Posted: 27 July 2011
From: Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., Bettym19@mindspring.com
To: dick.durbin@senate.gov
Date: Sat, Jul 23, 2011 4:14 pm
Subject: Open Letter: Your attack on dietary supplements, (S-1310) and the aspartame issue
Dear Senator Durbin:
I would like to call to your attention your response in Congress below. It would seem to me that you should have investigated your issues better before releasing such misinformation. http://www.naturalnews.com/032911_dietary_supplement_labeling_act_FDA.html
First, here is the Ephedra Story: http://www.wnho.net/ephedrastory.htm It was removed from the market when Steve Bechler died. However, Bechler did not die from Ephedra, he died from aspartame. He was drinking Diet Coke all day and the next day he would fast. Aspartame causes an irregular heart rhythm, interacts with all cardiac medication, damages the cardiac conduction system and causes sudden death. Here are several articles about it from world renowned physicians: http://mpwhi.com/aspartame_and_sudden_death.htm Further, I wrote you about this in 2004 which I will send again by separate email. So either you don't read letters or you want to continue to misinform.
Dr. John Olney is one of the most renowned neuroscientists in the world today. He is the one who researched the issue. You will note his report in the context of the Ephedra Story. He found it to be safe. Has there been any cases of ephedra harming anyone - only cases where ephedra was synethized with drugs. So what the FDA did was remove safe ephedra, Ma haung when the problem was in Big Pharma drugs - decongestants like pseudoephedrine, diabetes medications and monamine oxidase inhibitors, MAO's. Now if ephedra was really dangerous why didn't FDA remove it in the Big Pharma drugs that were causing the problems, instead of attacking supplements that were doing no harm.
Another thing to consider is ephedra in supplements has been removed, yet athletes are still dropping dead! That's because they are still using aspartame such as in Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi and in 14,000 products - AminoSweet, NutraSweet, Neotame, E-951, Spoonful, Benevia, Canderel, etc. It seems that anything the FDA does to coverup the aspartame issue is okay. Think of the athlete, Flo Jo, a runner. Pictures showed her running with her Diet Coke with aspartame. She had a grand mal seizure and died. Aspartame is a seizure triggering drug and interacts with anti-seizure medication. She didn't have a chance!
You say under your bill, if a dietary supplement was alleged to have caused a stroke, the FDA would be required first to conduct a clinical evaluation to determine if the report was valid and credible. You say further if the evaluation indicated the stroke was not caused by the supplement, that's the end of the matter. Turn this around, what about aspartame? A recent study linked aspartame with strokes and heart attacks: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/02/09/diet-soda-linked-to-higher-risk-of-heart-attack-stroke
Have you heard one peep out of the FDA? They could care less, after all its aspartame. Big Pharma loves aspartame because they can sell more drugs to treat the problems it causes, and they even add it to drugs. For instance, on the FDA list of 92 symptoms from four types of seizures to coma and death, headache is #1: http://mpwhi.com/92_aspartame_symptoms.pdf So somebody is using aspartame, gets a headache from it and goes to their physician. The physician could prescribe Maxalt by Merck. Would you believe they put aspartame in this drug? Not only that but a study was done showing Maxalt with aspartame causes headaches to be worse. They don't care and refuse to take it out. This study linking diet drinks with aspartame to strokes and heart attacks is not the first, there have been two more. So what will you do about this, Senator. Here is obvious that aspartame needs to be banned as strokes and heart attacks are just two of the problems it causes. What about birth defects, diabetes, seizures, psychiatric problems, cancers and neurodegenerative diseases? Because its aspartame doing this it obviously means nothing to you or the FDA.
The problem is writing bills that can only harm the public. It seems it's always to help Big Pharma with no concern for the public whatsoever. Without research you can do a lot of harm. As an example, we see the Mother's Act, to actually give antidepressants to expectant mothers. Giving drugs to pregnant women who want to stay healthy during pregnancy!? Just turn on your TV and you will see the constant ads asking women who used antidepressants during pregnancy to call these lawyers if their children were born with birth defects. They name Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, etc.
So congress was looking to help Big Pharma, not the mothers. But there is more to this issue. Why would someone be depressed to begin with? With half the population on aspartame, the phenylalanine can lower the seizure threshold and deplete serotonin. When you lower serotonin it can trigger bipolar, anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal tendencies, insomnia, schizophrenia, etc. But it gets worse!!!! Aspartame interacts with "ALL" antidepressants as discussed in the medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, by H. J. Roberts, M.D. http://www.sunsentpress.com
The reason you are being attacked for this bill is it can be used to open the flood gates against supplements, and you know it. It is completely unnecessary. If you want to make a difference than write a bill that would protect the supplement industry against the FDA. Recently FDA was given additional power, and today they serve above the law. In 2002 I filed a Citizens Petition for ban. The law requires this be answered in 180 days. In the past 9 years I have received two letters stating they have more important things to do. So, I filed an imminent health hazard amendment in 2007. The law requires FDA answer in a week or ten days. That was several years ago. Then I get a call from the FDA telling me it's not going to happen. He seemed upset that I knew it has to be answered in writing, and of course I told him to go back to 2002 and the original petition was never answered. I also told him that people are sick and dying from aspartame all over the world as I lecture in other countries. He said to me: "So what, we need to depopulate". This is the FDA that was given more power by Congress! Of course, people know that FDA is simply Big Pharma's Washington Branch Office! Who is there to protect the people against the FDA?
