Health freedom movement

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The health freedom movement is a libertarian coalition that opposes regulation of health practices [1] and advocates for increased access to "non-traditional" health care. [2]

Contents

The right-wing John Birch Society has been a prominent advocate for health freedom since at least the 1970s, and the specific term "health freedom movement" has been used in the United States since the 1990s. [3] [4]

Vitamins and supplements have been exempted in the US from regulations requiring evidence of safety and efficacy, largely due to the activism of health freedom advocates. The belief that supplements and vitamins can demonstrably improve health or longevity and that there are no negative consequences from their use, is not widely accepted in the medical community. [5] Very rarely, large doses of some vitamins lead to vitamin poisoning (hypervitaminosis). [6]

Roots and support base

Health freedom is a libertarian position not aligned to the conventional left/right political axis. Libertarian Republican Congressman Ron Paul introduced the Health Freedom Protection Act in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005. [7] [8]

Prominent celebrity supporters of the movement include the musician Sir Paul McCartney, who says that people "have a right to buy legitimate health food supplements" and that "this right is now clearly under threat," [9] and the pop star/actress Billie Piper, who joined a march in London in 2003 to protest planned EU legislation to ban high dosage vitamin supplements. [10]

Legislation

United States

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) defines supplements as foods and thus permits marketing unless the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proves that it poses significant or unreasonable risk of harm rather than requiring the manufacturer to prove the supplement’s safety or efficacy. The Food and Drug Administration can take action only if the producers make medical claims about their products or if consumers of the products become seriously ill. [11]

An October 2002 nationwide Harris poll showed that, at that time, consumers still had widespread confusion about the differences between supplements and pharmaceuticals. Here, 59% of respondents believed that supplements had to be approved by a government agency before they could be marketed; 68% believed that supplements had to list potential side effects on their labels; and 55% believed that supplement labels could not make claims of safety without scientific evidence. All of these beliefs are incorrect as a result of provisions of the DSHEA. [12]

A law in the U.S. State of Virginia allows teenagers 14 or older and their parents the right to refuse medical treatments for ailments such as cancer, and to seek alternative treatments so long as they have considered all other medical options, presented as "significant for health freedom in Virginia." [13]

Europe

In Europe, health freedom movement writers and campaigners believe that European Union (EU) laws such as the Food Supplements Directive and the Human Medicinal Products (Pharmaceuticals) Directive will reduce their access to food supplements and herbal "medicines". [14] European health food producers, retailers and consumers have been vocal in protesting against this legislation, with the health freedom movement inviting supporters to "Stop Brussels from killing natural medicine". [15] Euro-MPs were accosted by activists handing out a propaganda video accusing five European commissioners of corruptly colluding with big pharmaceutical firms in an attempt to destroy the alternative network of homeopathic and "natural medicines", [16] though it emerged that most homeopathic practice in the UK has been illegal for some years and proposed European regulatory changes do not materially affect this. [17] [18] [19]

In 2004, the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) and two British trade associations introduced a legal challenge to the Food Supplements Directive referred to the European Court of Justice by the High Court in London. [20] European judges found the restrictions to be legal but stated that there must be clear procedures to allow substances to be added to the permitted list based on scientific evidence. They also said that any refusal to add a product to the list must be open to challenge in the courts. [21] Some media observers[ weasel words ] believe that, as a result of this legislation, a black market will emerge, and that controls over ingredients and quality will vanish. [22]

Conspiracy theories

Health freedom-orientated writers and campaigners tend to see restrictive legislation on supplements as being designed to protect the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. [16] If herbal medicines and supplements are removed from sale, they argue, patients will have no alternative but to use conventional pharmaceutical medicines. [23] [24]

Pharmacist and skeptical writer Scott Gavura notes that the reverse is more often true, and that "governments around the world have consistently given manufacturers the upper hand, prioritizing a company’s desire to sell a product over a consumer’s right to a marketplace with safe, effective products". [25] In particular, the US Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act permitted existing supplements to be marketed without any evidence that they are effective or safe, and for new supplement ingredients required only that a new ingredient "should be safe". [26] This has resulted in a number of serious incidents including adulteration with synthetic drugs. [27] [28]

Codex Alimentarius Commission

The health-freedom movement vehemently opposes [29] the Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements, adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as a voluntary standard at its meeting in Rome in July 2005, which includes requirements for the packaging and labelling of vitamin and mineral supplements. The text specifies that "supplements should contain vitamins/provitamins and minerals whose nutritional value for human beings has been proven by scientific data and whose status as vitamins and minerals is recognised by FAO and WHO." In addition, it states that the "sources of vitamins and minerals may be either natural or synthetic" and that "their selection should be based on considerations such as safety and bioavailability."

