For more than 7 years, Lane Labs has been marketing nutritional supplements to people with various forms of cancer, including skin cancer. Their most popular supplement is called MGN-3, made from a rice bran extract and well-known to boost the function of NK cells in the human immune system. Lane Labs has also been marketing Benefin, made from shark cartilage, and SkinAnswer -- both used for the treatment of cancer. In July of 2004, a U.S. District Judge issued a permanent injunction against Lane Labs, blocking it from selling the
products, and mandating that it repay customers who purchased the products. This is due to the FDA's claim that the products are unapproved
drugs because they are being marketed with claims that they help treat
cancer. All of this is just the latest chapter in the FDA's war of oppression against
nutritional supplements, and especially those
supplements that actually work to help prevent or reverse chronic
disease.
The FDA has consistently and repeatedly worked to promote the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and one of the best ways to do that is to shut down any manufacturer marketing a product that competes with pharmaceutical by actually making patients better. I believe MGN-3 is a well-documented product, and it does indeed help the human body fight cancer and destroy cancerous cells without the need for chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, or other radical treatments offered by organized medicine. I also believe that's precisely why the FDA targeted Lane Labs -- its products worked too well. Having a cure for cancer on the market is simply not acceptable in today's medical environment, where billions of dollars in revenue depend on the fact that a large percentage of the population has cancer and requires expensive, long-term treatments for it.
This isn't the first time the FDA has attacked nutritional supplements or natural products, of course. The FDA banned the sale of red yeast rice after learning that the supplement lowered cholesterol more quickly than statin drugs and without any negative side effects. As soon as the agency learned that red yeast rice was becoming popular, it effectively banned the product, forcing people to turn to other products such as statin drugs, which of course enhance the profits of the pharmaceutical companies the FDA seems sworn to protect.
The FDA has also banned ephedra by greatly exaggerating a small number of health problems associated with users who overdosed on this Chinese herb, and now the FDA seems poised to attack Chinese medicine and herbal medicine on a much wider scale, thereby hoping to discredit and wipe out virtually all forms of healing that aren't accepted by modern medicine and promoted by the American Medical Association.
The FDA has also, of course, gone after stevia, a natural herbal sweetener that threatens the market for aspartame, sucralose, and other artificial chemical sweeteners. Stevia is a perfectly safe sweetener used around the world, with literally thousands of years of safe use to back it up. It does not alter blood sugar levels, and it is available at extremely low cost. The FDA has confiscated products made with stevia, it has banned the importation of products made with stevia, and believe it or not, it has actually ordered the destruction of recipe books that give readers stevia recipes.
This is FDA-approved book burning, folks, and this is why the FDA is often referred to as the Nazis of modern medicine. The FDA is clearly on a crusade to wipe out all forms of natural medicine, including homeopathy, nutritional supplements, natural healing, nutritional therapy, and anything else that they can't regulate or control. They have sought to ban the importation of drugs from other countries that would save U.S. consumers billions of dollars; they have confiscated prescription drugs coming in from Canada; they have even searched busloads of elderly people driving back across the border from Canada in order to see if they were carrying perfectly legal prescription drugs. The FDA, it seems, will stop at absolutely nothing to oppress alternative medicine, and Lane Labs is simply the latest victim of this agency's atrocity against the health of Americans.
Now, for its part, Lane Labs did get a bit aggressive with the claims. They should know better than to both sell a product and make health claims about that product at the same time, given today's oppressive medical environment. Doing so will, of course, alert the FDA, even though those health claims may be absolutely true. See, the FDA doesn't want natural product manufacturers to be able make any claims whatsoever. That's one of the best ways to reduce the marketability of such products and make sure consumers don't buy them.
