What is the FDA's Mission Statement?Written by Shane Ellison
People want to trust that their so-called elected government is doing right thing when it passes regulations to enhance public safety. When Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906 a new watchdog agency, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was born. It would be many years before we as a nation had such luxuries as refrigeration, sanitary food processing standards, and good manufacturing processes (GMP), so in many respects, this law was necessary. So, what exactly does FDA do? According to FDA: "The FDA's mission is to promote and protect public health by helping safe and effective products reach market in a timely way, and monitoring products for continued safety after they are in use. Our work is a blending of law and science aimed at protecting consumers." But times change and unfortunately, sometimes so do mission statements. The growth in knowledge of biochemistry, natural medicine, physiology, molecular chemistry and chemical process methods have yielded millions of new synthetic drugs and treatment options, far more than our grandparents would have imagined at turn of century. To ensure growing profits, these new synthetic drugs are aimed at symptom management rather than cures for diseases or chronic conditions. This can be seen by continued and growing reliance on synthetic medicine. For example, from 1985-1999, there was a 35% increase in medicines used by Americans to treat (not cure) chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression, and arthritis. In year 2000, about $116.9 Billion was spent on prescription drugs. The number of prescriptions dispensed is projected to grow to 2.07 billion by year 2005! By way of comparison, our up and coming war on Iraq is estimated to cost about $90 Billion. But $90 Billion for a war somewhere in world every 12 years is chicken feed compared to costs of drugs and medicines that Americans shell out each and every year. This is approximately $26.9 Billion less than what Americans spent on drugs in year 2000. Let's see, $90 Billion for a war once in a while and over $1Trillion (yes that's "T" for toy Trillion) for prescription drugs. That's a lot of pills. As pharmaceutical business has grown, FDA has changed from an institution that was trying to protect public health from bad food to a rubber stamp government organization that only takes public safety into account when it is forced to by some form of gross public error. In other words, blind loyalty to doctors and their "symptom hiding pills" is not without consequence; Americans are getting fatter and sicker. Today you can be confident that about 800 Americans will die from obesity, which averages out to be 300,000 obese people dying every year. Interestingly, scientists have already discovered cure for obesity, yet FDA and doctors are ignoring it! Additionally, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that by comparing 16 "health markers" considered indicative of good health, U.S ranks on average 12th out of top 13 countries in regard to health of it's citizens.
| | Skeletons in the FDA's ClosetWritten by Shane Ellison
It is time that actions of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) speak for themselves and Americans began to question their own absorbent use and blind-loyalty to FDA approved drugs. If not, you too may become a FDA statistic. The FDA's financial ties to "big-pharma" have caused millions of preventable deaths over last 30 years. In 1996-97 FDA approved a drug known as Posicor (a chemical called mibefradil dihydrochloride) for treatment of high blood pressure (hypertension). Prior to approval, data from congestive heart failure trials presented at a FDA Advisory Committee meeting on Posicor showed that more patients treated with Posicor died than those taking a placebo! After its release for use by public 200 more Americans died from using Posicor as prescribed. It was finally removed from market in 1998. To treat high cholesterol, FDA has approved synthetic chemicals known as "statins". Brand names include Zocor, Lipitor, Pravachol, Mevacor, Baycol, and Lescol. Unknown to public and most doctors, statin drugs can be life threatening. In a letter to Archives of Internal Medicine, Uffe Ravnskov MD, PhD and colleagues show that in two of three clinical trials that included healthy people, chance of surviving was better without treatment of statins. Researchers from University of Denmark report that about 15% of statin users over age of 50 will suffer from nerve damage. Since cholesterol is manufactured in liver, it remains to be seen just how much liver damage consuming public will sustain when internal organ injuries are factored in. USA Today reported, "Statins have killed and injured more people than government has acknowledged". To add insult to injury, there are no studies linking high cholesterol directly to heart disease. Wrap your brain cells around that! Factors that can be linked to heart disease are high levels of homocysteine within a person's body. But that's a problem that can be cured with proper ratios of B vitamins and folic acid. Translation, no profit for doctors or drug companies. Pop Quiz: Who profits when you get sick from statins? In 1998 FDA attacked retail suppliers of Red Yeast Rice (RYR), a food that is known for lowering cholesterol. FDA squads and U.S Marshals raided numerous supplement providers and stole product from their shelves. Shortly thereafter, FDA sent letters to all providers of RYR demanding that they remove RYR from their stores. Interestingly, clinical trials demonstrated RYR to be more effective (by 17-21%) at lowering total cholesterol and inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase (the enzyme that produces cholesterol in body) than aforementioned life-threatening statins. Clinical trials also demonstrated that RYR has zero negative side effects. So if you really wanted to lower high cholesterol levels, you could do so with food that would not "kill you by accident". The Art of Corporate Drug Pushing Since their 1998 raids, FDA has continued to denounce clear winners like Red Yeast Rice and promote use of losers like patented synthetic statins for lowering cholesterol. The media and doctors continue to tell us that synthetic statins will help prevent heart attacks and strokes. More recently they have added prevention of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) to list of benefits that can be had by use of statin's. These drugs however are known to cause nerve damage in older patients and nerve damage within brain is one of causes of AD. What gives? That statins can prevent AD is a fallacy. This is typical regurgitated dogma from high paid complacent doctors and talking heads within media. It is also an excellent way to push more pills on laymen who doesn't have a strong understanding of drugs and disease.
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