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) have stated that the guidelines are a consumer protection measure "to stop consumers overdosing on vitamin and mineral food supplements." The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has said that the guidelines call "for labelling that contains information on maximum consumption levels of vitamin and mineral food supplements." The WHO has also said that the Guidelines "ensure that consumers receive beneficial health effects from vitamins and minerals." [30]

Organizations and campaigners

USA and the Americas

The National Health Federation (NHF) is an international non-profit organization founded in January 1955, which describes its mission as protecting individuals' rights to use dietary supplements and alternative therapies without government restriction. The NHF also opposes interventions such as water fluoridation and childhood vaccines. The Federation has official observer status at meetings of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the highest international body on food standards. Based in California, the Federation's board members include medical doctors, scientists, therapists and consumer advocates of natural health; and it is the only health-freedom organization with Codex credentials permitting it to participate actively at Codex Alimentarius meetings.

Europe

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is an advocacy group founded in 2002 by Robert Verkerk and based in the United Kingdom. The ANH was initially founded to raise funds to finance a legal challenge of the EU Food Supplement Directive. The ANH lobbies against regulation of dietary supplements and in favor of alternative medical approaches such as homeopathy, and also advocates a healthy diet, exercise, and other lifestyle approaches to health. Verkerk rejects scientific research showing that megadoses of vitamins lack any health benefit.

Individual campaigners

The health freedom movement includes proponents such as Gary Null and convicted fraudster Kevin Trudeau.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food additive</span> Substances added to food

Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance taste, appearance, or other sensory qualities. Some additives have been used for centuries as part of an effort to preserve food, for example vinegar (pickling), salt (salting), smoke (smoking), sugar (crystallization), etc. This allows for longer-lasting foods such as bacon, sweets or wines. With the advent of ultra-processed foods in the second half of the twentieth century, many additives have been introduced, of both natural and artificial origin. Food additives also include substances that may be introduced to food indirectly in the manufacturing process, through packaging, or during storage or transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitamin</span> Nutrients required by organisms in small amounts

Vitamins are organic molecules that are essential to an organism in small quantities for proper metabolic function. Essential nutrients cannot be synthesized in the organism in sufficient quantities for survival, and therefore must be obtained through the diet. For example, Vitamin C can be synthesized by some species but not by others; it is not considered a vitamin in the first instance but is in the second. Most vitamins are not single molecules, but groups of related molecules called vitamers. For example, there are eight vitamers of vitamin E: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dietary supplement</span> Product providing additional nutrients

A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement a person's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources, or that are synthetic. The classes of nutrient compounds in supplements include vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, and amino acids. Dietary supplements can also contain substances that have not been confirmed as being essential to life, and so are not nutrients per se, but are marketed as having a beneficial biological effect, such as plant pigments or polyphenols. Animals can also be a source of supplement ingredients, such as collagen from chickens or fish for example. These are also sold individually and in combination, and may be combined with nutrient ingredients. The European Commission has also established harmonized rules to help insure that food supplements are safe and appropriately labeled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prescription drug</span> Medication legally requiring a medical prescription before it can be dispensed

A prescription drug is a pharmaceutical drug that is permitted to be dispensed only to those with a medical prescription. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The reason for this difference in substance control is the potential scope of misuse, from drug abuse to practicing medicine without a license and without sufficient education. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbal medicine</span> Study and use of supposed medicinal properties of plants

Herbal medicine is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies, such as the anti-malarial group of drugs called artemisinin isolated from Artemisia annua, a herb that was known in Chinese medicine to treat fever. There is limited scientific evidence for the safety and efficacy of many plants used in 21st century herbalism, which generally does not provide standards for purity or dosage. The scope of herbal medicine sometimes include fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and certain animal parts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multivitamin</span> Dietary supplement containing vitamins

A multivitamin is a preparation intended to serve as a dietary supplement with vitamins, dietary minerals, and other nutritional elements. Such preparations are available in the form of tablets, capsules, pastilles, powders, liquids, or injectable formulations. Other than injectable formulations, which are only available and administered under medical supervision, multivitamins are recognized by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as a category of food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Codex Alimentarius</span> Collection of internationally recognized standards

The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines, and other recommendations published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations relating to food, food production, food labeling, and food safety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nutraceutical</span> Class of nutritional product

