Fighting the ban on Vitamins

Since the introduction of the "Codex Alimentarius" Commission in 1962 - a United Nations organisation set up to regulate the food industry - an international pharmaceutical cartel has been plotting to pick off the competition and remove natural medicines from the high street.

Despite being powerful medicines in their own right vitamins, minerals and amino acids are unpatentable because they are naturally occurring substances and as such considered by its insiders an obstruction to the profiteering of the pharmaceutical industry which survives off high profits from patent protection.

To protect its growth then the pharmaceutical industry founded its own expert regulatory organisation Codex Alimentarius Commission as advisor to the UN's World Health Organisation and World Food organisation to interfere in the freedom of the natural medicines industry and pass self serving and often aggressive legislation against dietary supplements

Since the explosion of the natural products industry in the 1990's the commission has been devoted to preventing vitamins and food supplements causing the collapse of the billion pound markets for pharmaceutical drugs. Their aim has been to systematically outlaw any health claims made for vitamins, dramatically reduce their legal effective dosage to RDA levels and restrict therapeutic dosages to prescription only sale .

Well on March 13th this year after the largest online petition of 603 million votes were cast demanding continued access to dietary supplements, the EU parliament finally succeeded in passing a Europe-wide ban on most vitamins and minerals from our shelves by 2005. In legislation that claims to harmonize the regulation of food supplements like vitamins, minerals and amino acids, an EU commission has extended what many say are draconian controls inspired by Codex and already present in countries like Germany to the rest of the EU by passing the European Directive on Dietary Supplements.1

Vitamins exceeding the RDA to be considered as Drugs

The legislation that was undemocratically rushed through behind closed forces all products to comply with strict rules on labelling and health claims. For instance warnings must be given about the supposed health risks of exceeding the RDA and all claims that the product can prevent, treat or cure illness are to be forbidden. More seriously it means that for the first time in the UK vitamins that exceed the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) or nutrients that aren't vitamins will be considered drugs to be supplied by the pharmaceutical companies only and regulated through prescription. Products not following these rules by June 2004 would be taken off the market forcing many ethical companies out of business

Needless to say campaigners are stunned at the nonchalance of the commission to a landslide public vote against the Dietary Supplement Directive and claim that corrupt officials have arrogantly acted to line the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry. This would not be the first time the commission has been criticized for its duplicity. With more than half of its members in the pocket of drug companies that stand to profit by crippling the natural products industry, the commission has already been dismissed once recently by the European Parliament for corruption and for taking bribes from multinational companies. The situation hasn't changed. For instance a member of the supervisory board of the second largest pharmaceutical group in the world (Merck, Sharp and Dohme) Frits Bokenstein, now sits in the Commission's "cabinet" responsible for drafting the present Europe-wide legislation. Such conflicts of interest are made possible because neither the EU's commission or the UN codex group are elected bodies or subject to any democratic control but appointed according to prevailing interests.

The whole fiasco has angered millions of people who survive on higher therapeutic quantities of natural products for their health or livelihood. For instance if the Codex has its way Vitamin C supplements will not be permitted to contain more than 60mg per dose when several grams may be required to fight cardiovascular illness and stroke. Similarly if you want to treat neurological impairment with vitamin B12 you wont scratch the surface with the paltry 1 microgram RDA because the therapeutic dose can be over 1000 times this and as high as 5000. Likewise at 18mg the RDA for vitamin B3 is at least 27 times lower than the indicated dosage for some types of schizophrenia. Among the many protestors against this new legislation is the UK's Consumers for Health Choice (CHC) an alliance of consumers, practitioners, retailers and manufacturers. According to the chairman Harry Matserton-Smith "The effect could be devastating…High dose supplements are often a last resort when no one else has found answers". Indeed with over 21 percent of the UK regularly consulting alternative practitioners and natural products, vitamin and supplement sales are an essential multi-billion pound industry jealously coveted by international pharmaceutical interests. The UK Association of Health Stores a has echoed these sentiments in distress at the prospect of nationwide closures of health-food shops when the legislation is enforced. It has convened a high profile lobby of more than 40 celebrities including Sir Paul Mc Cartney, Sir Elton John, Sir Cliff Richard and Phil Collins to back a protest arguing for freedom in healthcare.