Prior to 1981 there were some FDA employees who actually worked for the people and tried to have the manufacturer indicted for fraud, but once on the market through the political chicanery of Donald Rumsfeld the FDA gave its loyalty to Big Pharma. In Congress in 1985, FDA toxicologist, the late Dr. Adrian Gross, said that since aspartame caused brain tumors and brain cancer it violates the Delaney Amendment which forbids anything being put in food that causes cancer. He also said that because of the cancer FDA should not have been able to give an allowable daily intake. But it was Dr. Gross' last words that nobody will forget, "And if the FDA violates its own laws who is left to protect the people." Obviously, we have no protector, the reason organizations like ours exist.
One of the powers given the FDA was the right to recall in the case of adulteration. Aspartame not only is illegal because it adulterates but consider its against the law to ship an adulterated product for sale. Therefore, it violates Interstate Commerce laws. Even the National Soft Drink Assn (now American Beverage) quoted the adulteration law in its protest over aspartame: http://www.mpwhi.com/open_letter_dick_adamson.htm Then they turned around and lobbied for NutraSweet, the reason it was added to the congressional record. Which reminds me, Senator, just how much in contributions have you received from Big Pharma.
Countless prescription drugs are marketed as safe, like Vioxx, when they are not. In this case the FDA knew and didn't do anything to protect the people. You can actually get nauseated watching the advertisements on TV of drugs. Notice they are smiling when they say, "could cause heart attacks or stroke etc." I was diagnosed with optic neuritis after using Ambien CR, and finally saw a report from FDA saying it only takes one pill to cause swelling. Yet, did they take it off the market? No, they don't want to go against Big Pharma who they protect.
Interested in saving a trillion dollars? Take aspartame off the market! It's being put in the very drugs used to treat the problems it causes. An informant from Pfizer said aspartame is being put in the very anti-seizure medications used to treat the seizures triggered by aspartame.
When Jack Samuels ( http://www.truthinlabeling.org ) filed suit against the FDA on labeling of MSG he went through their records. He found that the FDA knew for a quarter of a century that the glutamate people were using aspartame as the placebo in studies of MSG. They knew they couldn't say it doesn't react because it does. This way they could say, "it doesn't react any more than the placebo". The FDA knew this was against the law and they allowed it. Aspartame is not an additive but is an addictive excitoneurotoxic, genetically engineered, carcinogenic drug and adjuvant that damages the mitochondria and interacts with drugs and vaccines. It has a methyl ester which becomes free methyl alcohol, classified as a narcotic. This causes chronic methanol poisoning which affects the dopamine system of the brain and causes addiction. (Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, http://www.sunsentpress.com by H. J. Roberts, M.D. 1000 pages of horrors caused by this drug masquerading as an additive.)
In a lonely cold prison cell in Virginia sits Diane Fleming, a Sunday school teacher who helped the homeless. Her husband was addicted to aspartame, an athlete who played basketball three or four times a week who liked to work out. He put three times the amount of creatine in his Gatorade and aspartame even interacts with creatine: http://www.wnho.net/aspartameandathletics.htm On his death his wife took three lie detector tests and passed. Yet she was indicted for his poisoning and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Over 25 years ago Dr. James Bowen wrote the FDA telling them that aspartame was mass poisoning of the consumer public and over 70+ countries. They sent an agent who was very upset that he presented them with 29 more cases of aspartame poisoning. Today Dr. Bowen suffers with ALS, just like the troops who served in the Persian Gulf because he was using the very same product. On 60 Minutes one authority said, "One thing we can't figure out is why the troops have a burning tongue." That is the neuropathy from aspartame. Friendly fire killed more than the enemy! Senator Durbin, this is just another attack on supplements. My 2004 letter will be resent. Aspartame remains on the market because of addiction, profit and greed. Why don't you do something about a killer instead of attacking the healing industry of vitamins and supplements. What will consumers have to use to get over the toxic problems from dangerous drugs and killers like aspartame? See the movie of how aspartame has poisoned the world: "Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World", cori@sweetremedyradio.com Whatever happened to "for the people, by the people"?
Are you even following the insane bureaucracy of the FDA. http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/FDA-Says-Walnuts-Are-Illegal-Drugs.htm Now they have declared walnuts to be drugs because they have health benefits and told Diamond Walnut Company they can't market them legally. First it was the cherries and then Elderberry wine. Obviously to any sane person food has health benefits. Didn't your mother ever tell you to eat your spinach because of its health benefits, and eat carrots to improve your eyesight? How long will Congress allow the Fatal Drugs Allowed folks, the FDA, to act as the Gestapo for Big Pharma. Now it's quite alright for Frito Lay to say their chips are heart healthy because they are owned by Pepsi. Do you not remember when the FDA with guns raided Dr. Jonathan Wright because he was using healthy supplements?
