"Primum non nocere"
- Hippocrates

No product mentioned in these pages has been evaluated by the FDA and is meant to diagnose, cure, mitigate or prevent any disease. If you have a health condition see your physician. Also, bear in mind that information presented in these pages about any product does not represent any claim made by the manufacturer of these products but is the opinion solely of the proprietor of this web site based upon his research.

What does this mean?

1. The FDA exists ostensibly to protect the public from worthless or dangerous health products. It is meant to be the first, last and only word on this subject. An exemption was recently made for natural health products. The products listed here are all natural products. They have not, therefore, been evaluated by the FDA for safety or efficacy. Nor does the FDA have the legal right to censor information anymore (see below*.) However, they have all been the subject of various clinical or laboratory studies on animals or humans with results that may be applicable to human health. Moreover, they are the subject of many anecdotal testimonials and are generally safe for most people. No substance, natural or drug, can be guaranteed to work in everyone nor can they be considered absolutely safe. The reason for this is that everyone is biologically unique. Sleeping pills wake some people up! Rest assured, though, that unlike prescription drugs that kill five times as many people every year from side effects than die from auto accidents, the FDA is hard at work looking for someone killed by a nutraceutical.

Remember, although anecdotes are case histories when a definite link between a therapy and its results are obtained, getting well is also complicated. Just because a substance is taken and health is restored doesn't necessarily mean that the substance is the cause. Many diseases are self-limiting. In fact, most people get better, especially with minor infectious diseases. Some, like Multiple Sclerosis, tend to go into remissions and reappear later. Others, like herpes, appear in attacks that subside in time.

"Cures" can be due to other things including other conventional treatments (though this is rare in chronic or degenerative illness) or the placebo effect. The placebo effect is worth noting. We get a tape from some MLM company or other almost weekly asking us to join up. The tape is always full of miraculous cures that were effected shortly after taking the product, no matter what it is. If everyone used MLM products apparently no one would be ill. As a rule of thumb, the faster the cure, the more likely it is that the placebo effect is responsible. Remember, real healing takes time. The body needs time to repair damage and put its house in order. Natural healing is an ongoing process. Do not dabble with a substance for a week or a month and then become disappointed that an overnight cure didn't take place. Make a plan and stick to it.

What these tapes never tell you is how the patient fared a few months down the line. In general, only double-blind or population studies can prove that a substance has an effect on a disease and that is what the FDA looks for. Remember, though, that human beings are complicated and multi-dimensional. You never quite know what is going to work and the employment of every agency available that does no harm is worth trying. If the placebo effect can be amplified by hypnosis, for example, then it is the result that counts, not the method. Remember also, that in folk medicine or the great traditional medical systems of China or India, for example, the therapeutic value of substances were not determined by double-blind studies. They were discovered by trying out herbs and other natural substances and finding out what worked for the patient by experience. That approach is still valid.

2. Disease is complicated with many causative and contributing factors. Although doctors are the only ones allowed to say "cure," in fact, no one has cured anything. The body does that if you give it some help. The difference between most prescription or OTC drugs and natural products is that drugs are usually meant to ameliorate symptoms or kill pathogens. Natural products are meant to support the body's own attempts to regain health or stay healthy. NHC does not sell anything that cures disease or should be used to treat disease. NHC sells nutritional products that help the body do what it does naturally. Although we match disease conditions to products it is not the disease we are referencing but the underlying deficiency state. For example, arthritis is a term used for a variety of different diseases with differing etiologies. They all have in common an inflammation of the joint. Conventional medicine tries to suppress the inflammation and that is, except for surgery, pretty much the whole approach. Natural medicine tries instead to restore the joint by supplying nutrients needed by the body to rebuild the joint itself. Disease conditions then, should be regarded as markers for pathophysiological functioning which is the object of a nutritional approach.

3. Like we said, disease is complicated. What seems like one thing can be another. Small symptoms can be clues to coming tragedy. The products we sell are meant to support healing, not to replace a practitioner. Do not go it alone. Do not assume that you know what is wrong with you and what it takes to become healthy. Work with a qualified physician, preferably one who is open to innovative, natural approaches. If your doctor is unfamiliar with natural products or resistant, we will be happy to supply your doctor with whatever information he or she requests to evaluate these products. If you do not have a healer go to the Holistic Yellow Pages which lists a physician near you. Perhaps most importantly, DO NOT DISCONTINUE YOUR PRESCRIPTION drugs or attempt to replace them with one of these products without your doctor's consent, especially if your life depends upon them!

Ultimately, and constitutionally, the state exists as your servant, and only you have the ultimate responsibility for your body and your health. It belongs to you, not the government.

* The FDA's powers were severely curtailed by actions of the Court of Appeals. The court correctly determined that the FDA's arguments against providing health information on labels or elsewhere was an infringement upon the First Amendment right of free speech. The court also rejected the FDA's significant scientific agreement requirements. The court's position was that any speech which was not intentionally deceptive and which cited its source was an expression of free speech and not subject to FDA regulation. Of course the FDA has been ignoring this and is being sued again! See the article at the Life Extension Foundation for more information.


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