High Dose Supplements are often a last resort when no one else has found answers

It is well known that the pharmaceutical giants depend on the continued existence of chronic disease for their profits. To that end it has been suggested that billions of people are increasingly being forced into disastrous physical and financial dependency on drugs that capitalize on disease rather than prevent or eradicate it. And with profits in the pharmaceutical industry being several times greater than the average for other trades they are responsible for astronomical health care costs that keep entire industrialized countries in their stranglehold. For many then this new legislation is a double barrel insult: not only are we deprived of a cure for many chronic diseases but we are forced to pay premium prices for unpredictable and often dangerous chemicals to control symptoms of disease.

According to the leading campaigner against these EU reforms Dr Matthias Rath, for decades now, a pharmaceutical conspiracy has dedicated itself to concealing and censoring breakthroughs in the prevention and cure of chronic diseases with vitamins. For instance did you know that heart attack and stroke are the consequences of a vitamin C deficiency and as such are preventable 2 ? Then there's Vitamin B3 and C in schizophrenia 3, 4, the amino acid L-tryptophan in depression 5, Vitamin B17 and the amino acid L-lysine in cancer 6,7 - the list goes on. Yet when compared with indicated drug treatments like beta blockers, calcium antagonists and cholesterol lowering products for heart disease, common antipsychotics like chlorpromazine and haloperidol for schizophrenia, specific serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants like Prozac and Seroxat for depression and chemotherapies in cancer, these dietary supplements are often not only as effective but are affordable and free from the minefield of potentially life threatening side effects. Many of these treatments are "dirty drugs" causing brain damage and even Parkinson's disease over the long term in the case of the antispychotics and sexual dysfunction, addiction and even suicide in the case of the newer "cleaner" SSRI antidepressants as the many news reports about Prozac over the last 10 years will attest. Unlike judicious high dose use of vitamins and nutrients chemotherapy too is often a toxic gamble and many heart disease medications actually have an high mortality rate. But now this inside information is getting the exposure it needs through the alternative health sector Dr Rath says the pharmaceutical giants are forming a worldwide cartel to keep you and me ignorant of the dramatic health benefits to be had from vitamins. By sitting on the EU Codex Alimentarius Commission and banning free access to therapeutic amounts of vitamins and minerals the pharmaceutical industry itself has become the main obstacle to medical breakthroughs in the control of all these diseases. Further by lowering the composition of high street vitamins to sub-therapeutic dosages this legislation will guarantee that drugs are the only viable (and profitable) option.

Millions of us are regularly goaded into blindly accepting drug therapies that have been introduced before the side effects have been fully researched in the long term. Yet pharmaceutical companies continue in their campaign to mislead, confuse and deceive the public into accepting drug claims. The result is that drug-therapy associated deaths have risen to become the fourth largest killer in the industrialized world surpassed only by heart attack, cancer and stroke 1 . According to the American Food and drug Administration from 1983 to 1990, there was not one casualty due to vitamins, amino acids, or any other supplements in the U.S.A. During the same time, however, more than 100,000 Americans died from the side effects of prescription medications.8 In the last 4 years alone 10 headline-grabbing "wonder drugs" have been withdrawn after killing and injuring thousands of people in the US and Europe like the cholesterol lowering drug Baycol, the weight loss killer Fenfluramine and the dependency-forming antidepressant Seroxat. And yet it is the safe, natural substances that have been present in the food chain for thousands of years that are controlled, restricted and meted out like poisons to appease the insane race for pharmaceutical global domination.

Ultimately this will force the consumer to spend his healthcare pounds in one way only and legally protect the skyrocketing profits of the pharmaceutical companies well into the next millennium. Under any other name this would be known as a shakedown racket. While we let the drug companies legislate themselves onto an island of immunity they are granting themselves a license to print their own money by removing their only source of competition. Not only that but we are forced to pay in taxes for the privilege of having this sorry state of affairs decided for us!

What can we do NOW?

Well we may have lost the battle but the war is not over. You can help significantly by writing to your local MP or MEP (see end of article) and any European consumer groups Like the Consumers For Health Choice (CHC) at 9 Old Queen St, London SW1H 9JA to aggressively lobby for repeal of the European Directive on Dietary Supplements but you must act now.. You can find out the name and address of your MP by visiting the Constituency Locata at http://www.locata.co.uk/commons/ or by writing for the attention of your MP to House of Commons London SW1A 0AA. Tell your neighbours, work associates, local TV, Radio and Newspaper about the Codex Commission and distribute copies of articles available at Dr Rath's websites www.vitamins-for-all.org and http://www.drrath.com/. Encourage everyone you meet to cast their vote as part of the biggest worldwide online Referendum - the "Vitamins for all campaign" at http://www.vitamins-for-all.org/english/default_newsarchive.html - because there will be no ignoring the final count and we are already 603 million votes strong! Say no to a worldwide ban on vitamins and make yourself heard - "I will no longer cast my vote for any politician who does not commit himself or herself to free access to natural treatments!" Lets end the double standard, halt this runaway bureaucratic madness and stop the drug companies trespassing in the regulation of dietary supplements once and for all.

