Enough is enough!
For far too long physicians and their patients have sat back and watched their freedom to access health care erode away. The source of this erosion of freedom is from the very people that are charged with protecting it. The FDA and United States government is guilty as Charged. It is one thing to attack my ability to provide health care (not acceptable). It is quite another to eliminate an American’s access to it. After all, we physicians should be the patient’s #1 advocate–advocates for health care and advocates for a patient’s access to health care.
The latest attack on our freedoms includes the use of IV nutritional therapies. The FDA champions scientific research as their call to action. The problem is that the scientific data does not support their call to action here and in many cases lately. The very duty that they are charged with has become the very means by which they attack our freedom to provide health care and eliminate the patient’s access to health and wellness.
Lets stick to the current deception at hand. There are bills currently before Congress to eliminate physicians use of and patients access to IV nutritional therapies. The House bill is HR 3024 and the Senate bill is SB 959.
What does the science say about IV vitamin therapies? What dose the science say about the side effects of IV vitamin therapies? How does this compare to many FDA approved therapies? Let me present the evidence and you decide.
First, what is IV vitamin therapy? It is just what it implies–vitamin therapy given IV. Intravenous vitamin therapy allows a more direct, higher dose attack on vitamin deficiencies.
I want to use IV vitamin C as the example of IV nutritional therapy. Intravenous vitamin C has been used by “alternative” medical practitioners since 1949 . Since that time, high dose IV vitamin C therapy has been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of cancer, autoimmune disease, reduction of inflammation, reduction of pain, and the treatment as an anti-bacterial, and an anti-viral. Intravenous vitamin C has even been shown to be beneficial in those with Hepatitis C that failed traditional medical therapy with Interferon. Intravenous vitamin C therapy can be used alone or in combination with traditional therapies. The perfect example is in cancer. Intravenous vitamin C therapy can act as a chemotherapeutic agent and IV vitamin C can be used as an adjunct to cancer treatment to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and reduce the dose of chemotherapy needed.
The big question is what about the side effects? High dose IV vitamin C has time and time again proven to be safe. A 2010 study looked at 20,109 patients that received high dose IV vitamin C from 2006 to 2008. The average patient received 19-24 IV infusions with the average dosage at 28 grams. This study reported “no definitive serious side effects”. The health of the patients involved in this study was not clarified. Another study published in 2008 looked at patients with advanced cancer–the sickest of the sick. The dose of IV vitamin C was up to 90 grams in this study of patients with cancer. Though the IV vitamin C therapy was not proven effective in these patients with advanced cancer that failed all other therapies, IV vitamin C was proven to be very safe.
Every therapy has potential side effects. Intravenous vitamin C is no different. Intravenous vitamin C can cause hemolysis in those with a glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. Thankfully, this deficiency is very rare and can be safely eliminated as a potential side effect by checking for the deficiency.
What of the side effects of FDA approved therapies? A 2008 study found that 36,000 deaths occurred in one year due to prescription painkillers. That same study found that overdosage of prescriptions painkillers kill 100 people every day in the United States. Likewise, a 2000 Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that physicians, prescriptions, drugs to drug interactions, surgeries, and medical errors were the 3rd leading cause of deaths in the US. There is question to the accuracy of this number, but the point is that physicians, hospitals, and FDA approved drugs and therapies are one of the leading causes of complications and deaths in the US.
In summary, no serious side effects reported in a study of 20,0000+ patients receiving high dose IV vitamin C therapy, IV vitamin C found to be safe in patients with advanced cancer compared to FDA approved prescription drugs and therapies leading to thousands of deaths annually with complications that far exceed that. If we just compared oral prescription painkillers to IV vitamin C the numbers are 36,000 to ZERO.
The point here is not to bash the FDA. They do good work. But, the FDA is a political bureaucracy. The point is to remove the political blinders and reveal the truth in the data in the science.
Don’t take my word for it. You decide! Call your Congressman. Tell your friends, family, and neighbors. Preserve your right to access the Health care of your choosing.
It is important to realize the source of Freedom. Our founding fathers recognized the source of our Freedom— “…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Our founding fathers recognized that Freedom does not originate from government, but from the Creator! Government exists to protect that Freedom. The restriction of the access to Health Care is a limitation of Freedom and is out of step with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional power of our government.
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