Jan
4
I have a friend who swears by natural cures. But I am kinda skeptical because they are not FDA approved?
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BNM asked:
My question is… why won’t the FDA approve natural cures if they really work?
Tags: FDAMy question is… why won’t the FDA approve natural cures if they really work?
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Because most of them don’t. If you really have something serious, get medicine. Don’t rely on magical asian herbs or anything. 95% of the time it’s a scam, and will probably end up costing MORE than a pill. For smaller issues though, many natural cures CAN help. Aloe Vera, for example, is great for wounds.
FDA stands for Food and Drug Administration - not natural cures.
The are resposible for testing the safety of foods and drug products, or products with drugs in them [ toothpaste, shampoo. ]
That is how they are set up, and how the budget works as well.
Suggest you do your own research on any ‘natural cures’ -
1] many things are natural, but not good for you [ arsenic, hemlock, strychnine ].
2] otherthings won’t hurt, but won’t help either [ rubbing a potato on a wart, and burying potato to make wart go away ]
3] some of them do work - but use a trust worthy site, and follow instructions carefully.
Because the drug companies can’t make money from natural occurring remedies. Don’t believe everything the FDA tells you, they approve meds and they sometimes are recalled, they made people sick or killed them.
The reason is because natural cures don’t work for everyone and sometimes they are seen as placebo cures. I swear by them, but I have friends who think I’m nuts for not sticking with things like nyquil and tylenol. Everyone’s body is different, and even things like ethnicity can effect how natural remedies respond to your body. Originally people tried to find cures for things like headaches, etc, with the natural plants and herbs that they found around where the live, so although arnica might help my skin, it could simply cause an allergic reaction for someone else.
It’s also difficult to prove that certain herbs are what healing the person since there are so many variables.
natural everyone has access to it- they can grow it or find it naturally in the fields.
the FDA wants control but they can’t. So they control the chemical making us believe that it cures when only it covers up the symptons, covers up the symptons.
two-two has spoken
The FDA will probably never approve natural cures.. I live by them.
Much Love
O.K. let me give you a good example. I had really high cholesteral to the point that my doctor thought I would croak over if I didn’t take his prescription medication. I told him I would be back in 1 1/2 months to retest my blood because I was going to do it my way. I changed my diet, used natural supplements and when they retested my blood my cholesteral was PERFECT! My doctor was amazed.
Now let me ask you why I would take a FDA approved cholesteral lowering medication with it’s wonderful list of side effects such as liver damage, stomach ache, muscular pain, blurred vision, etc. when I can use natural cures without all of these problems?
Just on the news this morning they were talking about Vytorin, and FDA approved cholesteral lowering medication
that they “found out” that it dosen’t work! How many people have been taking this and relying on it for their health! I pray that every consumer taking that pill saw the news today.
About the only presciption medication I would ever take at this time in my life is antibiotics if they were needed. For everything else I can find my own cure naturally. Maybe you should get some good books on this subject. The one I started with is called Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James F. Balch.
Don’t knock your friend - she is on to something good!
Because there is no money trail. There are no major pharmaceutical companies footing the bill for flawed studies to prove they work so they can patent and make lots of money on them. Why, because you can’t patent an existing plant. It wasn’t designed in a lab, tested by a “scientist” and recommended for a certain use by a “doctor.”
The FDA does regulate the sale of and require certain things to be said, certain disclaimers to be issued, just so people know that they don’t know. It is often used by the allopathic medical community as a statement to the effectiveness of such remedies, but that is not at all the purpose. Just read the FDA’s own article about homeopathy and the regulation thereof, and you will get a little better idea of the politics of FDA regulation. And, it is very political. Pharmaceutical companies, the AMA and the FDA are staffed by people who are all relying on big profits by the industry. The alternative medicine community is a threat to those profits. If you were told that apple cider vinegar has the same benefit as more expensive chemical drugs, which would you choose?
It is a very controversial and hot topic. I’m sure you will get some interesting replies, as well as a few of our trolls who make sure to reinforce the “it doesn’t work” idea though they never admit to having tried anything. I’ve heard that Kevin Trudeau has a book that covers the controversy well, as does much of the posting about medicines on You will definitely get the quackwatch gang, so know that refutes the whole quackbusters MO. It will also give you some info about the whole controversy and quackbusters.
My personal take is that I don’t care what the FDA says. If a natural cure works, and people have experienced it, what right does any bureaucrat have to try to disclaim it to make some executive more money on his stock portfolio? I use what I know works. And I know that years of allopathy didn’t work for me. If the allopaths had to go through the same though processes applied to alternatives, modern medicine would have been shut down the first day an MD opened his doors.
