In the beginning, there were nutrients for procuring health. Today, there are drugs, drugs, and more drugs. The average American gets fourteen prescriptions crammed down their throat every year. This is the result of the drug company business model. It utilizes an array of techniques to influence the government in order to minimize competition from nutritional supplements. The cold hard fact of this business model has become clear: Health in America has been fractured. Most American�s are grossly ill and masking symptoms while waiting for their resting place six feet under � think diabetes. Understanding these profitable � but deadly � techniques serves as a how-to guide for avoiding government-mandated drug addiction and remaining healthy.

First, education on the proper use of nutritional substances to achieve good health was removed from the medical school curriculum more than 85 years ago. There is not a medical doctor practicing today who has been trained in medical school on the prophylactic use of nutritional supplements. This explains the reluctance of medical doctors to teach patients about natural alternatives. They don�t know about them. Through self-education, a select few medical doctors have become excellent advisors on proper use of nutraceuticals.

Second, the FDA has stonewalled ALL nutritional supplement manufacturers from educating their clients on nutritional supplements by passing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). This act prohibits supplement manufacturers to market or claim that their products �cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent� any given disease or illness. Instead, they can only make general statements about their products. As a result, nutritional supplements carry labels that are intentionally vague and misleading to consumers. Finding which nutritional supplements to take for any given illness has become close to impossible.

DSHEA also gave the FDA the authority to remove any nutritional supplement from the market if it �proved� to be unsafe. Because of its broad definition of �unsafe� and because most anything, even water, is unsafe in large amounts, the FDA can now ban any nutritional supplement which imposes competition on its pharmaceutical partners. Ephedra is a perfect example. Green tea extract may be next.

Third, lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry has enabled the drug community to influence the media to set a negative tone on the use of nutritional supplementation. More often than not, the message is that natural alternatives to prescription drugs are ineffective and dangerous. Unable to distinguish between the truth and profit motives, the general public has turned away from nutritional supplements to embrace pharmaceutical drugs.

And finally, on the worldwide front, the pharmaceutically-compliant World Trade Organization (WTO) is working rigorously to convince the nations of the world that ALL human beings require the EXACT same amount of nutrients and that anything above this amount is dangerous. Under the guise of protecting vitamin consumers, the WTO is using what is known as the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISION (CAC) to further restrict the free use of nutritional supplements within the United States and worldwide.

Specifically, the CAC is setting �Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements.� These guidelines are more restrictive and will supercede current U.S. regulations by dictating to the U.S. which nutrients are safe, the maximum and minimum amounts allowed in a product, and related packaging and labeling requirements.

The CAC stands firm in its conviction that these guidelines are for the safety of others. But if safety were the priority, then the WTO could use the CAC to protect us from prescription drugs which kill an estimated 100,000 people annually in the United States.[1] Instead, they waste time on nutritional supplements which have killed less people than rabid squirrel attacks.

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The success of the aforementioned techniques lies in fear. This fear is secured by the vested interests of professional alarmists within the government who promote it in order to minimize drug competition. The end result: Drug companies secure their lion�s share and profit from your pain. Wake up, stop eating every prescription thrown at you.

Footnotes:

1, Starfield, Barbara. Starfield, Barbara. Is US Health Really the Best in the World? Journal of the American Chemical Society, July 26, 2000-Vol 284, No.4.