Your Animal's Health
Pharmaceutical Companies Entering Dietary Supplement Market
During 1994 there was a movement by special interest groups to enact legislation to require that vitamins, minerals and herbs above specified levels be prescribed by medical professionals. This would have denied the rights of individuals to seek alternatives to drugs and other conventional medical therapies.
This movement was soundly defeated by irate individuals who wanted the right to choose the course of their health. One argument against megavitamin therapy is that high doses of certain vitamins are toxic and may cause negative reactions. A major study, however, indicates that a total number of fatalities from overdoses of major pharmaceutical drugs for the eight-year reporting period from 1983 to 1990 equals 2,556, whereas the total number of fatalities resulting from high doses of vitamin supplements during the same period is zero.
This same scenario has existed in veterinary medicine for decades, I know, because I have been the subject of controversy because of my nutritional concepts. Those of us in the veterinary profession involved in meganutrition were concerned that this attempt to regulate nutritional supplements would be imposed on the pet owners, who also have the right to choose the course of health for their pets.
Since the defeat of the proposition to control supplemental nutrients in 1994, there have been numerous positive reports about the merits of nutrients in the treatment, prevention and control of specific diseases. There is the term "Nutraceutical" that is now being applied to these nutrients that are being employed against diseases. The researchers are now combining specific nutrients that counter a specific condition eliminating the need of consuming multiple pills.
According to the September issue of HSR's Supplement Industry Insider publication, there has been an acceleration of change in the dietary supplement industry. Major pharmaceutical corporations are moving rapidly into this new market. Baayer, a $32.4 billion corporation is entering this dietary market with seven combinations for specific conditions.
- Cold Season - echinacea, vitamin C, and zinc
- Tension & Mood - St. John's wart
- Memory & concentration - Ginkgo biloba and B vitamins
- Bone Strength - Calcium and soy extracts
- Cholesterol Health - Garlic and soy extracts
- Menopause Health - Soy extracts and black cohosh
- Prostate Health - Saw palmetto
Other major corporations, American Home Products, Warner-Lambert, Bergen Brunswig Drug Company, and Wal-Mart are entering into this new market.
This September, at the Stanford University School of Medicine (Palo Alto, California) a symposium sponsored by the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention was designed to educate the medical community on the safety and efficacy of Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Scientific Evidence and Steps Toward Integration, to provide practical information on integrating these therapies into clinical practice.
Historically, the trend has always been for veterinary medicine to follow its human counterpart and I do not see any deviation from this new trend.
Though I am very pleased to see these changes occur, it does sadden me to recall those individuals who spent much of their lives trying to inform the public of the merits of nutritional supplementation for the treatment of diseases. Individuals like the late Dr. Linus Pauling, two time Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi who discovered vitamin C, Dr. F.R. Klenner, treated polio with vitamin C during the 1940's and Irwin Stone, chemist who began researching vitamin C two years after its discovery in 1928. These pioneers were severely criticized for their concepts and nutritional protocols by the conventional medical community. I had the pleasure of knowing these individuals and admired their fortitude and tenacity, they were all extremely knowledgeable and extremely humble. They were very eager to share their knowledge with anyone interested in their quest for better health. It would be wonderful if at least one had lived to see this metamorphosis taking place in the pharmaceutical industry and medical community.
It is well perceived that the pharmaceutical industry exerts a great influence on the medical and veterinary professions. Now that corporations, in this industry, will be investing millions of dollars in nutritional and herbal protocols, this will have a positive effect on the two professions because the pharmaceutical corporations have the resources to protect their investments. This new venture will not only benefit the investors, it will benefit those who will, humans and animals, be utilizing the products. Though these products will be administered for specific conditions, they will be considerably broader and will encompass other conditions. This I say from experience. I developed one product (Mega C Plus) for the prevention of canine hip dysplasia and later discovered it will aid in the prevention of allergies , and in the treatment and prevention of viral infections. The merits of nutritional therapies are endless.
Since there are no laws in place that limits the sale of nutrients by only qualified individuals, there will be those non-professionals, with no skills in this new industry, who will attempt to capitalize, financially, in this new field; "Buyer Beware".
For thirty years I was a combatant in the "area of good health" trying to inform the public of nutritional alternatives for the treatment prevention and control of diseases, and now I am a spectator watching the changes unfold in my lifetime; it is a dream come true. I am no longer a "maverick" or "nonconformist", I am now mainstream.
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