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At the young age of 30, a severe attack of gout had rendered me a helpless invalid dependent on another person to take care of me. The excruciating pain of moving my toes or touching my foot to the floor was simply too great for me to walk. This malady had afflicted me for over two years and the attacks were getting more severe and more frequent. My doctor had told me there was no cure and the only treatment involved daily doses of drugs with harmful side effects and there was no way to be sure they would work for me. So I did my own research and found a healthy, natural cure that could virtually eliminate gout attacks. If I had done as most people do and simply trusted the medical profession without question, I would have faced a life of terrible pain and disability. Nature has provided a safe and effective cure for most ailments and yet millions of Americans suffer through their illnesses because they believe that their doctor and the pharmaceutical companies are the final word on their health. Millions more become more ill or die because they blindly trust their doctor to give them drugs that are safe. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that is supposed to be protecting us from unsafe drugs, has proven that it is either unable or unwilling to do the the job it was created for. The FDA only protects the interests of pharmaceutical companies and ignores the best treatments for the people it is supposed to protect.
Gout is caused by underperforming kidneys that are unable to adequately metabolize uric acid. This natu
rally occurring chemical is the end product of the breakdown of purines found in a plethora of foods and drinks. It is normally flushed out in the urine but when the body cannot dissolve it and pass it through to the bladder, it crystallizes into microscopic needles. The uric acid crystals collect around the joints, almost always in the foot, and send searing pain through the tissues like little invisible shards of glass.
To prevent attacks, I could try to avoid foods that contain high amounts of purines. However, it is not clearly known what foods are high in purines, what levels they have, or what levels it takes to cause an attack. For example, even if I were to eat a bag of shrimp, which is known to have a high purine content, there is no certainty that it would cause an attack. On the other hand, I may not consume any purines at all and still have an attack. The list of foods containing purines varies depending on the source because it is not known for certain so some sources simply name every food or drink a person has ever reported consuming before an attack. Even if I wanted to cut these foods out of my diet entirely, eat healthy and lose weight, that sudden change in diet could cause an attack. Not drinking enough water can 
Image via Wikipediacause an attack, with or without a high purine intake. Not all gout sufferers have the same triggers. A food that causes me to have an acute attack, may not be a problem for somebody else.
The alternative to this uncertain experimentation with diet, was to take a daily drug called Allopurinol that would reduce the uric acid levels in my blood. But the doctor advised against this treatment unless the attacks became too frequent to tolerate because he said Allopurinol can cause severe liver damage over a long period of regular use. What’s worse, in the first few months of using Allopurinol, the drug can actually cause an increase in gout attacks. To counter this increase in attacks, another drug is given on top of it, called Colchicine, which has its own set of side effects. For all of these ill effects on my body, there was still no guarantee that the Allopurinol would reduce my attacks.
Unwilling to simply accept a future of debilitating illness without a fight, I did my own research on alternative cures. I found dozens of natural remedies that either prevent attacks, or reduce the severity of them. The most important of these cures was cherries. Cherries and many other berries get their color pigment from anthocyanins. According to all of the information I found, anthocyanins have tremendous health benefits. One website reported that, “anthocyanins are antioxidant flavonoids that protect many body systems. They have some of the strongest physiological effects of any plant compounds” (http://chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/Anthocyanins.shtml). The anthocyanins break down the uric acid crystals and reduce inflammation, which are the two causes of pain with gout.
In 1950 Dr. Ludwig W. Blau Ph.D discovered the benefits of cherries for gout by serendipity and reported it in Prevention magazine. His gout was so severe that he was confined to a wheelchair. He ate a bowl of cherries one day and the next day, his pain was gone. He continued eating at least 6 cherries a day and soon was able to walk. This sparked his research and that of many others in the decades since. Cheries have been linked to benefits for diabetes, colon cancer, heart health and other muscular diseases.
So I began a daily regimen of organic apple cider vinegar, an herb called devil’s claw, powdered cherry extract and pure black cherry juice along with eating cherries as often as I could. I also kept on hand other remedies that lessen the severity of an attack, should one arise. Since gout attacks sometimes come once a year and sometimes every two months, only time would tell how well these treatments work.
Four months after beginning this regimen, I had a gout attack. It lasted a week and a half and was painful, requiring the use of some pain medication. But it was the least severe attack I had ever had. I was able to walk for the entire duration of the attack. I walked with a limp but I did not miss any work or school. That was the first time I had ever had a gout attack and been able to walk. It is difficult to say with certainty that these remedies are the reason this attack was so mild, but it would be an odd coincidence if they were not the reason.
