1,200 Prescription Drugs That Could Kill You...

I awoke to my Yahoo Home Page this morning and discovered a curiously ironic first headline story:

"12 Supplements That Could Hurt You..." It then went on to say: "Consumer Reports identifies a dozen ingredients in common supplements that everyone should avoid". And amazingly, it was one of the lead stories on ABC's nightly news. Wow. So tell me, when is the last time you heard of someone getting deathly ill or dying from the usage of a natural supplement? And, are you aware that prescription drugs, when taken as directed, kill over 100,000 and injure over 2 million people per year?

The story then goes on to say:

"What consumers might not realize, though, is that supplement manufacturers routinely, and legally, sell their products without first having to demonstrate that they are safe and effective."

You've got to be kidding--do you know how many hundreds of dangerous, toxic, prescription drugs have been unleashed by the FDA on the American public with very limited testing as to their safety or effectiveness? Or the number of people who have died as a result of taking these unsafe, unproven drugs? And that the FDA only pulled them from circulation after thousands of people, serving as Big Pharma guinea pigs, had died?

For instance, the common diabetic drug Avendia has been found to increase risks of heart attack and heart death between 40% and 70% in recent reports. But do you hear the warnings on that in the news?

The twelve "dangerous" supplements it lists are as follows:

"The dozen are aconite, bitter orange, chaparral, colloidal silver, coltsfoot, comfrey, country mallow, germanium, greater celandine, kava, lobelia, and yohimbe".

I'm not going to debate the validity of their claims here. I just want to ask you a question: What percentage of natural supplements cause dangerous or adverse reactions as opposed to the percentage of prescriptions drugs that cause dangerous and adverse reactions? Do you ever see natural supplement ads in print or on TV with a list of dangerous side-effects as long as your arm?

I think, when taken in perspective, the irony of these claims is absurd. If the FDA so concerned about our health, they should release a study entitled, "1,200 Prescription Drugs That Could Kill You"...