FDA taking our power away (LONG POST)

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

At health food store yesterday and was stunned at the petition I was asked to sign. Here's what they posted on their website (http://www.naturalgrocers.com/store...nda-campaign-against-vitamins-and-supplements):

LONG POST:

FDA propaganda campaign against Vitamins and Supplements heats up with more proxy posts.

Can you spot the misstatements in this press release, which was widely disseminated by the FDA? For help reading between the lines, read the red text (I italicized it for here)

Herbal Supplements May Cause Dangerous Drug Interactions in Orthopaedic Surgery Patients
Discontinuing use prior to surgery can help avoid adverse events

Rosemont, IL Complementary and alternative medical (CAM) treatments such as herbal supplements have become increasingly popular in the United States, especially among older patients and those with chronic pain. However, many of these products can have serious and potentially harmful side effects when combined with medications prescribed during and after surgery, according to a review article in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS).

About 20 percent of prescription users also take an herbal supplement, and those rates are higher studies suggest between 35 and 70 percent among orthopaedic patients who are candidates for surgery.

Herbal remedies are classified as dietary supplements, meaning they are exempt from the safety and efficacy regulations that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires for prescription and over-the-counter medications, said David T. Rispler, MD, director of the Grand Rapids/Michigan State University Orthopedic Residency Program. As a result, individual herbal remedies have not been thoroughly evaluated in large clinical trials, and little information is available on the interactions between drugs and herbs.

Dietary Supplements are tightly regulated for safety and efficacy by the FDA and other agencies of the Federal Government.

Every adverse event related to dietary supplements must be reported by law to the FDA.

Drugs that are disguised as dietary supplements (such as designer steroids and high-dose ephedra derivatives) are carefully monitored by a distinct task force within the FDA.

The FDA operates a robust surveillance system of television, online, radio, print and in-store sales to ensure that promotional methods are legally compliant and do not link use with the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a disease.

The National Institutes of Health maintains an extensive public online database of all dietary supplements that lists all known names, traditional and complimentary uses, drug interactions, and scientific studies for each dietary supplement ingredient. In many cases, the efficacy of the ingredient is noted in comparison to its synthetic (and patented) pharmaceutical cousin.

The FDA has the authority to force a mandatory recall of any food, drug, or cosmetic ingredient that it deems, unilaterally, to possibly cause harm to the public.

In addition, many herbal products are marketed as natural or homeopathic, which may lead consumers to assume the products are safe, even when taken with prescription medicines, Dr. Rispler noted. Herbal supplements can have a negative impact on patients both before and following surgery, and may interact with conventional medicines used to manage chronic conditions.

According to the General Accounting Office, dietary supplements average no more than 500 Adverse Event Reports per year in the United States. FDA sanctioned pharmaceutical drugs generate over 300,000 Adverse Events per year -- 600 times more.

And this 60,000% difference is in spite of a massive effort by the FDA to prompt more consumers to report any possible problem with dietary supplements.

According the Office of Techology Assessment, at leat 80% of over-the-counter drugs are sold based on Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status, without extensive premarket testing. Yet, the authors believe that dietary supplements with the same GRAS status and impeccable safety record should be treated as dangerous new drugs?

Traditional physician-patient communications, like intake interviews, often do not include the subject of alternative medical products. As a result, patients may fail to report that they are using them and continue to take them along with any prescribed medicines and before surgery, thinking the herbal products pose no risk, said Dr. Rispler.

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Read more FDA propaganda posts here.

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Many of the most popular herbal supplements used today can have serious side effects when combined with prescription medicines. For example:

Feverfew (used for migraine prevention), ginger, cranberry, St. Johns Wort and ginseng can interact with the anti-clotting drug warfarin;
Feverfew, ginger, and gingko can interact with aspirin;
Garlic can interfere with anti-clotting medications and the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine (prevents transplant rejection);
Valerian (used as a sedative) can intensify anesthetics; and
St. Johns Wort can interact with immunosuppressive drugs and potentially lead to transplant rejection.

Herbal products marketed for osteoarthritis also can pose serious risks when combined with prescription medications. For example:

Glucosamine, chondroitin and flavocoxid can affect clotting agents;
Black cohosh can interact with the cancer drug tamoxifen; and
Cats claw can interact with clotting agents, blood pressure medications and cyclosporine.

These interactions are extremely well known and documented, and any competent surgeon or anesthesiologist should be carefully asking each patient -- and the patient's family -- to avoid these natural medicines before and after treatment.

The focus on dietary supplement interactions is over weighted, of course. The possibility of a true drug interaction is extraordinarily high, as evidence by the tens of thousands of deaths caused by FDA sanctioned over-the-counter and prescription drugs each year. Where is that press release? Why this one?

