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Important NHF U.S. Legislative Update DHEA Is Under Attack By Congress Again
January 10, 2008
www.thenhf.com
NEWSLETTER No. 12
JANUARY 2008
IMPORTANT NHF U.S. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
DHEA Is Under Attack By Congress Again
Health-Freedom Advocates Halted Congress
From This Same Assault In 2006 , Let's Do It Again!
Oppose S.2470 Classifying DHEA as an Anabolic Steroid
S.2470 Dehydroepiandrosterone Abuse Reduction Act of 2007 (Introduced in Senate, 110th Congress 1st Session)
To amend the Controlled Substances Act to prevent the abuse of dehydroepiandrosterone, and for other purposes.
Mr. Grassley (for himself and Mr. Schumer) introduced S.2470; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Senate Bill S.2470 - link
Nutritional Supplements Under Congressional Assault Again
By Lee Bechtel, NHF National Lobbyist
Legislation to treat supplements containing Dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA, as anabolic steroids, and be classified as an illegal drug to be included with other controlled substances, and to regulate these supplement products as prescription drugs needing a physician's authorization for older adults has been reintroduced by Senator Grassley (R-IA). Senate bill 2470 is similar to a previous Grassley bill, S. 762. The previous bill was an assault on dietary-supplement consumer freedom of choice. S. 2470 continues this assault and is even worse. Your proactive assistance in lobbying Congress against this legislation is once again needed to preserve your right to have free access to nutritional supplements.
The legislation would ban the sale of dietary supplements containing DHEA as an ingredient to young adults. It would also require older adults to get a prescription and show identification to purchase these same supplement products. Supplements containing DHEA ingredients would be regulated like pharmaceutical drugs, despite their existing safe regulation under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).
Supplements containing DHEA as an ingredient have been sold freely for over twenty years. Natural DHEA is derived from a plant in the wild yam family, and has a naturally occurring hormone that has a proven scientific record of having a wide range of health benefits for older Americans and people with chronic conditions. DHEA may be helpful for such conditions as obesity, low libido, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Some in Congress now believe that an extract from a raw food, when processed into an ingredient used in a supplement, should be classified as an anabolic steroid, and regulated like a drug.
This legislation is a misdirected attempt to address the steroid-abuse problems of professional athletes and young adults. It would in no way address the problem of illegal anabolic steroid use. It does pose a serious and ongoing threat to consumers of dietary and nutritional supplements, if or when passed by Congress.
In the last Congress, health-freedom advocates were able to prevent this legislation from passing. Your proactive participation in a grass-roots advocacy letter-writing campaign is once again needed to prevent this legislation from being acted on this year in this Congress. If this legislation passes Congress, it will act as a precedent and who then knows what raw food vitamin, mineral, or protein by-product when used as an ingredient in a dietary supplement will be next on the regulate-supplements-like-drugs chopping block?
As the oldest and best-respected health-freedom group on Capitol Hill, the NHF continues to be the credible source of objective assessment, and proactive actions on Congressional legislation and FDA matters impacting our freedom-of-health choices, and access to dietary and nutritional supplements.
Health-freedom advocates were able to prevent this legislation from passing Congress once before, so let's do it again. A grass-roots advocacy letter-writing campaign will once again be needed to block this threat to access to beneficial supplements containing DHEA.
To Help With This Cause, Please Use the Links Below to Let Your Voice be Heard. Contact Your Representatives Now and Ask That They Oppose S.2470 Classifying DHEA as an Anabolic Steroid.
To view the Sample Petition Letter, click these links:
To Send Your Petition Now To Oppose S.2470 click here
Click on this address to find your U.S. Senators: http://www.senate.gov
Click on the following links below for individual mailing addresses for
letter writing and other contact info for Congress Members:
As the oldest and best-respected health-freedom group on Capitol Hill, the NHF continues to be the credible source of objective assessment, and proactive actions on Congressional legislation and FDA matters that have meaningful impacts upon our freedom-of-health choices and access to dietary supplements and nutritional foods.
About the National Health Federation
Established in 1955, the National Health Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to protect individuals' rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements and use alternative therapies without government restrictions. With consumer members all over the world, and a Board of Governors and Advisory Board containing representatives from 6 different countries, the Federation is unique is being the only consumer health freedom organization in the world to enjoy official observer status with the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
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