Help Protect Health Freedom Today!

Since when has natural health been a crime?

As if the present war on natural health alternatives wasn’t enough, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK), is now petitioning the FDA to determine that dietary supplements claiming to promote, assist or otherwise help with any aspect of weight loss are “disease claims,” and thereby unlawful. U.K. based GSK is conveniently the manufacturer of Alli, the OTC version of the drug orlistat.

Alli, whose website advises consumers: “until you have a sense of any treatment effects, it’s probably a smart idea to wear dark pants and bring a change of clothes with you to work,” exhibits ghastly side effects which include “oily spotting on underwear” and “inability to control stool (incontinence)”. Despite its promising $153.5 million profit during its first two weeks on the market, only a year after its release, excitement is dwindling and sales have slowed. “We know it’s selling very well,” said Brian Jones, a GlaxoSmithKline spokesman who declined to share any specific numbers. “But we don’t know if it’s going to last” (MSNBC 7-07).

Clearly GSK’s “Citizen” Petition Requesting FDA to Treat Weight Loss Claims for Dietary Supplements as Disease Claims is nothing more than a desperate attempt to make it last, by virtually monopolizing the non-prescription weight management products market. Evidently GSK is attempting to make its brainchild, Alli, the sole non-prescription product available to help with weight management. Individuals need to become aware of this debilitating and blatant abuse of power.

For the past several decades, the FDA has correctly viewed claims referencing weight loss as permissible structure/function claims, resting on the sound logic that the body’s ability to gain and lose weight is not a disease. According to GSK’s logic, however, sound scientific structure/function claims should now be interpreted as disease claims. The GSK mistakenly argues that current structure/function claims are misleading consumers into believing these products will both prevent and cure diseases, and that they are FDA approved. The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of supplement manufacturers are well in keeping with the numerous regulations that govern the dietary supplements market, many of which include the statement “This product is not intended to treat, cure, prevent or diagnose any disease” on all labels.

Part of GSK’s argument is that being overweight is a risk factor for disease. They then point to precedents whereby the FDA regards cholesterol level, blood pressure and glucose level related structure/function claims as disease claims. However, this analogy is inapplicable. Consumers taking products to control cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar are predominantly concerned with affecting specific diseases, namely heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. On the other hand, people seeking to lose weight primarily wish to improve overall health and appear more attractive. In fact, according to a new survey by Cancer Research UK, the vast majority of people rate looking good over reducing the risk of body fat as a reason to maintain a healthy weight.

While some studies suggest that many people attempt to lose weight for health reasons, those studies that have specifically investigated ‘prevention of a disease’ as a motive for dieting or weight loss have all found disease prevention to be a minor motivation as compared with improvement of general health and cosmetic appearance. Promoting general health is not equivalent to the treatment of a disease. And clearly, neither is improving cosmetic appearance. Every applicable study published on the subject is consistent with the fact that these two motivations for weight loss account for over 80% of the reasons people have for attempting to lose or control body weight. Thus, disease prevention or treatment, is clearly not a major motivator for weight loss or weight management.

Obviously, very few people are interested in losing weight to prevent or treat a disease. So who are these citizens behind GSK’s so-called “Citizen’s” petition? Where are the people who feel they’re being misled by safe and ethical foods and supplements, intended to support or assist weight loss efforts? Who feels misled that weight loss supplements should have prevented or treated their diseases? The answer is nobody. Nobody sees dietary supplements as a cure or treatment for heart disease, diabetes, obesity or any disease for that matter. The petition is brought to the FDA by the might of GlaxoSmithKlein, and not by misled consumers or citizens. Its sole purpose is to improve Alli sales.

Even simple observation shows us that weight loss supplements appeal to consumers’ personal vanity, not to their desire to prevent a disease. What’s more, none of the studies cited in the GSK petition address actual consumer perceptions or expectations of weight loss products. Therefore, while consumers may very well feel that a weight loss related supplement may help to reduce body weight, it has yet to be shown that consumers expect such supplements to mitigate, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Ever since the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (DSHEA) passed in 1994, the American people have insisted in no uncertain terms, that they demand their God-given right to buy dietary supplements. Though the GSK petition suggests that individuals are incapable of making the decisions necessary for their own health and well-being, belittling consumer intelligence, people know that good health requires individuals to be fully informed. Long before profit-driven pharmaceutical companies with vested interests even existed, human beings were using herbal remedies and other natural products to supplement their health. Now, because major pharmaceutical companies are putting a price tag where integrity should exist, basic health freedoms are once again in jeopardy.

Losing weight is one of the most basic and prevalent of modern human desires–so many of us wish to look and feel better, healthfully. If GSK’s flawed prerogative is accepted by the FDA, the state of natural health will become alarmingly vulnerable. And, if this callous attempt to usurp our intrinsic right to take control of our own health is permitted, what’s next? Where will the line be drawn? Will citizens be forced to buy expensive prescriptions where they would once have purchased a simple herb, food or vitamin? And what of the hard-working citizens without the benefits of health insurance? How, then, will these people afford to supplement their health?

Every human being has the right to live a healthy life, and a responsibility to create that health for him- or herself. This heinous petition suggests that individuals should not be in charge of their own health—rather, that health decisions should rest solely in the hands of profit-driven megaliths. It implyies that only those who can afford to purchase costly prescriptions and potentially hazardous OTC drugs have the right to a healthy life. It has never been more important to protect your health freedom rights from the greedy activities of Big Pharma.

Consumers must become conscious of this gross violation of their health freedoms. Help protect your own health rights, and the rights of your fellow citizens by writing to the FDA and telling them why you think GSK’s ‘Citizen’ Petition to Treat Weight Loss Claims for Dietary Supplements as Disease Claims is an offensive violation of your health freedoms. It’s time to fight for your health. After all, if you don’t do it—who will?

To join with other people who feel as you do, become a member of the Nutritional Health Alliance (NHA) health freedom advocacy group. For the sake of health freedom, join the NHA today!

• Sign up here for free weekly updates from NHA!

Reprinted with permission: Nutritional Health Alliance (NHA)