Meanwhile, prescription drugs can make all sorts of unjustified claims, or claims that are justified with bad science and distorted clinical trials. To the FDA, those claims are perfectly fine. They can be exaggerated to an alarming degree, all with the full approval of the FDA. But when a manufacturer of nutritional supplements attempts to tell the truth about their products on the label, on their website, or in promotional literature, they are considered an enemy of health and are immediately attacked by the FDA. Typically their operations are shut down, or in this case, a court order is issued so that the manufacturing company loses hundreds of millions of dollars and can no longer conduct business.
I have often compared the FDA to the Chicago mob, and this oppression of Lane Labs and other natural health supplement manufacturers is a perfect example of just how effective the FDA can be at mob-like rule. Using the full power of the federal government and the U.S. Courts, the FDA can shut down virtually any health supplement manufacturer they target, simply by claiming the products are drugs. This is what happened with red yeast rice -- it's a natural product, but the FDA can simply mandate it is a drug, and then shut down all manufacturers. Using this same logic, the FDA could conceivably regulate and outlaw broccoli due to its powerful array of cancer-fighting phytonutrients. Virtually all natural foods -- soy milk, garlic, onions, ginger and more -- could be outlawed by the FDA. Sounds crazy, but it's perfectly consistent with what the agency has done with red yeast rice.
Folks, we are living in the Dark Ages of modern medicine. We are living right now under a system of extreme health oppression. We are being ruled by a federal agency that has more in common with the Nazi party or Chicago mobs than anything resembling freedom or democracy. Today, your health freedoms are being violated, and you run the risk of losing even more health freedoms if the FDA manages to regulate or outlaw vitamins, minerals, herbal supplements, homeopathy, traditional Chinese herbs, and other similar products. If the FDA had their way, all of these would be outlawed, and Americans would be forced to take nothing but prescription drugs in order to treat their diseases.
Of course, the FDA says they're doing all this, "To protect you!"
As Americans, we should all be outraged at this state of affairs. It is time to reform the FDA. We need to do this by implementing a Department of Internal Affairs at the agency. Secondly, we need to clean house at the FDA -- fire the current staff, and replace them with people who do not have financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Thirdly, we need a presidential administration that is not so closely tied to the pharmaceutical industry. Today, the Bush administration has such close ties to the pharmaceutical industry that it seems health policy from the White House almost perfectly mirrors the plans of Big Pharma. For example, President Bush has mandated that all people be screened for mental health disorders, presumably so that they can be put on prescriptions of anti-depressant drugs like Prozac. The Medicare discount drug card scandal, also backed by the Bush administration, is really nothing more than a handout to the pharmaceutical industry.
If we want health freedom in this country, we need an administration that can stand up to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, and that can insist on freedom of choice in terms of health products and nutritional supplements for everyday people. As an American, you have a duty to stand up for your right to choose whatever healing modalities you wish to pursue in your quest for optimum human health. If you prefer to receive traditional Chinese medicine treatments, I believe that's your right. If you prefer acupuncture and chiropractic care, I believe that's your right to choose that as well. If you believe in nutritional and herbal medicine and homeopathy, you should have the right to choose those without being considered a criminal by the FDA, or without having to wade through government-sponsored disinformation in order to find out the truth about what these products can actually do for your health.
The FDA is the enemy of health freedom. It is the enemy of disease prevention in the United States. It is the enemy of democracy and the free market principles upon which our country is based. It is time to not only reform the FDA, but to investigate the FDA and leaders from the pharmaceutical industry by invoking federal laws designed to counter organized crime, such as the RICO Act. It's time for the FBI to get involved and get to the bottom of this corruption that seems to be driving our system of modern medicine.
So what can you do about this? As a private citizen, you can write your senators and congressman and tell them that you believe in health freedom and that you think the FDA needs to be reformed, investigated, or recreated with a Department of Internal Affairs. It's time for us as Americans to stand up for our right to choose the health modalities that we believe in, and we should no longer accept living in the Dark Ages of modern medicine, controlled by an oppressive, Nazi-like administration known as the FDA.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams created NaturalNews.TV, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a noted pioneer in the email marketing software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates.
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Friday, July 30, 2004
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