Let's make sure that all vitamin and herbal supplements are clinically proven 
  to do what they claim, and that they're safe, before they reach the consumer.
  Let's ensure that their ingredients are closely monitored, and that their labels
  and advertisements tell the truth and nothing but, so that their consumption 
  can be based on informed and confident decisions.

  What pretty ideals. Pretty enough, in fact, for a host of politicians and
  governments, and the pharmaceutical corporations that control them, to hide
  a considerably more ugly agenda behind.

  Right now a war is being fought over the regulation of supplements, with the
  various battles at different stages in countries across the globe. The European
  Union already passed its Food Supplements Directive in July of 2002, framing
  it on the principle that supplements should be proven safe and effective in the
  same manner as pharmaceuticals. The UK did not immediately implement
  this directive, but will do so come the end of this month. Australia, Canada,
  New Zealand and a host of other nations are involved in their own battles, and
  here in the U.S. Senator Dick Durbin's proposed "Dietary Supplement Safety
  Act of 2003," one of the first shots in what will undoubtedly become a
  mounting campaign.

  In general, the claim behind these bills and directives supporting tighter (and
  tighter and tighter) restrictions on supplements is that they will make the
  world a safer place for us, the consumers. Yeah, and so would military
  occupation of our towns and cities. In reality, it will have a polar effect on our
  health and safety. And it will be chilling. 

  Keeping You on the Motherland

  On a routine basis, Cubans attempt to escape their homeland on boats bound
  for U.S. shores. The ocean waters are certainly not safe, and there are rarely
  any guarantees waiting for them here. Nonetheless, the potential, the
  possibilities, are a far better option than the dangerously flawed regime they
  are trying to leave behind.

  This is an apt metaphor in this situation. Because if one thing is certain it is
  this: the conventional healthcare system, our 'Cuba', is seriously diseased. It
  is dominated by industries who are motivated by profit and who therefore
  foster whatever will most increase their profits, your health be damned. For
  example, processed food is far cheaper to produce, deliver and store than
  much healthier whole foods, and so its processed foods that are dumped en
  masse into our supermarkets, restaurants and brains. And prescription drugs
  that merely treat symptoms versus prevent or cure the underlying causes are a
  whole lot more profitable because, well, when they keep you coming back for
  more and more treatment, they've made a customer for life.

  Most people, meanwhile, have been brainwashed by this conventional
  healthcare regime. They don't even realize their daily habits like eating are the
  primary part of their healthcare, and so it's quite easy for their habits and
  assumptions to be manipulated by the regime. Only when they get sick or
  overweight does their perception of healthcare, fostered by the
  pharmaceutical companies and others on that side of the regime, kick in: they
  will go to the doctor to get a prescription to "save" them. And these days, in
  almost 70% of all patient visits, physicians do indeed give them the drugs they
  crave. But if that doesn't work, if things get serious or seriously inconvenient,
  they move on to surgery. 

  Of course, most prescription drugs and surgeries, reflecting conventional
  healthcare as a whole, have nothing to do with prevention and addressing the
  causes of illness -- they're all about merely treating symptoms so people can
  move on with their unhealthy lifestyles and get more symptoms that need
  treating. It's great for repeat business.

  Some people, however, are aware of the deadly downward spiral of the
  conventional healthcare system. They are refugees from an oppressive
  system, to be blunt about it, seeking better alternatives to prevent and cure
  illness, and live longer. And here is the key point of the matter that's caused
  this recent surge in opposition to supplements: their numbers are increasing
  dramatically, and they are finding those better alternatives. 

  Between 1997 and 2001, there was a 15% increase in sales of vitamin/mineral
  supplements. In 2002, the overall market for the alternatives to prescription
  drugs, processed and fast food, and surgery -- that is, natural/organic foods,
  dietary supplements and other natural products -- was $37 billion.

  Those numbers, that attempt to escape from conventional healthcare's
  stranglehold, is what is behind the recent worldwide war being waged on the
  leader among alternatives, supplements, at over $17 billion annually. And it's
  those dictators at the top of conventional medicine, such as the
  pharmaceutical companies and the governments they own, driving this war.
  You see, all these alternates like supplements are actually getting people to
  believe they can prevent illness and avoid trips to doctors' offices, and it's
  starting to make a dent in their mega-profits, and threatens to make a much
  bigger dent.

