Utah Herbal Supplements
The term health freedom movement is used to describe the loose coalition of organizations, consumers, activists, alternative medicine practitioners and producers of products around the world who are campaigning for unhindered freedom of choice in healthcare. The movement is critical of the pharmaceutical industry and medical regulators, and uses the term "health freedom" as a catch phrase to convey its message.
Structure, ideology and objectives
There is no formal structure to the health freedom movement, but cooperation and coordination among some of the various organizations and individuals involved in it does occur. Collaborative efforts in the movement are often spontaneous and its leaders have found that these can act as a test to see to see whether or not community members can work together for a common goal. At other times, organizations and individuals opt for “going it alone” to preserve autonomy, renown, or a competitive edge on issues or fundraising efforts.
The concept of health freedom does not preclude the practice of conventional medicine, but campaigners generally tend to have strong preferences for orthomolecular, naturopathic, or alternative medicine and an overall distrust of the pharmaceutical industry. The removal from consumers of access to healthcare products that they had formerly been able to obtain and which had helped their needs for health and survival is viewed by many people in the movement as being leveraged by multinational corporations.
A key objective in the movement is for people to have unrestricted access to vitamins, minerals, herbals, botanicals, amino acids and other food supplements. The dietary supplement industry wants to see less stringent regulations than those applied to food. Campaigners believe that many chronic diseases can be largely prevented or even cured using micronutrients and that the optimal level for ingestion of these is significantly above the RDA levels. The movement has close links to the Life-extension movement.
The movement's supporters and organizations believe that there is a conspiracy by the medical establishment to undermine the advance of the nutritional route to better health and that studies showing supplements have no effect in preventing disease are designed to fail. Some of the movement's spokespeople, such as the Alliance for Natural Health, take a more moderate stance on this issue, saying that negative media publicity about nutrients such as vitamin E are a result of misinterpretations over the science. These campaigners also criticise the latest research indicating that vitamin C supplements do not protect against the common cold as having a number of fundamental flaws.
The belief that supplements and vitamins can demonstrably improve health or longevity is not backed by evidence-based medicine, nor is it widely accepted in the medical community, because there is felt to be insufficient evidence to support such beliefs. Large doses of some vitamins can lead to vitamin poisoning (hypervitaminosis).
Other issues promoted by the movement include its opposition to the sharing of genetic information without patient consent, its belief that citizens should have greater privacy and control over their health information, its belief that people should be free to choose not to participate in a national electronic health-records system. and its opposition to fluoridation of the water supply.
Some health freedom campaigners would like adults to be free to choose marijuana for personal or medical use without criminal penalty. The money currently spent on arresting people for possessing pot, they say, could be better used to go after more serious criminals or funding alternative health-care programs.
Political roots and support base
Health freedom activists come from a variety of political backgrounds. The right-wing libertarian Ludwig von Mises Institute argues in favor of deregulation of the medical profession and health care sector. The British activist Martin J. Walker is politically left-wing, whilst the Republican congressman and 2008 U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul, who supports health freedom, calls himself a free market libertarian. A leading supporter of the movement, Paul introduced the Health Freedom Protection Act in the U.S. Congress in 2005. Other examples of people with polar opposite political views whose healthcare ideology at times appears to bear some comparison to that of the health freedom movement include Prince Charles, who has defended alternative therapies in an address to the World Health Assembly, and Cherie Blair (the wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair) who is believed to have influenced her husband's reported opposition to the EU Food Supplements Directive. The British right wing Conservative Party (UK) has supported the Save Our Supplements campaign as part of its campaign against the EU Food Supplements Directive, whilst the Green Party in Ireland has expressed concern that changes to this Directive will limit consumers' access to off-the-shelf vitamins and mineral supplements. The Swedish conservative Moderate Party is also opposed to the EU imposed vitamin restrictions.
Prominent celebrity supporters of the movement include the musician Sir Paul McCartney, who says that people "have a right to buy legitimate health food supplements" and that "this right is now clearly under threat," and the pop star/actress Billie Piper, who joined a march in London in 2003 to protest planned EU legislation to ban high dosage vitamin supplements.
The term "Health freedom movement" has been used in the United States since the 1990s. Around 2003 to 2005, a campaign organization founded by the British author Lynne McTaggart and called the Health Freedom Movement existed in the United Kingdom.
