From: Robin.Salmansohn@f715.n273.z1.fidonet.org (Robin Salmansohn)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Keeping Vitamins Legal 3/3
Date: 19 Aug 92 01:52:34 GMT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:273/715 - Alternative Lifesty, Wyndmoor PA


 To: John.Willis@p123.f349.n109.z1.fidonet.org (John Willis)
 
 JW> Dr. Vaughn Harada, a California dentist who uses electro-
 JW> acupuncture to treat patients and is president of the Association
 JW> of Health Practitioners, a trade association of doctors,
 JW> dentists, acupuncturists and naturopaths, said a growing number
 JW> of its members use nutritional supplements, homeopathic remedies
 JW> and medications in their practices.  "Now they're afraid they may
 JW> be targeted by the F.D.A. like Dr. Wright was," Dr. Harada said.

 JW> Deborah Widel, one of the co-founders of People for Reason in
 JW> Science and Medicine and a patient of Dr. Harada, said she feared
 JW> such scenes would become more commonplace.  "We're not trying to
 JW> put the F.D.A. out of business," she said.  "It's an agency that
 JW> has served a useful and necessary purpose.  But we don't need Big
 JW> Brother, either."
 
This is NOT a flame:
 
With all due respect to your opinions, I just don't see the F.D.A. sitting 
there, plotting against Dr. Wright, M.D. or anyone else
as you seem to indicate that some people have claimed. I am not
the FDA, nor an M.D., but I am a Medical Researcher, and I have to
bend to the FDA as much as anyone else. I see no one twisting a
handlebar moustche snickering, "Hmm... Now who do we screw next for
fun?" [So-To-Speak]. There are legitimate differences of opinion,
and I have personally see seen people caste themselves as some sort
of martyr when one person holds a strong view, and an athority has
another. The FDA is mandated by law to establish a set of rulings
that is what they honestly believe to be the best and correct way
to protect the general public. I have seen (not addressing Dr. Wright
directly) some very unsafe and sleezy claims for products that have
shown to be unquestionably unsafe. And too I have seen at the same
time, someone who has legitimately challanged a regualtion prohibiting
the sale or claim. This claim may be based on a new study or set of them. Some 
of these challanges are legit, and too, a few are biased
lies made by the people who felt the economic pinch of the removal
of that product from the market. Until the claims or challanges become
prevelant (you don't accept one or even two challanges to a claim)
the ban must prevail. It is not a personal vendetta by the FDA, it
is the way that the law that FDA must follow has to happen. Essentially,a 
product is not considered marketable unles there is  OVERWHEALMING
proof that it is both safe and also effective for what that product
claims it will do. Congress had mandated that that be so, and the FDA
is the body that has the job of doing Congresses will. It most certainly is 
there to protect. (And everyone recognises that it is
a slow process, and it will make a lot of people unhappy. But it
is not there to make people happy, just to do as best as possible
to keep people alive and as healthy as it can as a regulatory agency
can do that. Better you be alive and perhaps mad as hell than dead
or adversely affected and mad as hell because they allowed a dangerous
or lethal product to get out there). It is certainly a job that gets
damned either way. Most people belive that the FDA kills a lot of
good medicine. Not true. Most investigational interventions are
'killed' by the poeple who started it. Actually the FDA does very
little of 'killing' of intervetions; they don't have to, because
MOST of the things studied simply fail on their own.
You might be talking (or arguing for suppliments, vitamins, as a damnation of 
the FDA). Actually the FDA has to follow its laws and
rules (a program known as D.E.S.I.). But again, DESI is part of
what Congress has mandated that FDA do. And suppliments/vitamins
full under the legal definition for DESI. Vitamins are not always
safe becuse they are natural. They are chemical compounds, and as such
they can interact with some drugs, or cause serious problems or death
depending on the compound, and most importantly on the individual.
Woofing down (so-to-speak) some vitamins (again, depending on the
individual, their conditions, and other meds), because someone claimed
it great is not a good idea, as while it just might be great for one
person, it can be harmful for someone else. Alas, the majority of
the medical world of FP's does not know all about these suppliments
(they do know some about some of them), but that does not mean
(either way, I am not biased against all of them for all people)
that a claim by someone is correct, safe, good, or what. That is just
the problem. You are dealing with a large pool of many chemical
compounds, and a lot of people with various medical conditions,
reactions, and medications. So the the logic has to fall back to the
premise of "DO NO HARM" (until someone shows overwhealming proof that
it is not harmful, is benificial, and not an expensive placebo that
only rips people off).


 

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Internet: Robin.Salmansohn@f715.n273.z1.fidonet.org