Feb. 19, 2010

If Sen. John McCain has his way, Americans’ access to herbs, minerals and dietary supplements will be severely curtailed.

McCain’s newly introduced bill the Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) will give the FDA complete control over all dietary supplements.

The DSSA will repeal parts of the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement and Education Act).

I know this sounds like a bureaucratic an alphabet soup and it is. It also has the potential to turn into a health care nightmare.

Bureaucractic alphabet soup

DSHEA, enacted in 1994, protects two types of supplements: 1. supplements that have been in the food supply and are not chemically altered and 2. supplements that were sold before 1994.

DSHEA as it exists today is far from perfect, largely because it gives the FDA control over new supplements and discourages the development of new products. However, DSHEA does prevent the FDA from arbitrarily banning or reclassifying supplements.

The McCain bill, if passed, gives the very much flawed FDA the power to create a list of approved supplements that can remain on the market and to ban all others.

Switching the focus

I’ll return to the flaws of the FDA in a moment, but it’s important to understand that Sen. McCain apparently has the intention with this bill of protecting us against steroid use by professional athletes. The DSSA is supported by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which is funded by major league baseball, football and other sports teams.

It appears that major league sports is attempting to shift the focus away from its shameless drug use by claiming some players were unknowingly exposed to steroids through supplements.

While that is preposterous and I, for the life of me, cannot understand why legislators need to interrogate athletes about illegal drug use when we’ve got two wars, economic disaster and a health care crisis to deal with, the upshot of the McCain bill is to dismantle the dietary supplements industry as we know it.

Who is the beneficiary?

Who would benefit from the dismantling of the dietary supplements industry? Not you and me, my friends. Plain and simple: The pharmaceutical industry will be the only beneficiaries of the McCain bill.

The FDA receives substantial funding from the pharmaceutical industry, so its interests are in protecting the funding source—pharmaceutical industry, not the American people.

The pharmaceutical industry is hostile to supplement companies because natural supplements can prevent diseases that are treated by drugs sold at enormous profits by these very same drug companies.

It’s not a very big leap of logic to the certainty that under the McCain bill, the FDA will be hostile to supplement companies and our access to dietary supplements, minerals and herbs will be severely curtailed.

Here’s where you can read the entire bill.

Contact Sen. McCain and say “NO”

I am very careful not to engage in political partisanship in these pages. However, I feel compelled to engage in political advocacy here for the benefit of every American.

Sen. McCain’s bill, if passed, will have far-reaching and potentially disastrous effects on preventive h ealth care and on eevery single one of us. All of us need to tell Mr. McCain right now that this bill is very misguided.

Contact Sen. McCain by e-mail or by calling (202) 224-2235.

Please contact him now and often until we are absolutely certain this bill is dead and buried.

Feb. 15, 2010

The new CARD consumer credit protection act takes effect next week—and not a moment too soon.

We’re still in a feeding frenzy of credit car companies raising interest rates through the stratosphere while they still can.

Now, hopefully, those ridiculous rates will slow down. I recently heard of one that was 250%! Most us have experienced rates of 36% or even 44% despite good credit scores and pristine payment histories.

One of my companies recently reduced my credit limit from $9,500 to $500 just because I hadn’t used the card for a few months. I decided to vote with my feet since they had initiated a hit to my credit score, I’d just bite the bullet and say goodbye to them.

The new CARD act doesn’t mean that your credit card company can’t still put the screws to you, but there are some limits.

Here’s what you get starting next week:

• Banks must give 45 days notice before raising the interest rate on future purchases.

• Your interest rate on existing balances can’t be raised until you’re in default for 60 days.

• Your monthly statements going forward will reflect how many years you’ll be in debt if you only make minimum payments.

• Any annual fees must be capped at 25 percent of your card’s limit.

• If you have multiple interest rates on your account, anything you pay over the minimum balance will be applied to the highest rate first. But beware, if you only pay the minimum, the money will still be applied to the lowest balance first.

• Teaser rates on new cards must be honored for one year.

* Credit won’t be extended to people under 21 without a co-signer, except in very specific circumstances.

• Two-cycle billing will no longer be allowed. This was a sneaky way that banks would charge massive interest if one month you paid in full and the next month you didn’t.