December 27th, 2011 at 1:41pm by William Flaxman

Hi John,
I’m disappointed but not surprised to hear this disturbing news. Please know that your research and publications are highly valued. While many pharmaceutical hard-liners aren’t willing to accept it yet, there NEEDS to be flexibility and room in our repertoire for both pharmaceuticals that treat disease as well as nutritional supplements that maintain health and prevent disease.  For decades, the pharmaceutical industry contemptuously ignored, devalued, and discounted nutritional supplements as “not medicine” but, as the American public has become educated to the benefits of supplements (and has clearly endorsed that preference at the cash register), the pharmaceutical industry has, through lobbyists and politicians it supports, waged many assaults aimed at dismantling or undermining the supplement industry, the current NDI Draft Guidance format—-recently shut down—-being yet another attempt.  I greatly appreciate your newsletter; let’s hope there are enough wise folks in Washington who won’t limit the range of existing health options by passing laws that would obstruct access to nutritional supplements that support health and well-being in favor of, and deference to, pharmaceuticals that might be appropriate in treating an existing disease but are not preventive and carry, as well, the risk of undesirable side effects.

December 28th, 2011 at 5:18pm by John Morgenthaler

Hi William: Thank you for you comments and also for your kind words about our publications.

December 29th, 2011 at 10:12am by Peter McCarthy

Hello, John
    Thank you for your courageous stand in favor of health freedom!  As the chair of the nation’s largest state level natural health advocacy organization, the Texas Health Freedom Coalition (http://www.texashealthfreedom.com), I have found through extensive experience that coordinated, cooperative action by many is the answer to the predations of organizations like the FDA against courageous companies like Health Freedom Nutrition, which dare to deviate from the Big Pharma-driven agenda of the FDA, FTC, and their fellow travelers.
    As I clearly spell out in my upcoming book, Adrenaline Nation, the FDA is NOT the impartial arbiter of the nation’s health that it portrays itself to be.  Rather, it is the fulfillment of the warning one of Founding Fathers, Benjamin Rush (George Washington’s personal physician) issued long ago:

“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to others. . . “

It is past time for us, as a people, to organize ourselves to combat this frontal assault on our most basic freedom, the right to bodily integrity.  I am honored to partner with you and Smart Publications to bring this message of freedom of choice, and the need for action to protect that choice, to the American people.

December 30th, 2011 at 6:22pm by Lara Pizzorno

Properly prescribed, properly administered FDA-approved pharmaceutical agents are the #2 leading cause of death in the U.S.—shows the latest data, which was published in the May 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Hospitalizations for poisoning by prescription medication have increased by 65% from 1999 to 2006. The study’s lead author, Jeffrey H. Coben, MD, is quoted as exclaiming, “Deaths and hospitalizations associated with prescription drug misuse have reached epidemic proportions. It is essential that health care providers, pharmacists, insurance providers, state and federal agencies, and the general public all work together to address this crisis.”
Funny, I haven’t heard or read anything about FDA taking this issue on. Why, one wonders? Oh, of course! Their time is all being used to deal with the tremendous threat to public health posed by nutritional supplements! What—the US Poison Control Center data show that not a single death has been caused by any nutritional supplement in the last 27 years. Hmmm.
Right on, John. I stand with you. OCCUPY FDA!

January 5th, 2012 at 10:17am by marion lippert

when our daughter was dying from ALS we sent her to germany…......when she came home she would be taking health care items from germany by mail….......the FDA took her items,........they would rather have her die then use non drugs….....i wrote a book on this…...Walking on Central Blvd….......not much has changed…..

my husband went to mexico when he had a tumor in his head…....he is doing fine….......FDA!

January 5th, 2012 at 10:19am by Mark

Thanks for the article John,

As you know the FDA has been trying this tactic for many years. Like other statists with their allies in big corporations they wish to eliminate choices and competition that makes life better for the people.  Hmmm statists with big corporate allies seems like maybe I remember something in Germany in 1939 like that. Anybody know any history?

ELIMINATE THE FDA. OCCUPY IS NOT ENOUGH!

January 5th, 2012 at 11:29am by Arlie

I am sorry for your problems. We that believe in alternative health have seen a lot of this by a government that is supposed to be looking out for our benefit. Instead they do what big business wants them to do for their benefit.

January 5th, 2012 at 11:34am by gordon claycomb

As a victim of GBS and Bell’s palsy from inoculations containing mercury, Hg, in the form of thimerosol, i have been well aware for years of the FDA’s dictatorial support of big pharma. This can be extended to the CDC’s and ADA’s mis- representation of the facts concerning heavy metal poisoning AND flouride poisoning. All one needs do to confirm this with solid science is search out what the japanese do and do not do re flouridation of water and inoculation of children prior to the age of 2 (NONE!). Keep up the publications and start a ” friends of health freedom of choice fund”......so we can support your efforts as they squeeze you further.Don’t be surprised if they take you to court.  I’m good for $50 right now and more later.

January 5th, 2012 at 12:07pm by Karen Converse

Please keep up the good fight for all of us—more and more all the time—who believe in and rely upon “alternative” and “complimentary” health measures.  The drug companies have become tyrants and insurance companies companies make it that much worse by what they will or will not cover.  So sorry for this latest setback for you!