Then a month after this attack had subsided, I had the start of another. I woke up one day with pain bad enough that I borrowed my mother’s walker to get around my apartment. I took an extra cherry capsule and drank extra cherry juice and vinegar, and by the end of that day, the attack had completely subsided. Compared to every other gout flare I had ever had, that was downright miraculous.
This raises obvious questions: why didn’t the doctor tell me about cherries? Why do doctors prescribe drugs that make us sick when there are perfectly safe and more effective treatments at the grocery store? Why isn’t there more public awareness of natural remedies?
Although only doctors can explain their choices in treatments for their patients, it is doctors’ choices that explain public awareness. The majority of people blindly trust what their doctors tell them. They assume that their doctor knows what he or she is talking about and that they have their best interest at heart. It is also assumed that if there is a cure for something, the doctor will tell them. The first assumption is probably true most of the time, but it is readily apparent that there are many cures our doctors aren’t telling us about. Thus most people never find the treatment that is best for them.
Another factor leading people away from effective treatment is, ironically, the FDA. Most people also blindly trust FDA approval without question. It is after all, a government body that exists with only one purpose: to watch out for the health and safety of the public. This too, is misguided trust. The FDA approves all manner of drugs with as many side effects as benefits. It even approves drugs that are dangerous and ineffective. It also completely ignores natural remedies. It is motivated more by the interests of the wealthy pharmaceutical companies than of the public.
Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to make any claims they please about the benefits of their drugs. Yet herbalists and marketers of natural remedies are not even allowed to directly state what their products are good for on the packaging, nor are they allowed to promote it for that purpose. People have to do their own research and seek out these products with knowledge in hand of what they do.
The FDA does not approve natural remedies, nor regulate them at all. Because of this, many people assume they are not safe. They equate a lack of approval with a disapproval. Even if they disregard the FDA’s policy of ignoring natural remedies, it is difficult for people to choose a natural product because the quality of the products is not regulated. Since there is no standard, there is no real way to know the potency or effectiveness of the brand of a supplement you are buying.
The FDA says it cannot regulate or approve natural products because their potency is determined by nature. It cannot be precisely created in a laboratory so the the agency simply ignores them.
Most people seem to forget that the FDA is comprised of imperfect humans. Through biased research and lobbyists, the pharmaceutical companies have far greater resources to sway the opinions of FDA members than vitamin companies or the general public. Pharmaceuticals is one of the largest and wealthiest industries in the country, and much of the cost of drugs goes toward marketing and lobbyists.
The imperfect humans that make up the FDA are perfectly capable of making mistakes, as evidenced in the case of Ketek. In 2004, the FDA approved this drug, “lauding it as the first of a new class of antimicrobial agents that circumvent antibiotic resistance” (Ross, 2007). However the FDA based its approval upon data it knew to be suspect. The FDA had paid doctors $400 per patient to recruit patients to test the drug. It was discovered that several doctors had provided information on fictitious patients to collect the money and many of those doctors were prosecuted. It may never be known how many of the patients really existed and how many were the schemes of greedy doctors. The FDA approved Ketek anyway despite mountains of internal documents alerting them to the inaccuracy of the data at hand. By 2006, the drug was known to have caused at least 5
Image by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via Flickr3 cases of liver illnesses, four of which were fatal. The actual effectiveness of the drug to accomplish what is meant for was never proven.
Another, more publicized failure of the FDA was its decision to approve the fat substitute olestra. This oil was used to make Lays Wow potato chips, which were fat free and tasted remarkably like traditional potato chips. However, by the end of 1998, tens of thousands of people reported getting severely ill from consuming olestra including violent, uncontrollable diarrhea and vomiting. Many experienced such severe abdominal pain that they went to the emergency room. The product was eventually pulled from the market.
The FDA’s epic failures are eroding public faith in the agency. In a survey conducted in April of this year by Harris Interactive for the Wall Street Journal Online, 60% of respondents responded negatively to questions of trust in the FDA. Only 35% responded with the feeling that the FDA does a good job of ensuring the safety of drugs that come to market. This positive response has declined from 45% last year and 56% in 2004.
Even if it were possible to trust the word of the FDA, it is still possible to be prescribed drugs that the FDA has not approved. An article reported on CNN’s website this year, explained how doctors unknowingly have prescribed unapproved drugs. This is because when a drug is submitted for approval, the FDA assigns it a 10 digit numerical code called the National Drug Code. Pharmacies use this same code to order drugs and usually do not know of its status with the FDA. In a survey cited in the article, nine out of ten retail pharmacists did not know that this code does not mean the drug is approved. Adding to the confusion, the pharmaceutical companies do not always wait for approval before they begin marketing drugs to doctors. So doctors see marketing material, and it has a code in the pharmacy so they assume it is approved for use and prescribe it to their patients. Pharmacists are able to order it like any other drug using its National Drug Code and assume that it has been through the approval process.
