The Tightening Controls
It's nothing new that total control of natural products by the drug companies has always been aggressively pursued as their ultimate business position. More recently, this objective has moved a step closer to reality, the result of a collaboration between a firm called PharmaPrint Inc and the University of Miami. A technology known as PharmaPrinting has been developed that isolates and measures the bioactivity of the active compounds of any plant or natural remedy and replicates it in the laboratory. These compounds are then standardized as a pharmaceutical for government approval. Patents are currently pending on pharmaceutical versions of some of the most useful and widely available herbal remedies such as St John's Wort, Echinacea, gingko biloba, saw palmetto, mistletoe, and even ginger.
Acquiring a patent requires clinical trials costing up to $6.5 million per product. Add to that the cost of the patent protection of about a half million over a time span of five years and you can see why investors are reluctant to commit to such costs if ultimate exclusivity cannot be assured. Since the existing U.S. Healthcare market, including health foods and drinks, vitamins and supplements is worth in excess of $1.5 trillion, it is a market well worth cornering. And a great way to guarantee an exclusive market is to knock the natural remedies out of the box. That is, get them banned by governments or at least invalidated by the media.
The Ongoing Food Code Conspiracy
This is far from a new approach to the control of our access to safe and effective natural food, vitamin, and mineral supplements. For the past 45 years, Big Pharma has enthusiastically supported the objectives outlined by Codex Alimentarious - that's Latin for "food code," in their determined march toward imposing restrictions on nutritional supplements. And now, in the face of the steadily deteriorating quality of our food supply, the efforts of Codex are intensifying. That's giving a one-two punch to our health with the condolence of global governments.
Codex Alimentarius is the United Nation's proposed set of international guidelines for nutritional supplements which is now gradually being ratified in countries around the world. The European Union (EU) is quickly adopting these guidelines. The Codex Vitamin and Mineral Guidelines are creating maximum upper limits on the amount of vitamins and minerals that can be present in nutritional supplements for consumers around the world. Anything other than an extremely low non-therapeutic amount of anything listed is to be regulated as a drug. For example, any amount of Vitamin C in excess of the amount necessary to prevent scurvy, would require a doctor's prescription.
The Public Relations Avalanche
While these new guidelines are so far limited to international trade and not yet involved in our own internal U.S. laws, Mother Big Pharma out there is doing everything she can to frighten the global community into viewing vitamins and minerals as something to fear. It's also difficult to find a major newspaper in this country that hasn't been intimidated into running articles derogatory to natural supplements. An example is a New York Times article (April 29, 2003) that attacks vitamin supplements as being useless, and possibly dangerous. Here Big Pharma's Public Relations front had vigorously proclaimed, and the New York Times had bought, the conclusion that "multivitamins have not been shown to prevent any disease and that it is easy to reach high enough doses of certain vitamins and minerals to actually increase the risk of disease." In counterpoint, Big Pharma's Public Relations front has issued press releases to be published in major newspapers contrary to any degree of common sense. Articles such as these have been shamelessly published:
Beef Benefits American Diet
McDonald's Food Not harmful
Acrylamide (found in french fries) Does not Boost Cancer Risk
Ground Beef Should be Irradiated
Children Not More Vulnerable to Environmental Chemicals
Nothing Wrong With DDT
Risk Factors for Prostate Cancer Cannot be Modified
Dry Cleaning Chemical (perchloroethylene) Poses No Human Threat
Diesel Exhaust Emissions Pose No Risk To School Children
Whenever health risks that threaten corporate profits are uncovered, Big Pharm's PR guns are deployed to the rescue with what would appear to be an unbiased scientific rebuttal. When estrogen/progestin drugs were found to be so dangerous that clinical studies had to be halted to prevent more deaths among the participants, the PR boys rushed to create press releases to deflect any criticism against these hormone drugs; only one example among many.
The Awakening Tide
The rest of us do have some hope. The Life Extension Foundation is fighting this tooth and nail, and some of the world's most prestigious medical journals have been waking from their stupor to review their long standing, blind support of the drug companies. In June of 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) ran an article advising all adults to take at least one multivitamin daily. Before that, in the April 9, 1998 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, an article appeared titled "Eat Right and Take a Multivitamin." And in 2001, the Lancet found the courage to publish a study in which researchers at Cambridge University looked at serum vitamin C and how long people lived. This study found that people with the lowest levels of vitamin C were twice as likely to die, compared to those with the highest levels. (Lancet: (2001; 357:657-63)).
The point here is that any arguments against vitamin supplementation are being easily shot down by study after study affirming their value, if not necessity, to our health. In spite of this, the health freedoms of many people outside the U.S. are being severely and unjustifiably impacted by Codex, a tool of the U. N. World Health Organization (WHO) and the U. N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). If it succeeds, 182 member countries, many of them sorely in need of nutritional supplementation, will be affected, much to the delight of drug companies poised to fill this critical need with their overpriced and under-effective drugs.
We Need to End This!
These are our supplements we're talking about here! Don't let Big Pharma grab them! We can all help prevent these problems from crossing our borders by getting in touch with our representatives and asking them to please support the "concurrent resolution on Codex requiring persons representing the U.S. at Codex to advocate for positions that reflect the intent of U.S. law forbidding upper limits on vitamins and minerals."
QUESTIONS? ASK WERNER. The availability of ailment specific supplements that truly perform as represented can be expected to continue for now and can be found at this New Zealand Manufacturer's Website.