I’ve spent time in research, and realize how studies can be manipulated to meet the end goal. I would much rather use a remedy that I’ve heard personal, first hand, experience that works, than an FDA approved drug, that will probably be pulled from the market for the ill effects it caused. Anecdotal is not a bad word; it just means someone used it and they have a story to tell. That to me is the most important information. Not a manipulated clinical trial.
The majority of pharmaceutical’s were originally found in a natural botanical. The main reason why synthetic pharmaceuticals are the main focus of the modern health industry is because you cannot “patent” a natural plant or substance. .. You have to synthesize an active derivative of that botanical in order to patent and thus lay claim to the substance. … Of course when you isolate the active chemical originating in the botanical and then concentrate it to make it’s impact upon the intended symptoms even stronger,.. you end up with something that is very different in make up and effect upon the body that consumes it than was found in the original natural substance.
The purpose of patenting any product is to be able to control and lay claim to all profits to be gained from that product on the market. .. The pharmaceutical industry is a multi billion dollar industry that is extremely powerful as a result of it’s wealth and lobbying power.
… If you research the subject you will discover significant evidence to show that the pharmaceutical industry holds significant control over the FDA, .. just as the pharma industry (due to it’s great financial power), holds significant control over the types of research that takes place. .. Research is only done where the funding is being sent for it to be done, .. and that funding is going to be sent where the most potential profit is to be gained; ..thus pharmaceutical research and development, …. not “natural healing” research and development.
The only way that an individual today is going to discover the truth of what healing modality is most healthy and harmonius or effective for them to use, .. is to explore the options for themselves. You would be unwise to rely on the corporate owned media for the truth.
Yes the FDA will never approve any alternative healing methods. Mostly because of money. I dont know if you’ve noticed, but the FDA approves things that don’t cure anything anyway. If fact, some things that have been FDA approved are now “black box” drugs because the side effects can be extremely serious and/or permanent. What’s a natural cure? When you have full blown cancer and take this herb and “poof” you’re cured! No. I look at it as going natural is mostly for preventative care and well-wealth. For example, I’ve had indigestion problems and major part of the problem is my liver was not fully fuctioning (nothing serious). So I took Thistle Milk Seed. I swear by that stuff. It has helped me tremendously. Now I rarely have those problems and rarely take it anymore. SInce in started taking Xlear(an all natural nose spray) I no longer have sinus infections. Dont get me wrong I will go to a doctor and take a drug if necessary, but I prefer natural methods first.
The FDA does not refuse to approve natural cures.
Under the Dietary Supplements law passed by the government, manufacturers can market anything as a “dietary supplement” without FDA approval as long as the label calls it a supplement and the label doesn’t make any claims that the supplement cures anything. The FDA has no involvement with the product at all.
In contrast, a drug manufacturer is allowed to put “cure” claims on their labels after the FDA has reviewed the product and approved it. To get approval the manufacturer has to prove that the drug works and is safe, that the pills contain the ingredients listed on the label, have their factory and lab inspected for cleaniness and safety and track and report to the FDA any side effects once the product reaches the market. Meeting these FDA requirements is expensive.
A supplement or natural product manufacturer does not have to prove that the supplement contains what the label says it does, their factory and labs aren’t inspected, they don’t have to prove the supplement works or is safe, they don’t have to report any adverse effects.
So FDA approval is up to the manufacturer. If he wants approval, he can get it but will have to prove it works. If it turns out to not work, he won’t be able to market it with FDA approval. Since much more money can be made marketing unproven remedies than by going to the expense of testing to see if they work, supplement manufacturers don’t bother getting FDA approval.
You should know that supplement manufacturers lobbied very hard to get the current Dietary Supplement law passed. The FDA wanted to regulate them the way they regulate food and other drugs in order to protect the public from dangerous or worthless supplements, but the industry kept that law from passing. Supplements are a multi billion dollar business.
So you are right to be skeptical. Before using any “cure” that does not have FDA approval, check whether any proper research has been done. You can do so on PubMed, a way to search the medical literature. A link to PubMed is below.
Kait,
be more skeptical of FDA approved than natural products.
Vioxx caused heart attacks (FDA approved) and was taken off the market. Merck paid $4Billion for damages. And there are many others.
natural products are not classified as drugs and make no claims for cure on the label so the FDA is not going to approve.
there are political wheels in motion to make your vitamins Rx only and to stop the sale of natural cures.
the fda drugs have killed more people over the last 50 yrs than alternative medicine.