January 5th, 2012 at 1:36pm by Christine Peterson

John—Please email me to discuss.—Christine Peterson, Personalized Life Extension Conference 2012

January 5th, 2012 at 1:37pm by bea moore

Comes down to MONEY & POWER doesn’t it.  The powers that be think they know more than each individual knows about their body.  Rediculous.  Your publication has been such a great help for me not to be dependent on drugs that are poison in the long run.  Thank you for all you’ve done. Please keep fighting.  & voting.

January 5th, 2012 at 2:15pm by Bill Casey

As long as it is legal to retire (with full government benefits) from the FDA, and then go to work for a drug company, we will have an intractable—and deadly—conflict of interest. “Checks and balances” have checked out.

January 5th, 2012 at 2:43pm by Dale

The FDA makes it clear that if I knowingly advertise on a site that discusses the relationship between the ingredients in any of my formulas to any disease process, they will consider any products that contain these ingredients drugs.  Once this happens, my company would be required to stop selling these supplements and may be required to recall previous supplements sold.  They can also attempt to convict me as if I was running a criminal drug cartel or further coerce me into signing a consent decree that would limit my ability to make a living in my chosen field.  Yes, I feel terrorized by my own government.

Especially upsetting is the uneven application of these enforcement activities.  Yesterday I opened the January/February 2012 issue of Healthy Living (SamsClub) and on page 44 and 45 they have their vitamin D product featured with the following claims:  Blocks the growth of colon cancer, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, reduce premature death.

Don’t get me wrong, we all should be able to talk about this when the science supports it.  I just feel unjustly targeted.  Maybe we should insist the FDA bully someone their own size (SamsClub and their owner Walmart), that might change things.

January 5th, 2012 at 3:30pm by Arrow Durfee

Hello,
I am the editor of http://www.HealthSalon.org
I am suportive to your issue. If you have a need for an independent platform to put information up about your products as well as testimonials I am offering my site. I am a not for profit site. We make no money on HealthSalon, it is there soley to promote the truth.
Sincerely,
Arrow Durfee

January 5th, 2012 at 4:53pm by David Wolverton

I’m a 74 year old who takes no pharmaceuticals and visits no allopaths.  Once diagnosed with diabetes and told it was incurable, I eventually discovered it was really just a form of food poisoning.  I quit taking the poison and no longer have this ‘disease’.  And have for a long time been free of most other diseases.  I visit a naturopath and a chiropractor and take supplements as I and the naturopath decide are helpful.  Although I am on Medicare, they haven’t paid me a dime in years.  They don’t pay for anything I do for my health.  Obama’s new rules are the only thing that keeps me from canceling my medicare subscription.  For now.

January 5th, 2012 at 6:29pm by alexander

The fda should really stop bulling people… I want my free speech and “FREEDOM OF CHOICE” is that not in the CONSTITUTION. fda stop supporting the pharmacutical companies and read the research on the various treatments on the many chronic diseases that face our NATION by using alternative method modalities ...the science is there people, all you have to do is stop protecting the drug companies and allow the people to make there choice. Senator Harken and Senator Hatch this is very serious ...let the science of alternative medicine have there day to address the people.
Thank you…

January 5th, 2012 at 10:50pm by John Morgenthaler

To Gordon Claycomb (above):
Thank you for your comments and your idea of a “Health Freedom of Choice Fund”. And thank you for the kind offer of $50 towards this fund. I’ll be thinking about this interesting idea and how to set it up.

January 6th, 2012 at 1:12am by Steven Bulger

We need less government intrusion in all aspects of our lives! Our freedoms are being restricted by our government representatives whom we elected. Pharmaceutical companies can’t get rich by selling supplements. Hope I can continue to purchase the supplements that I take!

January 6th, 2012 at 9:07am by Norman Houtz

John,

We have a medication-development system that is fundamentally defective;  the argument goes like this:

All pharmaceuticals begin life as patented products.  They therefore must satisfy U.S. Patent and Trademark Office criteria for the patenting of inventions.

The Patent Office has two such criteria:

1.  The Newness Criterion
2.  The Usefulness Criterion

The Patent Office defines the word “new” in this context as less than one year old.

In the case of chemical compounds occurring in nature, it wouldn’t matter if they used one year or a hundred thousand years.  They would get the same answer: CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS WHICH OCCUR IN NATURE ARE NOT PATENTABLE.

There are two ways the Newness Criterion can be satisfied:

1.  Man-made (synthetic) compounds.
2.  Synergistic mixtures of naturally-occurring compounds, in which the mixture does not occur in nature and the mixture has beneficial properties that the individual compounds do not have.

1. above is far and away the most common method used to obtain patentable drugs.

But the human body is not designed to operate on man-made chemicals.  We don’t have the enzymes needed to process and eliminate the metabolites safely.

The result of all of this is the array of side effects that most drugs have.  Also, many drugs operate by interfering with a body function that would otherwise occur.  MAN-MADE CHEMICALS CANNOT AND WILL NOT MAKE US HEALTHY.

