Natural Solutions Foundation Media Release
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
GeneralStubblebine@GlobalHealthFreedom.org
Protecting Health Freedom for Consumers and Entrepreneurs
1. While health care reformers want a more educated health care consumer, FDA seeks to further stifle health information. FDA has issued a Guidance prohibiting the making of any Health Claims that lack “Significant Scientific Agreement,” an impossible standard since “significant” and “agreement” cannot be defined. Under a policy of “Harmonization,” as well as a published preference for international over domestic rulemaking (Federal Register, October 11, 1995), FDA’s own Head of Dietary Supplements Office convinced an international body, the UN-sponsored Codex Alimentarius, to prohibit as “advertising” any food related health benefit information that can change consumer behavior. Congress should pass HR 2117, the “Health Freedom Protection Act,” to allow “common law”claims and follow Supreme Court decisions, empowering consumers with helpful information on food and supplements.2. While these same health reformers want to expand access, FDA is threatening supply with another FDA Guidance, on “Complementary and Alternative Medicine” (CAM), which creates new categories of “medicine”, services and products not authorized by Congress. By using the word “Medicine” instead of “Modalities,” FDA is setting up natural therapies for a takeover by the world of licensed physicians. FDA’s intent here was made clear in March, 2007, when, after the Michigan Cherry Growers Association published scientific evidence of the healing benefits of cherries for arthritis, FDA forced the removal of that information under threat forbidding cherries as an “untested drug.” Since state medical boards often forbid natural therapies as outside the scope of medical practice, licensees who engage in such modalities could lose their licenses; lack of insurance coverage for natural modalities further will further restrict their availability. Congress should hold hearings on FDA’s attack on the natural therapies industry.
3. With a pending recession threatening jobs, FDA is poised to put manufacturers of natural therapies out of business. FDA’s own Economic Impact analysis of its dietary supplement “Good Manufacturing Practices” (GMPs) showed “establishments with not only high costs, but also average costs, could be hard pressed to continue to operate…Very small businesses with less than 20 employees will be at risk of going out of business.” Supplement manufactures already are facing cruel surprise invasions by FDA inspectors dedicated to a “strong enforcement policy” (www.fda.gov/oc/whitepapers/enforce.html). Congress should divest the FDA of “food regulation”, adding an independent Inspector General and a consumer ombudsman to protect the US food supply.4. In an FDA Revitalization bill pending Conference, the Senate version seeks to reform food regulation in response to complaints about Chinese import dangers. Section 608 would exempt from this food proposal supplements which as “food” are generally considered safe under the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA). Any final FDA Reform bill should retain Section 608.