The FDA does not need more power, it needs to be told to stop operating above the law or close their doors forever to be replaced by a more consumer oriented agency. After all, the FDA gets half their funding from Big Pharma. You cannot serve two masters, so when those responsible to solve the problem ARE the problem the action should be against them, not the public. You are often called "the vitamin hater", Senator. By your fruits they will know you. In Gen 1:29 you will find Jehovah God gave all green vegetation to man to serve as food. There is not a word about FDA approval.
Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.wnho.net
http://www.dorway.com
Aspartame Toxicity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame
Senator Durbin's Response in Congress
The Truth About the Dietary Supplement Act - Fair Comment
The following piece was written by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). He held the first hearing to examine problems surrounding ephedra and other dietary supplements. His e-mail address is dick.durbin@senate.gov.
On the penultimate day of his life, 16-year-old Sean Riggins wasn't thinking about product-safety testing or government regulation of dietary supplements. He was thinking about playing in his high-school football game that night. Less than 36 hours later, he would be dead of a massive heart attack caused by dietary supplements in particular a stimulant called ephedra. Ephedra's dangers are well-documented. The American Medical Association and American Heart Association have called for a ban on its use. Health Canada, the Canadian Food and Drug Administration (FDA), launched a nationwide ephedra recall. The National Football League, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the International Olympic Committee don't allow ephedra use by their athletes. The U.S. Department of Defense prohibits its commissaries from selling ephedra. Illinois, New York state and California have banned sales of this drug. Even dietary-supplement manufacturers are marketing "ephedra-free" alternatives. Riggins' death, and the ephedra-related deaths of other high-profile professional athletes, have helped spark a national debate on the safety of dietary supplements and the government's role in safeguarding public health. Legislation I introduced to protect consumers from dangerous dietary supplements such as ephedra and the new "ephedra-free" stimulants has been the main target in this controversy.
The hired guns of the dietary-supplement industry say my legislation, the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003 (S. 722), will create hardships for millions of fitness buffs and everyday Americans who use vitamins or herbal remedies. Such claims are totally misleading and are part of a well-orchestrated campaign designed to scare consumers. So I'd like to set the record straight. Currently, ephedra and other natural stimulants are exempt from most federal regulation. Companies aren't required to report serious adverse health events such as death, heart attack or seizure to the U.S. FDA, so there is no easy way to know if a particular supplement is dangerous.
My bill says that before a manufacturer can market a dietary supplement containing a stimulant, the manufacturer must prove the stimulant is safe. It also prevents manufacturers from using the term "dietary supplement" to mask dangerous drugs such as steroids. And it says makers of dietary supplements must report serious negative health consequences resulting from the use of their products.
The $18 billion-per-year, dietary-supplement industry says these requirements are costly and unreasonable. Take, for example, Project: FANS (Freedom of Access to Nutritional Supplements), an organization funded by the supplement industry that said my bill would "hold long-used nutritional supplements, from calcium to Flintstone vitamins, to a higher reporting standard than is currently set for many prescription drugs." Or a recent "investigative report" for Insight stating that my bill "would give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to remove from the market any dietary supplement it chooses, including vitamins E and C" and would "require exotic proof of safety from any dietary-supplement maker if the agency has received so much as a single report of an adverse reaction" [see "Regulating Vitamins," Sept. 16-29].
Nonsense. This isn't a higher reporting standard than exists for prescription drugs or even over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen and cough syrup. Our laws already require those drugs and medicines be proved safe and effective before they legally are sold. Health problems related to the use of such medications must be reported to the FDA.
My bill doesn't require safety testing for vitamins, minerals or the vast majority of dietary supplements; only stimulants must be proved safe before being sold. The bill also calls for reporting of only serious adverse events death, heart attack, stroke, hospitalization or serious complications in pregnancies. It doesn't require reports of stomach aches, rashes, muscle pains, headaches, etc. The vitamin industry is not threatened by my bill, but the ephedra-peddlers would be.
The idea that products could be pulled from the market because of one bad report also is inaccurate.
Under my bill, if a dietary supplement was alleged to have caused a stroke, the FDA would be required first to conduct a clinical evaluation to determine if the report was valid and credible. If the evaluation indicated the stroke was not caused by the supplement, that's the end of the matter. If the FDA's evaluation raised questions that the product might present a significant or unreasonable health risk, it could require the manufacturer to show the supplement is safe. Finally, after reviewing the manufacturer's safety data, the FDA could remove a product from the market only if it concluded that it was unsafe under ordinary conditions of use.
U.S. consumers should have the right to choose products they believe are best for their health. But the companies selling these products have an obligation to make certain their products are safe. If the dietary-supplement industry will not accept that responsibility, Congress should enact a law to require it.
Related:
Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994
http://www.chasefreedom.com/congress.html
The Bottom Line about Diet Pills
http://www.chasefreedom.com/dietpills.html