BECAUSE THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM IS THE PATENTING OF PHARMACEUTICALS, THE SOLUTION IS THE ELIMINATION OF SUCH PATENTING.  CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT HAVE THE POWER TO DO THIS.

Under my plan all pharmaceuticals would become generic immediately after receiving FDA approval.  Funding for R&D would have to come from the Feds, as much of it already is.  All chemical compounds would have an equal opportunity to participate in the FDA approval process.

The extremely wasteful and degrading process, in which billions of dollars are spent trying to find synthetic analogues of beneficial natural compounds, would be eliminated.

The demarcation between prescription and OTC products would be made by dosage ratios (the ratio of the toxic dosage to the effective dosage).  Products with high ratios would be OTC and products with low ratios would be prescription.

Norman E. Houtz

January 6th, 2012 at 10:04am by John Morgenthaler

Thank you Norman. I agree that patent law is at the root of the problem. The legal structure sets the “rules of the game”,  and then the pharmaceutical companies play that game. I’m glad you took the time to tell this part of the story, which I think most people are unaware of.

January 6th, 2012 at 12:26pm by Maxine Farrell

I have been using herbs, vitamins and minerals and healthy supplements for years and years and traditional medicine when necessary,  Your company offers excellent info. and so does Health Freedom and Nutrition fit the bill for an excellent source of healthy nutrional supplements.  I will pray for favor for you from God, and that the medical pharmaceutical lobbyists and FDA do not shut you down, but ultimately will commend you on your stand and that peace may ensue.  The FDA was probably afraid of losing his job and was forced to pick on you.  Hopefully they’ll back off!

January 7th, 2012 at 2:18am by John

What happened to America working to promote AMERICAN JOBS!

There is always BIG TALK of CREATING MORE AMERICAN JOBS! 

But, when a solid American companies like Health Freedom Nutrition and Smart Publication are SINGLED OUT and TARGETED, it is just a sad statement of contradiction!  Health Freedom Nutrition and Smart Publication are both solely American Companies; yet, what our US government is doing through their FDA is only HARMING AMERICAN JOBS!

What Americans and the America’s economy needs are healthy boosts and enactments. What Americans and the America’s economy does not need is senseless and targeted UNHEALTHY REGULATION!

We all know that there are many things that are known to be ‘healthy’, long before any government recognizes them as such.  One’s HEALTH and NUTRITION is a personal thing.  Unduly targeting, restricting and regulating AMERICAN COMPANIES is simply and plainly UN-AMERICAN, or sure should be!

January 8th, 2012 at 5:35pm by Walter Crinnion

John,
You asked what it means when a government agency puts economic pressure on someone like yourself.
Since they were successful it means that you have not yet achieved the same economic clout (ability to pay good attorneys) that Mercola and Life Extension has attained.

Not YET.

Keep the faith

January 9th, 2012 at 1:32pm by Doug Morgan

The FDA isn’t the only bully regulatory agency in the Fed Gov.  The EPA has ruined energy production, the Fed Energy Regulator Commission (FERC) has taken over lakes around the country and caused may property owners millions of dollars.  The government is picking winners and losers and that is entirely unconstitutional.  The only way the Feds can be reigned in is from “we the people!”  We must get onto our representatives and senators and stay on to them until laws are passed that govern the power of these regulatory agencies.

January 10th, 2012 at 10:19pm by Michele

The fda is really going at our rights.  The only way to fight this is through some type of organization, but the mainstream media does not cover it either.  It seems like the health food stores, restaurants, websites and alternative medicine practitioners should organize together.  Maybe the fda will be uncomfortable hitting them all at once.

January 13th, 2012 at 2:19pm by Jed Diamond

We are at a time in human history where old institutions are crumbling (health, education, economic, etc) and those who are in power are doing everything they can to survive.  At the same time, more effective alternatives are being born and are beginning to take hold and flourish.

The old power structure, afraid to acknowledge the value of the new, try to kill it (and those who practice it).  We need to stick together and support each other during these transition times.

January 19th, 2012 at 8:38pm by Susan

I’m not surprised by the actions of the Fraud and Deception Association.  Like it or not, the big pharma will have to get used to natural medicine.  It’s here to stay.  Increasingly more and more doctors every day are joining our troops by practicing alternative medicines.  It’s just plain common sense, and doctors of today are becoming more and more disillusioned by the big pharma nonsence.  Even an average patient can see that after they are given three or more pharmaceuticals they can’t tell if they are sick ,or if they are just experiencing side effects from the many offensive additives in their medicines.  I believe that one day this will be known as the dark age of medicine, when for profit human beings were blatantly poisoned;  Where some doctors tell their patients that they will have to maintain their disease rather than cure it.  It’s what I call the pharmers, bringing in the cash cows for big pharma.  Most of them don’t even know that is in fact what they are doing.  Smart publication was near and dear to my heart.  i wrote an article for them once for Prosera.  I wrote it because I thought it was something wonderful for soldiers coming back from war.  It’s a sad day when we can no longer help those we care about through the free speech of what we experience in the natural medicine/supplement world.  No matter how many billions they have, natural healing is here to stay.