Is the FDA hurting us more than helping us? Is the FDA petitioning to prevent accessibility of worthwhile vitamins from consumers in an effort to allow the pharmaceutical companies hoping to profit development time to produce it? That's what the July 20, 2009 issue of Life Extensions alludes to in reference to the new research that found the growing benefits of B6 vitamer pyridoxal-5-phoshate. Conspiracy theory or truth?
There's a cacophony of information and points of view out there, and a lot of it isn't just noise. It's information you can use as long as you understand where and who it's coming from. You can go to Quackwatch.com where Dr. Stephen Barrett from Chapel Hill, N.C. gives his views on what he deems quackery and health fraud to help you make intelligent decisions. The FDA approves of him. In 1984, he received a Commissioner's Special Citation Award for Public Service in fighting nutrition quackery from them. You can also visit Randi.org, a forum where educated minds battle it out to the bitter end on everything from science to the paranormal. You can research folk remedies on earthclinic.com or visit mercola.com where Dr Mercola gives you advise on supplementation and medicine based on his 20 years of clinical experience. An interesting article by the national council for dentistry Charlie G. Brown is posted there, which talks about the odd way the FDA has handled the mercury amalgam issue. They vehemently protect it from going into animal products like a recent horse ointment, but totally turn a blind eye to issues relating to any human products. See the link to the full article in the links/resources list below. You can also subscribe to Life Extension Magazine or visit their online site. Life Extensions dates back from the Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw days, after they co-wrote the book of the same title. While wonderful information, keep in mind that Dr. Mercola and Life Extensions have a supplement product line they are also trying to sell.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is also a good resource. They question the FDA ability to protect us saying, "Adverse drug reactions are the fourth leading cause of death in America. Reactions to prescription and over-the-counter medications kill far more people annually than all illegal drug use combined." But like the tobacco industry, drug companies lobby hard to get what they want. Based on an article from The Center for Public Integrity, the year President George W. Bush signed the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, creating a taxpayer-funded prescription benefit for seniors, the drug industry spent about $116 million lobbying the government. In 2004 that number went up to $123 million with 52% of the lobbyists being former federal officials. 61% of Medicare prescription drug money will become profit for the pharmaceutical companies according to an October 2003 Boston University study. That study estimates a $139 billion dollar increase in profits over an eight year period.
The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 actually went into effect in 2006. After that date, the Wall Street Journal reported increased earnings from the industry. Prescription volume over the course of one month in July 0f 2006, had increased 4.9% from the previous year, which translates to increased sales for drug companies. According to the Center for Public Integrity article mentioned earlier, of any other government, the US uses tax breaks and subsidies more often to contribute to the development of new drugs. With nine of the largest drug companies in the US you'd think drugs would be less expensive, but they are actually getting more expensive everyday, and since the US are such huge consumers of drugs, the global pharmaceutical companies even profit more from them. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that spending for prescription drugs has been increasing at "double-digit rates" from $40.3 billion in 1990 to $216.7 billion in 2006. Taking into consideration that the population increased 16% over that time period, that number is still extremely high. Are we getting sicker? Are cost of drugs increasing that much? Are doctors being paid-off to push drugs like Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff, the psychologist who received $800,000 from GlaxoSmithKline in 2008, and was subsequently barred from Emory University Chairmanship?
Did the Vioxx fiasco of 2004 not scare anyone? The drug was marketed by Merck & Co. to over 80 million countries worldwide. When the drug was pulled on Sept. 30, 2004, 2 million of Americans were on it. It's no secret, Merck was concerned about the heart attack risk as early as 1996, but instead of spending for more research, they put over $500 million into the direct-to-consumer advertising of Vioxx.
We haven't seen a debacle like that since Thalomid, which was given to pregnant women in the 1960s for morning sickness and resulted in severely deformed babies. Perhaps Vioxx didn't frighten people enough, because that was the same year we were fixed on other news like the Bird Flu crisis in Asia, Locust attacks in the Sub-Sahara, and of course, the Tsunami in South Asia. As information pours in from all corners of the earth, it can divert our attention to other important news.
Defenders of the FDA in the Vioxx case claim it required Merck to add labeling information about a possible link to such problems in April of 2000. It is also worth noting that FDA claims to have had limited resources to do their job mainly due to the restructuring that took place after the FDA Moderization Act of 1997. Even before the restructuring, the FDA had to step up their processes a notch to accommodate the acceleration in the new-drug approval process since The Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 1992. Things can slip through the cracks if you have limited resources and have to rush -time is money after all.
In addition to pharmaceuticals, there's also the mostly unregulated vitamin supplements and homeopathic remedies. Homeopathic medicines are developed basically on the theory that small doses of substances simulating the illness provide the cure - kind of similar to the vaccine theory. However, the FDA has no power with these unregulated medicines, unless or until they prove a real danger like the recent Ziacam threat. WSJ blogger, Jacob Goldstein in his June 16, 2009 article, "Zicam, the FDA and Homopathy", tells how after 130 reports of loss of smell after using the nostril-inhaled cold remedy Zicam, the FDA sent a warning out to consumers.
The FDA has to regulate food as well. In the early 1990s the scientific consensus at the FDA was that GM foods were dangerous and might even be poisonous, creating nutritional problems, hard-to-detect allergies, bacteria, and new diseases. They pleaded for further testing, but were ordered by the White House to promote these types of foods and organisms. Therefore, the policy that is in place declares no safety studies are needed. However, a recent press advisory sent on May 19, 2009 from the The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called for a moratorium on GM foods stating: "GM foods pose a serious health risk". The AAEM continued by saying that after animal studies, "there is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects" and that "GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health." Highly recommended that everyone see the movie, Food, Inc.
Another WSJ blog entitled, "FDA Tries to Decide What Should, Shouldn't Be Kept Secret" by Sarah Rubenstein talks about how there are efforts being made to lift the veil of secrecy at the agency to help consumers better understand their decision-making process. The question is of course how much will they tell us?
It is worth staying tuned-in --- and if you have children, turn them onto the many blocks of information as well ---or at the very least the nutritional block on the labels of the food they eat, like The FDA's "Spot The Block" campaign with Cartoon Network encourages them to do. It launched last year and is now in it's second year, no doubt as a move to address the growing obesity problems among children. When it comes to drugs and alternative therapies, being a tenacious sleuth and teaching your children to be one is not just good for your health, it could just save your life.
Resource Links:
lifeextension.com
randi.org
mercola.com
http://www.earthclinic.com/
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/06/16/FDA-Protects-Your-Pets-from-Mercury-But-Not-You-Until-Now.aspx
http://projects.publicintegrity.org/rx/report.aspx?aid=723
www.kff.org/rxdrugs/upload/3057_07.pdf
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-10-12-vioxx-cover_x.htm
http://www.opednews.com/articles/American-Academy-of-Enviro-by-Jeffrey-M-Smith-090519-809.html
http://www.aaemonline.org/pressrelease.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/06/02/fda-tries-to-decide-what-should-shouldnt-be-kept-secret/
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/11/01/8189593/index.htm
http://www.prisonplanet.com/psych-doctor-nemeroff-barred-from-emory-university-chairmanship-after-revelation-of-secret-financial-ties-to-big-pharma.html
No comments:
Post a Comment