Category Archives: alternative medicine

AAPS Supports Health Freedom Acts

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This week AAPS wrote to members of Congress to ask them to support H.R. 3394 and H.R. 3395.  These bills known respectively as the “Freedom of Health Speech Act” and the “Health Freedom Act” seek to limit the Federal Government from over-regulating dietary supplements. 

For more information on these two bills read the two letters from AAPS copied below and click here to listen to Jim Turner explain to AAPS’ Michael Ostrolenk why the government’s powers to regulate dietary supplements should not be expanded.

Also, please contact your member of Congress to ask them to support H.R. 3394 and 3395.  You can find your representative’s contact information at http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml.

AAPS Supports H.R. 3394  “Freedom of Health Speech Act”

Dear Representative:

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a national, non-partisan professional association of physicians in all specialties founded in 1943, supports H.R. 3394  “Freedom of Health Speech Act”

H.R. 3394 prohibits the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from investigating and acting against an entity for communicating the health benefits of its products unless the FTC presents clear and convincing evidence that an advertisement for a dietary supplement or dietary ingredient is false and that, but for the false advertising content, the consumer would not have made the purchase at the price paid.  Additionally, it requires the FTC, if a claimed health benefit is alleged to be false advertising, to additionally establish, based on expert scientific opinion and published peer-reviewed scientific evidence, that the claim is false.

We strongly encourage you to vote for health freedom and informed consumers and co-sponsor H.R. 3394 “Freedom of Health Speech Act”

Sincerely,

Jane M. Orient, M.D. Executive Director

AAPS supports Health Freedom Act – H.R. 3395

Dear Representative,

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a national, non-partisan professional association of physicians in all specialties founded in 1943, supports H.R. 3395  “The Health Freedom Act”.

Health Freedom Act – Prohibits the federal government from preventing the use of a claim describing any nutrient in a food or dietary supplement as mitigating, treating, or preventing any disease, disease symptom, or health-related condition, unless in a final order following a trial on the merits a federal court finds clear and convincing evidence based on qualified expert opinion and published peer-reviewed scientific research that: (1) the claim is false and misleading in any material respect; and (2) there is no less speech restrictive alternative to claim suppression that can render the claim non-misleading.

Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to deem a food or dietary supplement for which a claim characterizing the relationship of a nutrient to a disease or health-related condition not to be included in the definition of “drug” solely because of such claim.

Revises dietary supplement labeling exemptions to prohibit the government from preventing distribution of a publication concerning the sale of a food or dietary supplement unless: (1) it establishes that a claim contained in the publication names the specific food or supplement sold and represents that the food or supplement mitigates, treats, or prevents a disease; and (2) the claim is proven to be false and misleading in any material respect by final order of a federal court in accordance with this Act.

We strongly encourage you to vote for health freedom and informed consumers and co-sponsor H.R. 3395 “The Health Freedom Act.”

Sincerely, 

Jane M. Orient, M.D., Executive Director

Jim Turner says “no expanded powers to FTC” to regulate dietary supplements.

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Mr. Turner from Citizens for Health, was interviewed by Michael Ostrolenk on the Take Back Medicine Podcast. 

Click on “play” button in below widget to listen to interview: 

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Patients and doctors reject protocol medicine

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While pressure mounts to get doctors to follow “best practices,” getting patients to follow them will be even more difficult. A 2007 Harris Interactive poll found that 43% of Americans say they are concerned about overly aggressive treatment. And 44% have ignored a doctor’s advice or sought a second opinion because they felt a doctor’s treatment was unnecessary or too aggressive. More than a quarter left a prescription unfilled because they thought it was not needed, and 13% failed to get a recommended diagnostic test. Among respondents who chose not to follow a doctor’s advice, 89% said that nothing negative happened as a result (Wall St J 3/15/07).

More than 35% of Americans report using some form of alternative medicine, according to a survey conducted by Thomson Medstat (www.Thomson.com 2/17/07). Nearly half (49.9%) of all households with incomes greater than $100,000/yr, and 49.6% of those with postgraduate degrees used alternative medicine. Utilization dropped to 18% among those without a high school diploma.

Herbal supplements and massage/chiropractic care were the most common modalities used, followed by mind/body practices, energy therapies, and naturopathy. About two-thirds of respondents said that their regular physicians were aware of their use of these practices.

Almost half of the physicians surveyed at three U.S. medical schools admit to prescribing placebos, defined as remedies they expected to have no physical effect, but only 4% told the patients that the prescription was a placebo. This included antibiotics for colds and ibuprofen, as well as vitamins and herbal supplements. Doctors may give a prescription to “boost patient morale,” although the practice is widely unacknowledged (Tom Randall, Bloomberg News 1/4/08).

Some medical boards are issuing guidelines about the use of “alternative,” “complementary,” or “integrative” medicine. Believing that this signals a significant change, the Pima County (Arizona) Medical Society has resumed meetings of a committee on such practices, which were suspended out of fear that physicians could be considered guilty of unprofessional conduct if they listened to physicians explaining their use of nonstandard treatments and did not report them to the medical board.

The definition of “alternative” is treacherous, as it includes practices that may be based on Western scientific concepts but are not generally “made available.” Moreover, it is possible that medical boards could employ a double standard in evaluating evidence for efficacy and safety of practices deemed “alternative,” cautioned AAPS Executive Director Jane Orient, M.D.

Additional information: