July 2005 produced several
international regulatory challenges that will heavily impact the nutrient
industry and alternative healing. As one observer's blog put it, "Pro-Illness
forces are pushing hard to consolidate their gains at CODEX last week when the
Vitamin and Mineral Guideline (VMG) was passed without any dissenting
voices."
The battle has just begun. Read
more below about how you can help and the Vitamin Lawyer's Industry Support
Program (ISP)
My take on this all is that both
the threat to freedom of choice and the opportunity to turn around the
international agencies are at the highest levels they've been in years.
A new anti-vitamin bill has been
introduced in the House, HR 3156, but several pro-freedom congresspeople are
also getting involved (see Rep. Ron Paul's web site, for example).
In recent weeks the EU high court
upheld the very restrictive (treats dietary supplements like toxins!) Food
Supplement Directive (EU regulation) BUT, according to the Alliance for Natural
Health attorneys, limited its application to synthetic supplements, not natural
dietary substances, thereby alleviating some concern about those rules.
Also, the Codex committee adopted
similarly restrictive guidelines (the VMG - Vitamin and Mineral Guidelines),
but, the "upper limits" are still in dispute and Codex's parent orgs, WHO and
FAO have told Codex to "review its mandate" and consider how nutrition and
supplements can help health - something it has tried to avoid so far.
The central issue here seems to be
the clash between international bureaucracies regarding what "science based"
approach to take regarding dietary supplements. We know the choice that was made
in the US, when Congress unanimously adopted DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health
and Education Act) in 1994: Dietary Supplements are FOODS and are not subject to
toxic material (drug) controls. This also needs to be the choice made at the
international level. Currently, Codex (the international Food Code) treats
Dietary Supplements as though they were toxic substances, seeking to use the
science of toxicology to determine upper limits. This is just junk science and
will result in upper limits so low as to be ineffective as nutrition. The proper
science to use to determine possible adverse effects is the science of
Nutrition.
WHAT TO EXPECT
What are the practical results of
this distinction? Under the Codex toxicology model, for example, Vitamin C upper
limits are set so low as to merely prevent the deficiency disease, scurvy (about
60 mg daily). However, the metabolic role of Vitamin C is much, much more
important than just preventing scurvy. The amount of C that a healthy person
needs, according to Nutritional Science, for optimal health, is several grams a
day (2 to 3,000 mg a day).
Thus we are fighting for continued
access to effective levels of nutrients. Many people believe we are fighting for
our lives.
I was not sure about this, so I
decided to try an experiment. After 30 years of faithful daily high dose vitamin
taking, I stopped, about June 21st. By July 10th I was feeling so ill, with
numbness in my fingertips, out of breathe, unable to concentrate, and
uncomfortable heart palpitations, that I ended the one month experiment early
and started taking my supplements again. Within about 48 hours I was feeling
normal. Now I know what I'm fighting for. If I'm ever deprived of the nutrients
I've been taking, it is the same as a death sentence. I know what I'm fighting
for. Do you?
THE CHALLENGE
The challenge is this: the large
nutrient companies are either owned by pharma interests, or soon will be. They
will not support freedom of choice efforts. Only the small and struggling
nutrient companies - like those to which this email is being sent - have the
true incentive to support the various groups I've discussed in this
email.
I've intentionally limited my law
practice over the past year or so to just advising nutrient companies and
alternative practitioners and institutions. I am willing to devote myself full
time to defending the nutritional world. What I need to do is generate funding
for these efforts. I am working with a number of nonprofits and we are putting
together Industry Support Program to get the industry to support greater efforts
by the Vitamin Lawyer in conjunction with pro-freedom forces. More about ISP in
a later email.
NEXT STEPS
This is war! When we ask for YOUR
help, will you be ready to give it? The detailed proposal we will be making will
be for regular monthly support for the efforts to Defend DSHEA. Consider it part
of your public relations budget. The companies will get up-to-the-minute
information about market developments and a strong voice advocating their
interests, which are the interests of their customers: ready access to high
quality, high dose, nutrients.
I'll be contacting you
individually over the next couple weeks regarding the ISP. In the meantime,
please circulate this email and let me know if you are ready to support these
efforts.
