• European Directive on Medicinal Herbs Discriminates Against China, India, Other Cultures
  
  
• December, 1999
  Law proposal regarding herbal products pending at the Italian Senate
  
  
  

INFORMATION ON SUPPLEMENTS AND THEIR USE

INTERNATIONAL LEGISLATION

• November 2002
  AHHA Attends Berlin Codex Session - What did we learn?
  Report from Suzan Walter on the recent Codex Alimentarius meeting in Berlin
  
  
• November 2002
  A report on the recent Codex Alimentarius meeting in Berlin from Josef Hasslberger
  
  
• CODEX ALIMENTARIUS has decided to elaborate guidelines on vitamins and mineral supplements. The proposal, made originally by Germany, seems very restrictive indeed, but it will be a boon to German pharmacutical industries, who could in this way eliminate an unconfortable competitor, the health food industry. Read about the proposal in an evaluation made in 1994.
  
  
• NZ NATURAL HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY REJECTS TRANS TASMAN PROPOSALS
  Press Statement for Distribution
  Natural Healthcare and Therapeutic Products Pan-Industry Meeting
  Held at the Auckland Conference Centre
  
  
• Truth Deficiency Syndrome
  an article by Ron Law, New Zealand
  
  With the example of Trans-Tasman (New Zealand/Australia) harmonization, Ron Law illustrates the double think (remember big brother?) that is characteristic of health systems throughout the "civilized" western countries. Herbs are demonized and taken off the market or rather, moved from the open market into the "big pharma" area, while the deaths caused by approved pharmaceutical drugs are characterized as "not proven", "small in number" or "insignificant". What are health authorities really going for - have they been hired to perfect the pharmaceutical monopoly on health?
  Click here to download the article in PDF format

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN
PHARMACARTEL & CO.

See the COMPREHENSIVE NUTRIENT REVIEW
by Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND and others


The National Health Federation's Proposals for Nutrient Reference Values
by Paul Anthony Taylor


More than 50 genetic disorders can be successfully treated with high doses of vitamins, according to a recent article by a professor at UC Berkley in the US.


New York Times Attacks Dietary Supplements - Life Extension Foundation Responds
Controversies continue to arise as to whether healthy people should take dietary supplements. The latest example is a New York Times article (April 29, 2003) that attacks vitamin supplements as being useless and potentially dangerous.


THE DOCTOR YOURSELF LAWS OF NATURAL THERAPEUTICS
from the Doctor Yourself Newsletter


Kava Kava - hear is an example of a regulation of natural products that is based more on economy than on real health concerns


THE B6 CONTROVERSY: What's All The Fuss Over Vitamin B6?
Do High-Dose Vitamin B6 Supplements Produce Health Benefits That Are Being Hidden From The Public? - By Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.


Influence of supplementary vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids on the antisocial behaviour of young adult prisoners


MAGNESIUM: Miracle in Minutes (June 2002)
This is a good article on the importance of Magnesium for our health


ALTERNATIVE HEALTH vs. ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: Big Difference
Complimentary Medicine, or Alternative Medicine sure sounds good. It sounds like progressive, real health-care reform. "Alt Med" seems like an ideal marriage of the best of the old and the new, the scientific and the holistic, the technological  and the natural, the doctor and the patient.
Read More of the Doctor yourself newsletter. . . (May 2002)


Vitamins work for 50 genetic disorders
High doses of vitamins can treat genetic diseases - study
08/04/02 - More than 50 genetic disorders can be successfully treated with
high doses of vitamins, according to a recent article by a professor at UC
Berkley in the US.


What do they print on the vitamin bottle? – What does it mean?
(about RDA, ODA, therapeutic dosages and a rational use of dietary supplements)
By Erik Kirchheiner, FRSA


The Bitterest Pill
Who's who in the pharmaceutical industry. Go now to
www.whatareweswallowing.freeserve.co.uk/thebitterestpill.htm


Death by Doctoring
"Everything about this story is  brilliant."

This story has been written with everybody in mind. No-one is excluded. Go now to http://www.whatareweswallowing.freeserve.co.uk/deathbydoctoring.htm
Then tell your friends and family. Why not let them read the best story of 2002?


What are the statistics on supplement safety?
Read the article by Ron Law comparing the safety of food supplements and pharmaceutical medicines on the basis of actual death statistics.
Includes:
Figure 1: Statistical comparism of frequent causes of death (USA) .html

Figure 1a: Risk of supplements relative to other factors (New Zeland 2002) .pdf


Why food supplements?
How come more and more consumers have the necessity to use food supplements? Is it not enough to consume a rich and complete diet? Here we find some answers to frequently asked questions, taken from some books of Prof. Alberto Fidanza an expert in vitamins. La Leva intends to defend freedom of choice and to make sure vitamins do not become a monopolized commodity.
The protective actions of vitamins


Packets of Hope
Packets of Hope is a white paper on how to use supplements for bringing health to the socially and financially disadvantaged.

A landable effort by "The Health foundation" (www.thehealthyfoundation.org)


Heart disease, cholesterol and nutritional supplements.
This article written by Ron Law, was pubblished in New Zealand in 1998 DOWNLOAD THE PDF file


Vitamin C

• Another lie about vitamin C
• Vitamin C has alway been good for your health, and it still is!
• "VITAMIN C CANCER FEAR. High doses of vitamin C could increase the risk of cancer, scientists warn today. . ."
  
  
• Brian Leibovitz, the late editor of the "Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine" has written some interesting articles, which throw light on the trouble the field of alternative health and natural products are having. Some years old but well worth reading:
  
  
  • "Nutrition: at the crossroads"
    
  • "The ABCs of confusion as a weapon"
    
    
• Food Supplements in Italy
  
  
  • Decembr 2000
    Safety of vitamins and minerals
    This is a document in .pdf format, to download on your computer and open with ACROBAT READER.
    The RDA are the minimum levels of vitamins needed to avoid those illnesses associated with vitamin deficienties. EHPM (European Health Product Manufacturers) with this document informs us of the maximum levels garantied harmnessless, not to pass without a docters prescription, or an expert in nutrition.
    
    

• European Commission Finances 'Consumer Campaign'
  
  
• HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT to the Ombudsman?
  
  
• BEUC - European Bureau of Consumers
  BEUC is the "official" consumer representation at the European Commission.
  In their official bulletin of October 2000, in a section entitled "Vitamin & Mineral tablets come under scrutiny", BEUC stated that claims for products containing vitamins and minerals are "often misleading" and that these products "present a real health risk for consumers".
  Needless to say, we did not agree with this assessment and wrote an e-mail on 15 November 2000.
  BEUC after some insistence on our part, sent a file containing BEUC's PAPER ON FOOD SUPPLEMENTS
  After analyzing BEUC's paper, we sent detailed comments, asking that in making legislation, the positive effects of supplements need to be considered as well as the issue of consumer choice.
  
  Our comments to BEUC's paper
  
  We have not received any answer to this, and so must assume that the viewpoint of who actually consumes supplements is of little importance to who is supposed to represent our interest in Brussels.
  
  The official BEUC site:
  http://www.beuc.org