Most surgery-related side effects can be avoided by stopping the CAM product at least one to two weeks prior to surgery and during the postoperative period while prescription medications such as blood thinners or antibiotics are being used. The problem arises when physicians do not know that a patient is using a CAM product, Dr. Rispler said.

Again, why is this different from any other food or drug that a patient may be consuming?

One of the main reasons that patients do not disclose the use of a CAM product is that they may not believe it is important information to convey to the physician because they feel they are safe to use and all-natural, he said. Patients may also decide not to report CAM product use if they are worried their physician may be prejudiced against the supplements use, or believe their physician will not have an understanding of the supplement.

Then don't be prejudiced. Let your patients make decisions about their health, but inform them about special risks that result from the industrial-strength medicine you will be giving them.

Although the use of herbal medicines should be monitored by patients primary care physicians, Dr. Rispler said orthopaedic surgeons should have an understanding of the potential side effects of some of the most common CAM products used by their patients, and be able to guide them in suspending use prior to surgery.

To help ensure physicians are aware of the products their patients may be using, Dr. Rispler also recommends including CAM product-use questions on health/medical assessment forms to encourage patient disclosure.

Physician-patient communication often does not include the use of CAM therapies, which results in underreporting of their use, he said. To help avoid potential side effects, orthopaedists should develop questionnaires that can be used prior to surgery to help determine if their patients are using CAM products. Alternatively, patients should also report usage of any herbal products or other supplements they may be taking to all their physicians.

By opening up a conversation on the use of herbal medications around the time of surgery and compiling a complete list of all prescribed and self-prescribed medications and supplements, patients and physicians may be able to work together to decrease the risk of complications that can occur during and following surgery, Dr. Rispler said.

Right, so why did you include and highlight all the baloney at the top where you make patently false claims regarding supplement safety and regulation?

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For more propaganda, and to ask these questions of the authors directly, please contact:

Kayee Ip (847) 384-4035 ip@aaos.org

Lauren Pearson (847) 384-4031 pearson@aaos.org

Disclosure: Neither of the authors nor any immediate family member has received anything of value from or has stock in a commercial company or institution related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article.



Disclosure: the authors are recent inductees into the American Medical Association / FDA industrial drug development system which teaches this:

There is one cause and one chemical cure to every ailment;
The profit from a successful drug outweighs the severe harm it may do to some users;
Research is paid for by big pharmaceutical companies, so don't bite the hand that feeds you;
Patients are too stupid to understand science and decide between all their treatment options;
Anyone who disagrees is simply not smart enough to understand the issue.

Watch for more propaganda from government and private channels as the FDA ramps up its campaign outlaw vitamins and dietary supplements under its new proposed guidelines. Learn how to Fight back here.

So, tell me, the ginger-root I boil into tea for my upset stomach will be regulated? The parsley I eat after a dinner to freshen my breath will be illegal? Will this include the fish oil I give my kid so he'll feel better about his brain? Or the cranberry to help his urination (because he sure as heck won't drink cranberry juice)? What about the extra cinnamon I eat to help fight high blood sugar?

WTH?!?!?!

Your take?

 

[dragonlaurel]

I believe it's our body and the choice to take herbs or nutrients should be ours. But tell your Doc that you take vitamins or use herbs, and what you are using them for. Even if the herbs are already helping a problem - knowing you have the symptom may help the Doc make a better diagnosis.

 

[kstaven]

I hate regulations! But there is some truth in the statements. Herbs can interact with prescription drugs.

But this is where it comes down to the individual to do their research, or consult a with a knowledgeable source.

Problem here is that you can't patent herbs so you attempt to remove the competition.

 

[AmericanHomesteader]

I guess my family and i will be criminals, i am so sick and tired of this bunch of talking morons that we call a goverment. We need to flush the whole lot of them and start over.

 

[i_am2bz]

I guess my family and i will be criminals, i am so sick and tired of this bunch of talking morons that we call a goverment. We need to flush the whole lot of them and start over.

That.

 

[MyKidLuvsGreenEgz]

I guess my family and i will be criminals, i am so sick and tired of this bunch of talking morons that we call a goverment. We need to flush the whole lot of them and start over.

That.

X2

I'm always careful not only informing doctors about supplements we're taking, but if the doctor says he'd rather us take rx instead of herbs because they are bad, i immediately switch docs.

thankfully my son's neurologist (who's monitoring his epilepsy) is ok with son taking some otc like fish oil and probiotics (one week a month). will start cranberry next week.

plus next year's garden will be much bigger, with even more emphasis on home-grown herbs. (no, not those illegal ones!). probably even more inside the house!