  They want to blockade your passage to potentially better shores and force you
  to stay in their Cuba. They'll put it in pretty terms of course, try to package it
  as something else like "safety," but that's what they're trying to do, and
  already in Europe, apparently succeeding in doing.

  Let the Deadly Dictators Do the Dictating?

  Thomas Moore, a senior fellow in health policy at the George Washington
  University Medical Center, estimates that prescription drugs -- those reviewed
  and approved by the FDA -- contribute to 100,000 U.S. deaths each year. One
  prominent reason for this that I'll visit in an upcoming article is that the entire
  research and approval process for new drugs is a hoax -- in short, drug makers
  now pay private for-profit companies to do the clinical studies establishing
  safety, and the drug companies have a major say in what is and is not
  reported. Meanwhile, who knows how many deaths they indirectly contribute
  to by veering people toward an over-dependency on their quick "fixes" and
  away from a preventative and curative approach to health?

  On another front, the overweight/obesity epidemic, fed by other giants
  profiting heartily on their thrones in the healthcare motherland, is now
  directly linked to 300,000 deaths per year.
  Sure, everybody's "gotta' go sometime," but the numbers above -- only a very
  partial list, mind you -- are far too many going far too soon because they are
  trapped in the conventional health paradigm. Meanwhile, even Senator Dick
  Durbin, in his 03/26/03 press release promoting his Dietary Supplement
  Safety Act, states that "scientific reports have linked ephedra and similar
  dietary supplements to 117 deaths and more than 17,000 other health related
  problems."

  You do the math. In fact, go ahead and play devil's advocate by assuming that
  the number of deaths resulting from conventional health are overblown --
  perhaps it's only a couple hundred thousand yearly total -- while those from
  supplements are too conservative -- perhaps it's actually several hundred
  yearly total. And then do the maths. Where does the real problem that needs
  addressing reside? 

  It is precisely those at the heart of this problem that want to "regulate"
  supplements. Pardon me for stepping out of the party line, but why would I
  possibly trust them to make the supplement industry "safe and effective"
  when I see the monster they've created with conventional healthcare? Why
  would you?

  So What Should You Be Swallowing?

  None of this is to say, "So trust everything the supplement makers tell you and
  consume, consume, consume!" There are a lot of exaggerated claims,
  inconsistent ingredients between supposedly like products, and other
  confusion surrounding supplements. I'm sure you wish you could walk into
  any old store, or log onto any Web site, and know for certain that when an
  herbal claimed it could help prevent disease, restore youth, and repel rude
  people, those claims would be backed by solid clinical evidence. But you can't.

  For that matter, I'm sure you wish you could trust the big businesses and
  governments to fairly and honestly test vitamins and herbals so we could
  make more informed and confident decisions in this respect. But then you
  learn things like this: a major study undertaken to discredit the herbal St.
  John's wart in 2001 received "unrestricted funding" from the pharmaceutical
  company Pfizer. St. John's wort, an anti-depressant, has sales of over $400
  million per year, cutting a niche into the profit of Pfizer's prescription
  anti-depressant Zoloft, and Pfizer doesn't like to lose profit. It's not the first or
  last time a supplement was discredited in an "independent" study that received
  major pharmaceutical company dollars. Of course, such knowledge (and
  there's a lot more of it to be had) entirely shoots down any trust in the
  conventional healthcare establishment.

  And so all that's left is reality. And reality is, you must trust your judgment
  more than any other person or institution when it comes to your health. That
  means doing whatever you feel is necessary to trust a supplement enough to
  try it -- researching its claims and source, or finding a source you trust to
  recommend the proper supplements to you.

  To conclude, there are two choices today: the main choice, the conventional
  healthcare paradigm, and the alternatives, which include supplements. The
  main choice, being rather deadly, is really no choice at all. Meanwhile, some of
  these alternatives are indeed pure nonsense, others are questionable, and
  some have already been proven as sound and worthwhile. But the point is, we
  all have the capacity, and at least some of us still have the legal ability, to
  choose from among these alternatives.

  The bills and directives across the world to "regulate" supplements are being
  pushed by the same powers-that-be that turned conventional healthcare into
  a sick joke for their own greedy ends. With "regulation," they would be the
  ones controlling the alternatives... and so go the alternatives.

  Or to put it back into the Cuban metaphor, it's as if Fidel Castro himself
  announced to all those trying to escape his oppressive regime that he will now
  be running a refugee ferryboat service to the shores of Florida. All aboard?
  Me, I'll take my chances swimming.
source:  www.mercola.com