Health Freedom

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Thomas Jefferson

Don’t wait until there is a crisis to let your legislators know that you are a fan of natural approaches to health. Click here to find out who represents you in DC. Simply enter your zip code and it will show you pictures, facts and their addresses, including email.

For background on the resources we need to protect, read these other pages that relate to the topic: Drugs, Quacks, Doctor Resources, Dentist Resources and Supplements. Be sure to note below the easy links for expressing your opinion.

News:
Your Tax Dollars at Work – Armed Raid of Vitamin Company – Our freedom to choose natural, nutritional and alternative approaches to our health is constantly under siege from powerful and well-funded forces that have much to gain from our blind dependence on the conventional pharmaceutical/medical industry. The government anti-supplement bias is so strong that it has a history of using weapons to remove supplements from the market. I have never heard of guns being used in the case of a drug recall.

Follow this link to see a video of a fabulous hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. It was entitled Integrative Care: A Pathway to a Healthier Nation. The panel featured preventive medicine rock stars: Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Mark Hyman. They told the senators the truth and outlined impressive ideas for meaningful improvement and they were warmly received. Although this hearing was a few years ago, your legislators are always facing issues related to the topic. Let them know what you think—it should not be a partisan matter.

Dr. Oz goes to Washington again. This time it wasn’t his idea. The Senate consumer protection panel called the celebrity TV doc on the carpet this week for promoting “magic weight loss cures”. Although I’m not a fan of stimulant weight loss aides, I sympathize with the poor guy. He is a journalist who does not himself sell products and should be allowed to enthusiastically say what he believes. Unfortunately, Congress sides with the FDA which says that supplement marketers break the law if they talk about health benefits that have not been “proven”. (If you want to “prove” a toxic and new-to-the-planet drug, a study or two performed by the manufacturer itself is enough. However, FDA regulations do not have any provision for reaching “proven” status for supplements.)

Protect your rights:
• Vote with your dollars. The marketplace follows the money. For example, if you reject toxic products, more natural ones will be made. Even if your insurance doesn’t cover all the cost, it pays to reward the doctors that have made the effort to understand nutrition and prevention. Sadly, in Washington the “Golden Rule” applies but it is “He who has the gold makes the rules.”
• Help build the citizen pressure needed to force improvements in health care. For example, let your friends know about the Healthy by Nature Show so that they can become informed about how to prevent disease and treat symptoms naturally.
• Don’t believe everything you hear on TV or read in the newspapers or email. The big media is ever more budget-restricted and often doesn’t do original reporting. The may just pass on what they hear from other media or parrot without questioning what they hear from so-called “authorities” and air the prepackaged propaganda they are given by big companies.
• Develop some comfort communicating with your legislative representatives before there is a crisis. A visit to their local office is great, but a quick call, an email or even a postcard will be a start. Just tell them in your own words what you believe. Are you in favor of having many choices in healthcare, not just the mainstream drug and surgical approach? Are you interested in investing more research dollars into prevention and non-toxic therapies? Finding your legislators is easy with the links below.
• If you are able to donate, support the freedom groups that David against the Goliath moneyed interests.
• If you ignore health freedom, the issue won’t go away but your freedom may.

Contact legislators:
Find your US Senator
Contact your US Congressperson
Find your state officials

Stay in the loop and build grass roots power:
Alliance for Natural Health
Citizens for Health (consumer organization)
Texas Health Freedom Coalition

More information sources:
Sign up for an issue alert service of the Natural Products Association
Center for Science in the Public Interest action page
League of Women Voters