Legislation
The enactment into law of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in the United States (US) in 1994 is an example of a piece of pro-health-freedom legislation. DSHEA defines supplements as foods, and puts the onus on the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prove that a supplement poses significant or unreasonable risk of harm rather than on the manufacturer to prove the supplement’s safety. The act was passed by Congress after extensive lobbying by the manufacturers of dietary supplements, and received strong support from non-medically-oriented politicians such as Senator Tom Harkin and Senator Orrin Hatch, whose state of Utah is a hub for herbal manufacturers. The act allows natural supplements to be marketed without any proof of their purity, safety or efficacy. Producers of these supplements are largely exempt from regulation by the Food and Drug Administration, which can take action against them only if they make medical claims about their products or if consumers of the products become seriously ill.
Following concerns about numerous raids, censorship issues, pharmaceutical conflicts of interest, product bans, and more proposed FDA restrictions, what became the DSHEA in 1994 was the subject of a lobbying campaign that produced Congressional mail equal to that generated by the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement. The current level of popular support for the deregulation of the supplement industry can at times seem unclear. A large survey by the AARP, for example, found that 77% of respondents (including both users and non-users of supplements) believed that the federal government should review the safety of dietary supplements and approve them before they can be marketed to consumers.
Similar confusion about the implications of DSHEA was found in an October 2002 nationwide Harris poll. Here, 59% of respondents believed that supplements had to be approved by a government agency before they could be marketed; 68% believed that supplements had to list potential side effects on their labels; and 55% believed that supplement labels could not make claims of safety without scientific evidence. All of these beliefs are incorrect as a result of provisions of the DSHEA.
President Bill Clinton, on signing DSHEA into law, stated that "After several years of intense efforts, manufacturers, experts in nutrition, and legislators, acting in a conscientious alliance with consumers at the grassroots level, have moved successfully to bring common sense to the treatment of dietary supplements under regulation and law." He also stated that the passage of DSHEA "speaks to the diligence with which an unofficial army of nutritionally conscious people worked democratically to change the laws in an area deeply important to them" and that "In an era of greater consciousness among people about the impact of what they eat on how they live, indeed, how long they live, it is appropriate that we have finally reformed the way Government treats consumers and these supplements in a way that encourages good health."
Another example of the passing of pro-health freedom legislation occurred in March 2007, when Governor Timothy M. Kaine signed a bill into law in the U.S. State of Virginia allowing teenagers 14 or older and their parents the right to refuse medical treatments for ailments such as cancer, and to seek alternative treatments so long as they have considered all other medical options. Kaine described the bill as being "significant for health freedom in Virginia."
In addition, some U.S. states have proven willing to allow nonlicensed practitioners to diagnose and treat patients, and forms of nonlicensed practice have been approved in California, Rhode Island, Idaho, Louisiana and Oklahoma. As a result, between 2000 and 2006, 15 percent of the U.S. population gained some access to nonlicensed practitioners.
In early
DRUGS AND INJUSTICE - University of Utah News Release ...
And why aren't dietary supplements and herbal medicines tested for safety when prescription drugs ... Lee J. Siegel science news specialist, University of Utah Public Relations
Herbal Supplements
Herbal Supplements Sara Oldroyd, MS RD USU Extension ... No other organization in the U.S. that tests supplements is ... Loren Israelson Executive director of the Utah Natural ...
Herbal Medicine: MedlinePlus
An herb is a plant or plant part used for its scent, flavor or therapeutic properties. Herbal medicine products are dietary supplements that people take to improve their health.
Vitamins Virginia,USA,Supplements,Minerals,Herbs,Amino ...
Fatigue Products: Feminine Products: Fish Oils: Herbal Products: Herbal Supplements ... in Oak Hill, Virginia, USA providing nutritional and natural Vitamins & Supplements ...
Utah News from KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, Utah
New Study on Herbal Supplements (3/30/99) Many Utahns pop popular herbal remedies in hopes of better health or cures for illnesses. A number of Utah companies are at the heart ...
Healthy Herbal Nutrients
Healthy Herbal Nutrients. Healthy Herbal Nutrients is a locally owned company in Utah. ... to be able to offer you this fine line of herbal supplements.
Prevent Disease.com - Mixing Herbal Supplements ...
An extensive review of existing research has led University of Utah researchers to conclude several popular herbal supplements may cause adverse ...
Goji Herbal Supplements, Goji Herbal Supplements,
Goji Herbal Supplements, ... Utah, United States Brand Name: Herbal Authority Fob Price:
The Dilemma of Vitamins and Herbal Supplements for ...
The Dilemma of Vitamins and Herbal Supplements for Seniors. Click to read full article by Dr. Kevin O'Neil, Institute for Optimal Aging.
cholesterol reducing herbal and natural products all ...
herbal stores in utah, herbal and breast salves, herbal supplements for male enhancement, herbal alternative treatment and acne, herbal and migrains, toxins