Contact our 17 British MEP's sitting on the EU's health Committee directly with your views:

JACKSON, Caroline F.
cjackson@europarl.eu.int

Bruxelles / Brussel:
Phone: +32 (0) 2 284 5255
Fax: +32 (0) 2 284 925
Strasbourg:
Phone: +33 (0) 3 88 17 5255
Fax: +33 (0) 3 88 17 9255



BOWE, David Robert
dbowe@europarl.eu.int

Bruxelles / Brussel:
Phone: +32 (0) 2 284 5290
Fax: +32 (0) 2 284 9290

Strasbourg:
Phone: +33 (0) 3 88 17 5290
Fax: +33 (0) 3 88 17 9290


BOWIS, John
jbowis@europarl.eu.int

Bruxelles / Brussel:
Phone: +32 (0) 2 284 5780
Fax: +32 (0) 2 284 9780

Strasbourg:
Phone: +33 (0) 3 88 17 5780
Fax: +33 (0) 3 88 17 9780
CALLANAN, Martin
mcallanan@europarl.eu.int

DAVIES, Chris
cdavies@europarl.eu.int

Bruxelles / Brussel:
Phone: +32 (0) 2 284 5353
Fax: +32 (0) 2 284 9353

Strasbourg:
Phone: +33 (0) 3 88 17 5353
Fax: +33 (0) 3 88 17 9353

GOODWILL, Robert
rgoodwill@europarl.eu.int

STIHLER, Catherine
cstihler@europarl.eu.int

WHITEHEAD, Phillip
pwhitehead@europarl.eu.int

Bruxelles / Brussel:
Phone: +32 (0) 2 284 5459
Fax: +32 (0) 2 284 9459

Strasbourg:
Phone: +33 (0) 3 88 17 5459
Fax: +33 (0) 3 88 17 9459

BUSHILL-MATTHEWS, Phillip
pbushill@europarl.eu.int

Bruxelles / Brussel:
Phone: +32 (0) 2 284 5114
Fax: +32 (0) 2 284 9114

Strasbourg:
Phone: +33 (0) 3 88 17 5114
Fax: +33 (0) 3 88 17 911

EVANS, Jillian
jievans@europarl.eu.int

EVANS, Robert J.E.
rjevans@europarl.eu.int

HONEYBALL, Mary
mhoneyball@europarl.eu.int

MORGAN, Eluned
emorgan@europarl.eu.int

PARISH, Neil
nparish@europarl.eu.int

SIMPSON, Brian
bsimpson@europarl.eu.int

STURDY, Robert William
rsturdy@europarl.eu.int

Bruxelles / Brussel:
Phone: +32 (0) 2 284 5294
Fax: +32 (0) 2 284 9294

Strasbourg:
Phone: +33 (0) 3 88 17 5294
Fax: +33 (0) 3 88 17 9294

Dr. TANNOCK, Charles
ctannock@europarl.eu.int

References

1. www. vitamins-for-all.org
2. Vitamin C Inhibits Endothelial Cell Apoptosis in Congestive Heart Failure Lothar Rössig et al Molecular Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine IV, University of Frankfurt, Germany.
3. Hoffer et al. "Treatment of schizophrenia with nicotinic acid and nicotinamide" Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology 18 (1957): 131 - 158, 1957
4. Hoffer et al. "In Reply to the American Psychiatric Association task Force Report on Megavitamins and Orthomolecular Therapy in Psychiatry". Burnaby, BC.: Canadian Schizophrenia Foundation, 1976.
5. M. J.A.J.M. Hoes "L-tryptophan in depression" Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry 4(1982): 231
6. World Without Cancer The Story of Vitamin B17 By G. Edward Griffin
7. http://www.vitamins-for-all.org/english/default_science.html
8. American Medical Journal of the American Medical Association dated April 15, 1998
9. Europe bans Food Supplements.