Hi Everyone,
I found this in my inbox the other day and thought I would share it with you. What do you think about this sad state of affairs? Let’s talk about it. . .
Claiming Water Prevents Dehydration 
Could Land You in Jail!
by Robert Redfern, your personal health coach.
Dear Reader,
I found this in a Health Sciences Institute e-Alert and think it is important to make sure you get it. It is another example of the creep of nazi style bureaucracy sweeping the natural health world in every country. Read to the bottom and click the link.
Take good care of yourselves
Robert Redfern, Your Personal Health Coach
HSI e-Alert
The end of April is getting very close… and for many this will have little significance besides the fact that the May Bank holiday means yet another great long weekend…
For those of us fighting the corner for alternative medicine, 1 May 2011 will mark the beginning of the most stringent laws against herbal remedies and natural medicine ever to be enforced across Europe.
Under these laws (Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive or THMPD), a traditional herbal medicine must be able to prove that it’s been used for 30 years in the European Union (EU) – or 15 years in the EU and 15 years elsewhere – for it to be licensed… If it can’t, then it won’t be licensed and it will be illegal to sell! This is very bad news indeed for the thousands of Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine remedies countless people rely on.
Draconian gagging order
Our regular readers will know that we’ve been campaigning relentlessly against these draconian measures over the past two years. Our viewpoint has always been that this clampdown on alternative and natural medicine is not just a travesty of justice but also a massive intrusion on one of our most basic human rights – the freedom to choose how we want to take care of our own health.
Sadly, many people out there still feel it is necessary to regulate all forms of medicine.
Fair enough. However, these rigid laws will reach much further than simply regulating the supplement market and herbal remedies… they will eventually regulate the food you and I put in our mouths.
Think I’m just scaremongering?
What if I tell you that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) – tasked with evaluating all health claims regarding food in the EU – is now set to ban anyone from claiming that drinking water can help prevent dehydration!
It is completely absurd I know, but it’s true and it is happening.
Not so controversial claim
Everyone knows that drinking water prevents dehydration and maintains bodily performance… it’s basic common sense.
Or not?
Recently, two German professors stated the following in a proposal submitted to the EFSA: “regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the risk of development of dehydration and of concomitant [subsequent] decrease of performance”.
Nothing wrong with that, right?
Unless you happen to be one of the mad scientists at the EFSA that is. According to them, it’s a disease-specific health claim, and much as drinking more water will reduce the risk of developing dehydration, this is simply a measure of water depletion and not of avoiding disease risk.
Yep, the highly educated scientists working at the EFSA said with a straight face, “the proposed claim does not comply with the requirements for a disease risk reduction claim”. By doing so they have branded one of the most fundamental truths on our planet as unspeakable, because under the guidelines of these new laws no one is allowed to make any false health claims about any products – whether it is a herb, supplement or food!
Earth under siege
If you think you are safe from these rigid laws just because you live outside of Europe, think again… especially if you live in the US.
The bureaucrats at the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are powering up to “protect consumers” against false claims made by non-drug treatments too!
In the past few months the FDA has taken actions that severely limit access to intravenous ascorbic acid (IAA), a proven cancer-fighter that has been shown to neutralize virtually any pathogenic organism.
Recently we also told you about a small US pharmaceutical company, Upsher-Smith, that’s been gagged by the FDA from quoting medical studies in their marketing of SLO-NIACIN – a sustained-release supplement which helps reduce the warm, tingling effect that niacin supplements can sometimes cause.
The studies Upsher-Smith referenced in their marketing material have all been published in major medical journals. Yet, the public is not allowed to know about their findings… especially because it is in favour of a 100 per cent natural substance, niacin!
Quiet revolution
We strongly urge you to help us fight these stringent laws and to ensure that the legacy of natural and alternative medicine remains unscathed by the EU and US bureaucrats.
Reading our alerts and giving our efforts the thumbs-up, simply is not enough anymore.
So, please help us spread the word and speak out before it is far too late. The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), along with their director Dr. Robert Verkerk, is leading the way in getting the word out about the problems caused by the THMPD, and its implementation by the UK and Belgian governments in particular.
The ANH have targeted different groups in different ways, including practitioners, retailers, consumers, manufacturers and, of course, members of the European Parliament from a variety of EU Member States.
If you would like to get more involved…
UK and Europe http://www.anh-europe.org/
USA and North America http://www.anh-usa.org/
Rest of World http://www.anhinternational.org/
