The Scandal That Removes Your Freedom To Choose

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It pains me to write this alert.

Over the last couple of months I’ve written extensively about a threat we all face – at least those of us who choose to look after our bodies with natural or alternative remedies before we reach for the pharmaceuticals and mainstream medicine. Now, this threat has become a reality here at Agora Lifestyles.

What am I talking about?

Well, I will set the scene with a few examples and then we see if you can join the dots...

Codex Alimentarius

In October I told you about Codex Alimentarius who, instead of being a fair- trade movement that aims to support farmers and producers in developing countries while promoting sustainability, has turned into a system of guidelines and standards that work to the advantage of the world’s corporations and food manufacturers. The Codex tentacles are wrapped around almost every aspect of what we consume.

In the alert, ‘Codex Alimentarius: How Well Are You Informed?’, I explained that Codex does not create laws but merely delivers guidelines, standards and recommendations and this is why many governments see Codex as harmless, as do corporations that benefit from these recommendations and guidelines.

The reality is that most countries have no option but to harmonise their laws to Codex. If they don’t, they face imposed sanctions by the World Trade Organisation Dispute Settlement Body (WTODSB). WTODSB is the ultimate enforcer of Codex’s rules governing the global food trade and once you’ve crossed their path you probably won’t be allowed to trade internationally. Still all of this seems far away from our front door here in London...

Major crack down on alternative medicine

The reality of this is much closer than many people realise...

A week after the alert ‘Codex Alimentarius: How Well Are You Informed?’, I reported on the fact that Herbal medicine, acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine could become a thing of the past.

In the alert ‘Herbal Medicine, Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine Under Threat in the UK’ we showed how herbal medicine, acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are under serious threat in the UK. Trade bodies believe these therapies could even cease to exist in Britain within a few years; practitioners could stop practicing and people may not be able to get some herbal pills, capsules, tinctures and ointments they use every day.

Whilst this particular matter may not bear direct reference to Codex, it is a brilliant example of how government bodies and powerful corporations can take away something valuable and integral to many peoples’ lives very quickly.

The ‘Department of Health Steering Group on the Statutory Regulation of Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems Practised in the United Kingdom’ published a report which recommends the regulation of acupuncturists, medical herbalists and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. If this regulation comes into effect with it’s ‘special licensing system’, it will give no special legal rights to practitioners. As a result, medical herbalists will not have access to some regulated herbal medicines. They will instead only be allowed to work with simple tinctures, extracts and dried herbs. Medical doctors will also not be allowed to refer patients to them.

This will have a significant and detrimental impact on traditional medicine:

• The public will lose the choice of a wide range of high quality herbal remedies.

• Traditional remedies from China and India will only be available through the Internet or backstreet suppliers – thus posing a serious health risk to the public.

• The public will forever lose important professional expertise in ensuring standards for herbal medicine, including opportunities for integrative healthcare with mainstream health professionals.

• A number of businesses that have specialised in manufacturing top quality herbal products for professional use only (e.g. MediHerb products) will cease business.

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Not a healthy gut-feeling

Exactly a day later on 20 October 2009, we ran the alert ‘Gagging Order Imposed On Probiotics – More Nutrients and Supplements Soon To Follow’. This alert dealt with the issue where the voluntary UK advertising watchdog, Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), has told Danone to cease broadcasting TV adverts that state its one-shot probiotic drinking yoghurt, could boost the immune system of children...

That’s right. We are no longer allowed to know when something natural is good for us or our children!

All of this has happened in the wake of the October 1 publication of about 500 health claim opinions by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) which stunned the industry with a 70 per cent failure rate.

Not a single botanical or probiotic claim drew a positive opinion. What this means in layman’s terms is that 523 (to be precise) botanicals and probiotics need to change their marketing with reference to the way they make claims about the benefits of these products and nutrients, or else they will not be allowed to go on store shelves (or like we’ve seen with Danone, to advertise their products).

Some of the food and supplements that are affected by the EFSA negative claim opinions are folate (foetal and infant development), Omega-3 (some aspects of heart health), glucosamine and chondroitin (joint health). It is becoming more and more apparent that the 2006 Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation is going to deliver a highly restrictive health claims regime – perhaps the most restrictive in the world...

The European Commission has now set themselves the goal to process all the health claim opinions issued by EFSA, by the end of January 2010. This means that the effects on supermarket shelves and health food stores will be felt by us, as early as July 2010.

Not just scaremongering... there’s someone knocking on our door

Now, earlier this month we’ve been prevented from marketing our Forbidden Cures report, containing information on alternative medicine the ‘health police’ clearly don’t want you to have.

By the end of the day on 24 November 2009 we will have been forced to withdraw the Forbidden Cures report and its related 13 free special reports from circulation.

So, from now on, the only way that anyone will ever hear about these groundbreaking natural cures – and the new discoveries our team of experts at the Health Sciences Institute are making every month - is by receiving our monthly HSI members’ journal.

Although we can still write about the cures that natural medicine has to offer in our monthly journal, we can’t advertise the fact that that’s what we do.

Effectively, we’ve been told to do our valuable work in silence...

How long before they ban us from writing the truth about these natural cures in our newsletter as well? Your guess is as good as mine . . .

All I know is that the combined forces of the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical companies and Brussels ‘dictocrats’ are lining up to make sure that they control what you’re allowed to know about.

That’s why it’s so important that you support our work by subscribing to our monthly members journal. Before you know it these Forbidden Cures will be Forgotten Cures...

Related Reading:

Gagging Order Imposed On Probiotics – More Nutrients and Supplements Soon To Follow

Herbal Medicine, Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine Under Threat in the UK

Codex Alimentarius: How Well Are You Informed?

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"It is truly refreshing to read a newsletter on the topic of alternative medicine which is scientifically based and reviewed by professionals………" - Robert Sinott

Sources:

‘Codex Alimentarius: How Well Are You Informed?’ by Agora Lifestyles, published online 12.10.09, thehealthierlife.co.uk

‘Herbal Medicine, Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine Under Threat in the UK’ by Agora Lifestyles, published online 19.10.09, thehealthierlife.co.uk

‘Gagging Order Imposed On Probiotics – More Nutrients and Supplements Soon To Follow’, by Agora Lifestyles, published online 20.10.09, thehealthierlife.co.uk