US Congress in the HISTORY of the US Congress. Currently the FDA is holding a comments period on new Good Manufacturing Practice regulations that were mandated via passage of DSHEA back in '94. Its not the dietary supplement industry's fault FDA is taking so incredibly long to come out with these regulations, we've WANTED them to for the past several years- so you have a lot of nerve making many of the negative comments you made in your article about quality control issues in this industry, and your article is grossly biased and unfair.
You think you're going to get Ma Huang banned? All we need is warning labels, thank you very much because its OUR CHOICE as to what we choose to ingest into our bodies, thats NOT your choice or the FDA's choice, its OUR choice.
Congress received MORE MAIL during the campaign to pass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act than they did from even the Vietnam War, they received SACKS of mail, far more than they could even begin to OPEN, much less REPLY to.
What sickens me about hypocrites like you who write editorials for JAMA is that JAMA is chock full of very exepensive full page glossy advertising from Pfizer, Merck, Novartis, and all the other murderous pharmaceutical companies whose toxic CRAP is fraudulently approved by the FDA where it is UNLEASHED on the public, currently serving as the 4th leading cause of death in the USA (properly prescribed prescription drugs.) In the meantime, dietary supplements are far less likely to cause death than being stung by a bee or being hit by lightening. So- come CLEAN doctor: how much revenue have you derived in the course of your career from the drug companies? Ever get any pharmaceutical research grants? Ever get paid by a drug company for writing X numbers of prescriptions for their toxic death dealing poison?
I read the RAND Report, and frankly, I am not concerned about any supposed danger from ephedra, especially not when Poison Control Center data from the AAPCC clearly indicates that over the counter cold preparations containing the synthetic drug ephedrine are FAR more dangerous causing HUGE numbers of death and any 5 year old tall enough to reach the counter of a supermarket checkout counter can purchase ephedrine from any supermarket or drug store in the country as an OTC drug, so who the hell are you kidding when you go into a moral fervor about far safer ma huang? Also, the RAND REPORT itself came to no definitive conclusions about ephedra, because many of the supposed deaths attributed to it could NOT CONCLUSIVELY be attributed to it because the people simultaneously ingested prescription medication, alcohol, street drugs, etc. We have an epidemic of obesity in this country right now. Obesity is causing heart attacks and strokes in record numbers, yet you want to remove our access to a safe substance that helps people lose weight? No WAY!
You think you're going to get legislation introduced that repeals or amends DSHEA to your liking?
If thats what you actually think, I fear for your mental state because your article is already being used to fire up the sleeping giant, the vast American public which voted with its feet in '94 to directly quash an onerous FDA rulemaking effort that threatened to curtail our access to numerous safe dietary supplements that we choose to ingest into OUR bodies, bodies which WE hold dominion over and NOT the supposedly "all powerful" FEDSTAPO.
Congress allows us to purchase ( with warning labels) Jack Daniels Whiskey. They allow us to purchase Camel Non Filters, and they will CONTINUE to let us purchase ma huang, yohimbe, melatonin, shark cartilage, chromium picolinate, glucosamine, DHEA and any other dietary supplements that we chose to ingest into OUR bodies in any damn potencies WE want for the simple reason that theres one hell of a lot more of US than there are of THEM and we make telephones ring off HOOKS when agitated.
The moment you, the FDA, so called "National Academy of Science", your AMA buddies, CSPI, Public Citizen, AARP and other biased, greed driven Cartel stooges attempt to introduce legislation that amends or repeals DSHEA is the moment you're going to learn the meaning of the word GRASS ROOTS because you will start receiving TONS of email from a lot of very ANGRY vitamin consumers world wide who don't take kindly to PEDESTALISTS who think they have the right to climb up on a pedestal and urinate down on our HEADS.
The FDA are TERRORISTS. Thats why when Waxman attempted to get legislation passed that would have allowed FDA Agents the right to carry guns, make indiscriminant use of wiretaps, and other repressive police state tactics, mainly intended during David Kessler's reign of terror in the early '90s for targetting vitamin manufacturers, health food stores, and alternative medical practitioners, the bill was stonewalled and went NOWHERE- (just as Dykstra's Nazi like rulemaking effort intended to destroy the dietary supplement industry was similarly blocked by passage of DSHEA.
Clearly, you think "MD" stands for "Medical Divinity". Well I have news for you and for your itchy fingered AMA, FDA and Pharma Cartel Cronies: DSHEA is here to STAY, and you'll take our vitamins away about about as soon as the Fedstapo succeeds in takin' our GUNS away! If the FDA and other murderous elements of coercion want my vitamins, they can try to pry 'em along with my guns from my COLD- DEAD- BEER CAN PLINKIN' - LETTER WRITIN', EMAILIN', FAXIN', PHONE DIALIN', NETWORKIN' , TEAR GAS CANISTER THROWIN' , BULLHORN WIELDIN' ROCK THROWIN' TRIGGER SQUEEZIN FINGERS!
"Doctors": The American people have had enough of your sort of TERRORISM to last many lifetimes. The world has run out of sufficient acreage for any more graveyards to hold the dead from your toxic drugs and total ignorance of clinical nutrition, and if all those corpses were cremated, it would create enough smog to kill the remaining few of us who have been unscathed by your murderous iatrogenicity. My recommendation to the AMA, FDA, NAS, and PHARMA CARTEL is simple: PEACEFULLY DISBAND- because we not only don't need you murderers or your toxic prescription pharmaceuticals any more, but we're not gonna ACCEPT the fetid GARBAGE put forth in this unacceptable editorial, and we have HAD IT with your office and hospitals which we prefer to stay OUT of by remaining healthy from continued access to the dietary supplements of our CHOICE!
You want to REPEAL DSHEA??? Nice try, but no cigar.
You have no choice but to BACK OFF!!!
For Health Freedom
John C. Hammell, President
International Advocates for Health Freedom
POB 10632 Blacksburg VA 24062 USA
http://www.iahf.com
http://iadsa-exposed.tripod.com
800-333-2553 N.America
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