Thursday, November 16, 2006

FDA Regulation of Nutrition & Bioidentical Hormones

The AMA, the American Medical Association, represents Doctors who represent the patient's interest, right? Riiiiight. In their last session, the AMA passed a resolution asking the FDA to regulate bio-identical hormones and nutritional substances.

Now why could this be?

While the AMA hasn't offered viable solutions about how to save the over 200,000 people killed every year at the hands of doctors mis-prescribing FDA-approved medications, they are all for regulating natural, helpful food supplements and natural hormonal help with no reported deaths or demonstrable harmful effects.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), the horse-urine kind, has been proven to increase heart disease, cardiovascular accidents, strokes, and breast cancer. So doctors went from prescribing these "helpful" substances to every woman over 40 who complained of a hot flash or mood swing, to prescribing anti-depressants. SSRIs are now the drug of choice for a middle-aged woman, because we all know that hormonal women, just ain't right. Right?

Enter physicians who seek alternatives to the obvious gaps in modern medicine. Traditional medicine shines here: emergency medicine, trauma medicine, reconstruction--basically acute, life-saving procedures and treatments. If we are all lucky and take care of ourselves, hopefully we won't ever need this kind of medicine. That hospitals are all over, testifies to the fact that most likely, we'll all need it at one time or another. But another reason these hospitals have sprung up like weeds is because the doctors in them are trying to capture more of the health care market with "preventative medicine". This sounds good, but what it usually means is using statins, anti-cholesterol medication, anti-depressants, fill-in-the-blank med for marginally healthy people. These are not sick, about to die, people. These are the I-don't-want-to-die-like-Daddy-did people. So doctors medicate them and call it prevention.

Traditional medicine does not deal with true prevention very well. They are symptom-driven. A lot of people don't equate taking fifteen meds at 50 with being healthy and full of vitality. They want to truly prevent and to prevent naturally.

Where do people who want to not only remove symptoms, but build vitality go? They go to medical doctors, chiropractors, naturopaths, acupuncturists, Chinese medicine folks, and massage therapists (to name a few), to keep the engines humming. In our office, we have hunted around and found some of the best supplement companies in the world. In one particular instance, the company organically grows, harvests, cold processes and puts together the most cutting-edge nutrition at state-of-the-art facilities. We know the raw materials are excellent. We can guarantee the final product is excellent. And, of course, these products give phenomenal results. Do most medical doctors know how or where or when their Provera products were produced? Ha! Doubtful.

So why would the AMA want to put a stop to people having the freedom to choose their treatments? Why would the AMA want to bring food substances and natural hormone treatments (made from food substances) under the well-bought-out (by Big Pharma) FDA?

It couldn't possibly be money, could it? It couldn't possibly be the fact that the physicians using healthy, natural alternatives are getting such fantastic results that families willingly pay cash for them and the traditional doctors have results-envy, could it? It couldn't possibly be that they are losing patients because patients are healthier and happier and don't need the medications that they used to take, could it?

Nah, this legislation is for you, the dull-witted, ignorant consumer who needs a Government regulatory agency to tell you what the right thing is to do with your health and your money. You need to help keep the pharmaceutical companies and the AMA (who is in bed with them), healthy and happy. That's the real patient being "helped" by this AMA-proposed legislation.

Tell you what. When the FDA and the AMA reduce the number of deaths due to adverse drug reactions and botched procedures to the level of alternative health practitioners levels (how's zero sound) from the 200,000 annually, I'll listen to legislative efforts at making natural health care products "safe" for consumers. Until then, the AMA can figure out how to woo back the consumers they haven't killed. It's called a free market.

Americans deserve to have the freedom to choose the kind of health care services they want.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Dr. Clouthier:

I literally stumbled upon your website and am very glad I did.

You put your finger on the problem: Big Pharma is in bed with everyone, especially America's doctors and their official organization, the AMA. It's a real shame.

I, too, am working hard to make the public aware of these unholy financial alliances through my website, www.honestmedicine.com.

One of my articles, a 3-parter entitled "The JAMA Controversy," discusses the uproar surrounding the recent disclosure that several physician/authors of one study published by JAMA had significant financial ties to Big Pharma. I think you will find that I uncovered some new information in my research for this article. I would be honored if you would read it and tell me what you think of it.

I am glad I have discovered your site, and plan to return to it often.

Thanks very, very much.
Julia Schopick
http://www.honestmedicine.typepad.com