A nutraceutical is a pharmaceutical alternative which claims physiological benefits. In the US, nutraceuticals are largely unregulated, as they exist in the same category as dietary supplements and food additives by the FDA, under the authority of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The word "nutraceutical" is a portmanteau term, blending the words "nutrition" and "pharmaceutical".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act</span> Acts of the United States Congress

The United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is a set of laws passed by the United States Congress in 1938 giving authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety of food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics. The FDA's principal representative with members of congress during its drafting was Charles W. Crawford. A principal author of this law was Royal S. Copeland, a three-term U.S. senator from New York. In 1968, the Electronic Product Radiation Control provisions were added to the FD&C. Also in that year the FDA formed the Drug Efficacy Study Implementation (DESI) to incorporate into FD&C regulations the recommendations from a National Academy of Sciences investigation of effectiveness of previously marketed drugs. The act has been amended many times, most recently to add requirements about bioterrorism preparations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health food store</span>

A health food store is a type of grocery store that primarily sells health foods, organic foods, local produce, and often nutritional supplements. Health food stores typically offer a wider or more specialized selection of foods than conventional grocery stores for their customers, for example people with special dietary needs, such as people who are allergic to the gluten in wheat or some other substance, and for people who observe vegetarian, vegan, raw food, organic, or other alternative diets.

The National Health Federation (NHF) is a lobbying group which promotes natural medicine. The NHF is based in California and describes its mission as protecting individuals' rights to use dietary supplements and alternative therapies without government restriction. The NHF also opposes mainstream public-health measures such as water fluoridation and compulsory childhood vaccines.

Health is the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. This article lists major topics related to personal health.

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is an advocacy group founded in 2002 by Robert Verkerk and based in the United Kingdom. ANH was founded to raise funds to finance a legal challenge of the EU Food Supplement Directive. ANH lobbies against regulation of dietary supplements, in favour of pseudo-scientific alternative medicine, and advocates dietary and other lifestyle approaches to health. It also criticizes established science showing that Megavitamin therapy lack any health benefit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swanson Health Products</span> American distributor of vitamins and supplements

Swanson Health Products (SHP) is a natural health catalog and Internet marketing company headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. The company sells natural health and wellness products, including health foods, dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals, herbs, as well as natural personal care products directly to consumers through mail-order catalogs and an e-commerce website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulfoaildenafil</span> Chemical compound

Sulfoaildenafil (thioaildenafil) is a synthetic drug that is a structural analog of sildenafil (Viagra). It was first reported in 2005, and it is not approved by any health regulation agency. Like sildenafil, sulfoaildenafil is a phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor.

The Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA), formerly known as the American Association for Health Freedom, is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting alternative medicine and is associated with the libertarian health freedom movement. Located in Charlottesville, Virginia, the organization was founded in 1992 as the American Preventive Medical Association (APMA) and became a part of the international Alliance for Natural Health organization, headquartered in the United Kingdom, in 2009.

Because of the uncertain nature of various alternative therapies and the wide variety of claims different practitioners make, alternative medicine has been a source of vigorous debate, even over the definition of "alternative medicine". Dietary supplements, their ingredients, safety, and claims, are a continual source of controversy. In some cases, political issues, mainstream medicine and alternative medicine all collide, such as in cases where synthetic drugs are legal but the herbal sources of the same active chemical are banned.

The PubMed Dietary Supplement Subset (PMDSS) is a joint project between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS). PMDSS is designed to help people search for academic journal articles related to dietary supplement literature. The subset was created using a search strategy that includes terms provided by the Office of Dietary Supplements, and selected journals indexed for PubMed that include significant dietary supplement related content. It succeeds the International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) database, 1999–2010, which was a collaboration between the Office of Dietary Supplements and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994</span> 1994 statute of United States Federal legislation

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 ("DSHEA"), is a 1994 statute of United States Federal legislation which defines and regulates dietary supplements. Under the act, supplements are regulated by the FDA for Good Manufacturing Practices under 21 CFR Part 111. The act was intended to exempt the dietary and herbal supplement industry from most FDA drug regulations, allowing them to be sold and marketed without scientific backing of their health and medical claims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Proxmire Amendment</span> US legislation related to dietary supplements

The Proxmire Amendments were a series of legislation that prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from monitoring and limiting the potency of vitamins and minerals found in dietary supplements. The Proxmire Amendment also made it so that food supplements could not be classified as drugs, making their sale possible without a prescription from a doctor. According to a study done, "dietary supplements fall into the following categories: vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, animal-derived products, hormones and hormone analogs, enzymes, and concentrates, metabolites, constituents, or extracts of these." They can be used by anyone wishing to purchase them as much or as little as they desire. Dietary supplements can be used to increase productivity, treating illness, helping mental health such as depression and anxiety, enhancing mental abilities, building muscle, or losing weight, among many other uses. William Proxmire, a Senator for Wisconsin, was instrumental in influencing the passing the Proxmire Amendment. The Proxmire Amendment is also known as The Rogers-Proxmire Amendment of 1976, and The Vitamins and Minerals Amendments. This amendment became section 411 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

