This is the cover of the September 2012 issue of Consumer Report.
Needless to say I am upset by this article and was compelled to record this video.
Part of what upsets me is that most people will see the cover and won't read the article, which I believe is intended, but they will just walk away thinking oh vitamins and minerals are dangerous, when that is completely false.
I did some research and in the year 2010 more than 100,000 people died from prescription drug side effects alone. That's not including Dr. errors or mistakes, and not including pharmacy mistakes or errors. Not to mention dosing errors in hospitals.
I truly believe there is a monetary prompting for this being the cover story as well. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Americans are on some pill spending about 250 Billion a year for them. And the drug companies are not satisfied with 65%, now they are making smaller doses of pills like Prozac for kids! They now want to put kids on stronger pain meds, and even suggest some kids should start on cholesterol drugs.
Here are some facts Consumer Report could have listed about prescription drugs:
Prescription overdoses are up fourfold as per the CDC (center for Disease Control)
Death from prescription drug use is now officially an epidemic in the United states.
The 100,000 people that die from side effects of prescription drugs is twice as many people that die from car accidents yearly.
Now, compare those facts to the 115 deaths that occurred over 4 and 1/2 years from vitamin and supplement use. Does that really warrant a cover story?
I did read the article and here are my biggest gripes with their article.
Fact #2 they say some supplements are really prescription drugs. Well duh! Most prescription drugs are derived from natural elements as I explained in the video above. What they don't tell you is that what pharmaceutical companies do is make synthetic forms of naturally healing and health maintaining substances and make something they can patent and make money from.
They target botanicas which are little markets in, usually, latin neighborhoods that sale plants or herbs. This is attacking mom and pop shops. Again it comes back to money being steered from the little guy to the big pharmaceutical companies. Like really, we should not trust are local market that has natural remedies and keep our dollars local? But we should trust big pharma that kills over 100,000 people a year and already makes more than $250 Billion a year! I don't think so.
Another point they make is that the word Natural is not regulated by a formal group or organization. And to that I say so what. There are many drugs and medical procedures that are approved by the FDA, the Federal Death Administration, I mean the Food and Drug Administration that kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. No thanks, I'll take my chances with things the way God made them.
If you are still reading this, you must be interested lol but I just have 2 more points.
They talk about how many supplements are basically snake oil, like Omega 3 pills, but I just wonder why they just couldn't Google "clinical results on Omega 3 pills" and get the evidence that supports the benefits of taking them. I know from personal experience this works, I take it myself.
My final point and the most laughable of their story is that vitamin and supplements are a danger to you and your family because you can choke on the pills. I guess you can't choke on prescription pills?
Thanks for reading my blog.
Leave a comment if you'd like.
Tish Washington
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