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LINUS PAULING ON DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS1 As a scientist, chemist, physicist, crystallographer, molecular biologist, and medical researcher, I have spent a lifetime in pursuit of expert knowledge. This issue involving the definition, regulation, and censorship of dietary supplements and associated information goes far beyond this hearing. It touches upon the very fiber of our human and constitutional rights. It mandates monopolization of the healthcare industry by creating an economic premise that will eventually eliminate those unable to meet its unrealistic requirements. These demands would require millions of dollars in research and excessive time constraints to prove the safety of substances already historically and statistically within considerable safety margins. In the scientific and medical communities, among those of reputable and significant knowledge, the votes have already been cast in favor of non-toxic therapies that are effective and affordable. This issue of agency determination of definitions and regulations overrides the individual’s freedom of choice in healthcare, and inhibits free access to vitamin information that better enables a person to make an informed, intelligent decision regarding services that could be of significant value in the prevention and treatment of disease, making it mandatory that they be made available only as "drugs," and under the jurisdiction therefore of the medical community. This ultimately enslaves a population to becoming chemically, psychologically, and economically dependent, rather than being actively responsible for its own well being. Billions of dollars and millions of lives are at risk of being jeopardized in this ruthless campaign to subjugate the health industry to being puppets of a legislated system of lobbying efforts. . . .
Over a quarter of a century ago, I became interested in nutrient compounds and their effects on human health. The old professors of nutrition who helped develop the science of nutrition seemed complacent with their accomplishments and ignored the new discoveries that were being made in medicine, biochemistry, and molecular biology. They continued to teach their students the old ideas, many of them incomplete or incorrect, resulting in principals and practices that have denied the public proper access to new concepts and therapies. Physicians themselves, though dedicated and intelligent, are virtually untrained in the area of nutritional science and metabolic therapy, other than conventional drug modalities and allopathic procedures. If there is to be a concerted effort to regulate and eliminate toxic substances, it would serve the issue far better to address the abuse of drugs and treatment procedures that are the cause of hundreds of thousands of medical catastrophes and deaths per year, which could possibly be avoided by improving medical education of the physicians and the public as to nutritional alternatives in healthcare maintenance. . . . This hearing is paramount to the determination of the Dietary Supplements Act, S-784. I submit to you the history-making moment that we are facing. As representative of the people, consider not only the medical and scientific implications, but the humanity of your decisions. We are on the threshold of a new paradigm. The future of our self-determination as humankind depends upon our right to life and to live in freedom. Herophiles in 300 B.C. stated: "When Health is absent, Wisdom cannot reveal itself, Art cannot become manifest, Strength cannot be exerted, Wealth is useless, and Reason is powerless." ___________________________ 1From testimony submitted on October 20, 1993 at Senate Hearing on Dietary Supplements Act S-784, Washington, D.C. Article from NOHA NEWS, Vol. XIX, No. 1, Winter 1994, page 6. |