References

  1. ↑ Grossman LA (2013). "The origins of American health libertarianism". Yale J Health Policy Law Ethics. 13 (1): 76–134. PMID   23815041.
  2. ↑ Orlando, James (28 August 2013). "OLR Research Report: Health Freedom".
  3. ↑ "Gallegly Is Key Foe of FDA's Vitamin Rules - Simi Valley: The GOP congressman has emerged as leader of effort to minimize new labeling requirements" Los Angeles Times, 2 January 1994
  4. ↑ "Doctor's supporters go to bat for him - Followers of alternative medicine organize to defend physicians they see as under attack" The Orange County Register, 7 February 1999
  5. ↑ Counseling for Vitamin Supplementation to Prevent Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease, from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Released June 2003; retrieved 28 September 2007.
  6. ↑ 2004 Annual Report Archived 5 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine of the American Association of Poison Control Centers Toxic Exposure Surveillance System.
  7. ↑ Health Freedom Protection Act Introduced in US Congress
  8. ↑ Free Speech and Dietary Supplements Archived 17 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ "Health food fans plan to copy alliance march", Daily Telegraph Published 13 September 2002. Retrieved 28 September 2007.
  10. ↑ "Billie makes a stand", This is Wiltshire Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine Published June 2003. Retrieved 28 September 2007.
  11. ↑ Dan Hurley (2006). Natural causes: death, lies, and politics in America's vitamin and herbal supplement industry . New York: Broadway Books. ISBN   0-7679-2042-2.
  12. ↑ "Dangerous Supplements: Still at Large", from Consumer Reports magazine. Published May 2004. Retrieved 7 February 2007.
  13. ↑ "Kaine Signs Tax Cut for Poor, Medical Rights for Sick Teens". Washington Post. Published 27 March 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
  14. ↑ 'Nil by mouth', by Rose Shepherd. The Observer. Published 29 February 2004. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
  15. ↑ 'Vitamin rules jar with the herbal industry.' Financial Times. Published 23 February 2004. Retrieved 18 April 2007.
  16. 1 2 'Euro-MPs vote for clampdown on vitamin sales' The Daily Telegraph. Published 14 March 2002. Retrieved 18 October 2007.
  17. ↑ Dr. Andy Lewis, 26 June 2012
  18. ↑ Professor David Colquohon, quoted in The Lancet, 30 April 2011
  19. ↑ "MHRA statement on regulation of homeopathy". Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  20. ↑ 'Court victory for vitamin firms' BBC News Published 30 January 2004. Retrieved 29 April 2007.
  21. ↑ 'EU court backs health supplements ban' The Guardian Published 12 July 2005. Retrieved 30 September 2007.
  22. ↑ 'Should we swallow it?' The Independent. Archived 17 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine Published 26 June 2002. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
  23. ↑ Medical schools, journals start to fight drug industry influence USA today
  24. ↑ "Euro MPs back herbal crackdown". BBC News, quoted from statement of Dr Rob Verkerk, Executive Director of the Alliance for Natural Health. Published 22 November 2002. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
  25. ↑ Gavura, Scott (22 September 2016). "Fixing the supplement market for consumers". Science Based Medicine .
  26. ↑ Skerrett, Patrick (2 February 2012). "FDA needs stronger rules to ensure the safety of dietary supplements".
  27. ↑ Rocha, Tiago; Amaral, Joana S.; Oliveira, Maria Beatriz P.P. (19 October 2015). "Adulteration of Dietary Supplements by the Illegal Addition of Synthetic Drugs: A Review". Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety. Wiley. 15 (1): 43–62. doi: 10.1111/1541-4337.12173 . hdl: 10198/15401 . ISSN   1541-4337. PMID   33371574.
  28. ↑ Cohen, Peter A (8 February 2012). "Assessing Supplement Safety — The FDA's Controversial Proposal". New England Journal of Medicine . 366 (5): 389–391. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1113325 . PMID   22276780.
  29. ↑ Nil by mouth. The Observer newspaper, UK. Published 29 February 2004. Retrieved 1 January 2009
  30. ↑ UN commission adopts safety guidelines for vitamin and food supplements United Nations News Centre. Published 11 July 2005. Retrieved 26 March 2009
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