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Senator John McCain and a Senator Byron L. Dorgan from North Dakota are trying to restrict your health freedom and access to good quality supplements. They introduced a bill — Senate Bill S.3002. There was such pushback that as of late last week this bill is being withdrawn. Briefly what is going on here is: There were some ill effects from one manufacturer's selenium supplement. There were no deaths. Also a few companies are accused of including steroids in some supplements (illegal).

Whenever a supplement is involved with any problems, people go ballistic. Most of these people reside inside Big Pharma and the FDA (now a branch of Big Pharma). Big Pharma and the FDA hate the supplement and natural health industries. These are patient-driven movements that began in the '70's because the US population was so dissatisfied with their healthcare. Hence, DSHEA was passed. I was very instrumental in that fight. DSHEA guarantees us access to good supplements and herbs due to the fact that they are foods.

There are many excellent companies in the US who have produced fabulous supplements at good prices that actually work to improve health and prevent disease. That cuts into Big Pharma's profits.

So, every once in awhile the US government tries to overturn DSHEA and regulate supplements. Regulation doesn't sound so bad to the lay person. But in effect regulation of supplements would mean that ALL supplements would be made from a pharmaceutical model and not a food model.

Anything high quality would cost a tremendous amount of money, like $45 for a bottle of natural Vitamin C that would only be available by prescription. Hence, more big profits for Big Pharma. So, S.3002 is the kiss of death to the current supplement industry. It would put millions of people out of work and the fabulous supplement companies in the US would be forced to close their doors.

These people never give up, so let's make sure we watch closely a bill introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), S.502. This is another seemingly benign bill designed to "protect" us. In its current form S.502 doesn't address supplements. But the McCain group is trying to get supplement restrictions in the back door with S.502. So please watch S.502 and contact your Senators.

To your health,
Dr. Karen Purcell