FDA Quietly Removing Access to Natural Health

Right under our noses the FDA is restricting our right to medical freedom and choice. Mistletoe products—used in Europe for almost one hundred years to treat cancer and other diseases—can no longer be purchased in the U.S or Canada.

In the National Cancer Institute information about Mistletoe there is irony and contradiction with glaring contradictions such as in bullet number 3 (see below). In the same breath NCI is acknowledging Mistletoe's long, wide and successful use, but nevertheless the FDA is not allowing it to be used in this country.

Our ability to choose what types of healthcare we want to use for ourselves and our families is being hijacked by government agencies, medical associations like the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the pharmaceutical industry.

It is time for this medical monopoly to stop. Please contact your Congressman and let them know you want the discrimination against medical orientation to end NOW.

Overview

• Mistletoe is a semiparasitic plant that grows on several types of common trees such as apple, oak, pine, and elm. Mistletoe extract has been used since ancient times to treat many ailments (see Question 1).
• Mistletoe is one of the most widely studied complementary and alternative medicine therapies in people with cancer. In certain European countries, preparations made from European mistletoe are among the most prescribed drugs for patients with cancer (see Question 1).
• Mistletoe extract has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory and to affect the immune system. However, there is limited evidence that mistletoe's effects on the immune system help the body fight cancer (see Question 2 and Question 3).
• Mistletoe extracts are usually given by injection under the skin or, less often, into a vein, into the pleural cavity, or into the tumor. (see Question 4).
• Animal studies have suggested that mistletoe may be useful in decreasing the side effects of standard anticancer therapy, such as chemotherapy and radiation (see Question 5).
• Several human studies using mistletoe to treat cancer have been done since the early 1960s, but major weaknesses in many of these have raised doubts about their findings (see Question 6).
• Very few harmful side effects have been reported from the use of mistletoe extract (see Question 7).
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved mistletoe as a treatment for cancer or any other medical condition (see Question 8).
• The FDA does not allow injectable mistletoe to be imported, sold, or used except for clinical research (see Question 8).

Legislative Review 2013 Session

"Human rights don't assert themselves. Freedom doesn't preserve itself all alone and democracy doesn't succeed by itself"—German Chancellor Angela Merkel 1/30/13 commenting on the 80th anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power


The Vermont 2013 legislative session is under way. Practitioners and consumers who practice and utilize holistic and natural health care may be interested in the following proposed bills.

The following are in the House Health Care Committee. Listed below are the bill number, the purpose of the bill directly quoted, a link where you can download the “original version” to read the entire language (click on the bill number), and recommendations for actions.

Emails, letters and/or phone calls all make an impact. For those who need to find their representatives and senators and their contact information, you can search on the Vermont Legislature Web site.


H.12
This bill proposes to require health insurance plans, including Medicaid, to provide coverage for all health care services, including complementary and alternative treatments, if at least two studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals find such services to be safe, to be directly related to statistically significant improvements in individuals’ health status, and to reduce associated medical costs.

Support in theory. But urge the removal of or revision of the qualifier: “if at least two studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.”  For instance the case can be made that acupuncture, used for 5000 years, is safe and effective regardless of whether two peer reviewed articles claim it to be so.

H.114
This bill proposes to remove the religious and philosophical exemptions for immunization against pertussis and to require an adult working in a school or child care facility to keep his or her immunization against pertussis current.

Oppose.This bill and H.138 below are more restrictive versions of the bill last session which unsuccessfully tried to remove the philosophical exemption for school children. Last year’s bill was dramatically altered, resulting in an almost unanimous vote to maintain the philosophical exemption. Both H.114 and H.138 want to limit choice not just to parents but also to ALL people working in schools, whether paid or volunteer, stripping them of their right to informed consent. H.114 is focused on the pertussis vaccine—a vaccine that has failed. The State Health Department statistics show that 90-100% of those who contracted pertussis were vaccinated. The Health Department is not in favor of this bill after last’s years battle.

H.138
This bill proposes to suspend the philosophical and religious exemptions for a specific required vaccine if the immunization rate at a school for that vaccine falls below a 90 percent threshold.

Oppose. This bill and H.114 above are more restrictive versions of the bill last session which unsuccessfully tried to remove the philosophical exemption for school children. Last year’s bill was dramatically altered, resulting in an almost unanimous vote to maintain the philosophical exemption. Both H.114 and H.138 want to limit choice not just to parents but also to ALL people working in schools, whether paid or volunteer, stripping them of their right to informed consent. H.138 proposes a 90% “trigger” which limits the right to informed consent to medical procedures only to the first 10% who exercise it. As a constitutional lawyer will tell you, rights can not be qualified—you either have the right, or don’t. For example, the right to Freedom of Speech is not extended to only a certain percentage of the population, but to everyone.The “trigger” was attempted in last years bill to remove the philosophical exemption and it was rejected by the House.

H.224
This bill proposes to require the Green Mountain Care Board to include acupuncture as a covered service in Green Mountain Care.

Support. FABULOUS! hope that additional modalities are covered as well!