Although the FDA has known about this problem for over forty years, it has only recently begun cracking down on drug manufacturers. In the meantime, a lot of people lost their lives because they trusted that their government and their doctors were competent enough to do their jobs effectively. In 2007 for example, the FDA ordered pharmaceutical companies to stop marketing drugs containing quinine. Quinine actually had been approved but only for treating the deadly disease malaria. But drug manufacturuers began marketing it for leg cramps. According to the FDA, quinine has been linked to 665 cases of adverse affects, including 93 deaths.
This is not to say there have never been any claims against so called natural cures. There have been some complaints regarding the safety of Glucosamine, which is taken for arthritis. However their arguments are based solely on speculation and assumptions, with no medical studies to back it up. There was no scientific data proving that any of these treatments were anything less than safe, only personal prejudice that I suspect is founded largely on a fear of the unknown and an unwillingness to accept uncertainty in something as important as the guardians of one’s health.
In 2003, Dr. Peter A. G. M. De Smet made claims in the New England Journal of Medicine that several herbs had been in use for generations but only recently found to be toxic. He cited Kava and Aristolochia plants, though he did not say what data, if any, he had used to make a determination about these herbs. He pointed out that it is difficult to know for certain the occurrence of these adverse reactions because there is no watchdog group like the FDA tracking it. It is also not easy to tell when these ill effects are occurring because they tend not to be sudden and severe as with pharmaceuticals, but rather gradual, such as liver damage for example.
Dr. De Smet also made a statement about the difficulty in tracking the harmful side effects of natural medicine that sounds more like an argument for its safety, given the rarity of the occurrence. ''If an herb caused an adverse reaction in 1 in 1,000 users,” he said, “a traditional healer would have to treat 4,800 patients with that herb (i.e., one new patient every single working day for more than 18 years) to have a 95 percent chance of observing the reaction in more than one user.''
The only argument I could find of those who oppose using any treatments not governed by the FDA is simply that we do not know if they are safe or how effective they are. While this is true, and even if the claims against Glucosamine were true, that is not a reason to ignore alternative treatments. We know for a fact that prescription drugs have harmful side effects and that there is no certainty any of them will work as promised. Yet no one is advocating that we ignore doctor’s orders and consider all our prescriptions to be non-viable solutions. So why should natural remedies be dismissed so easily because of the unknown in favor of the dangerous alternative that is known?
In fact, a study released this year, Florida’s annual report on Drugs Identified in Deceased Persons, shows that last year more than three times as many people died of prescription drugs than from all street drugs combined. This is largely due to people abusing prescription drugs; taking more than the prescribed dose and obtaining extra quantities through illegal means. However, prescription drugs taken as directed are just as dangerous. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that 1.9 million adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs occur each year.
There was also a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of many alternative treatments as well. Even in the examples such as anthocyanins, where there have been extensive studies, there is no way to be assured that the powder in those capsules I take is actually high potency cherry extract. There are many variations from many vendors. However there is little question of the effectiveness of natural remedies as even the pharmaceutical industry has embraced it with open arms. According to a February, 2003 article in the New York Times, nearly half of all prescription drugs are derived from plants or a synthetic version of plant compounds.
I would greatly urge the FDA to put aside their loyalties to the pharmaceutical companies and do the studies that we are unable to do. Because of the great lack of information, I would never advocate anyone ignore every prescription. I would only say to weigh all of your options and do not take the doctor’s word as the final say. Research the medicines you are taking and if you don’t like what you find out, search for an alternative. For any condition, there are many different ways to treat it. The most important thing to remember is that just because your doctor is unable to help you, does not necessarily mean you cannot help yourself.
References
Allopurinol facts and comparsions at Drugs.com. (n.d.). Retrieved Sep. 18, 2008, from http://www.drugs.com/cdi/allopurinol.html.
Baker, S. (n.d.). Prescription Drugs More Deadly Than Cocaine, Heroin, Amphetamines. Retrieved Sep. 7, 2008, from http://www.naturalnews.com/024052.html.
Brody, J. (2003, Feb. 4). PERSONAL HEALTH; Herbal and Natural Don't Always Mean Safe - New York Times. Retrieved Sep. 7, 2008, from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905E4DB1038F937A35751C0A9659C8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss.
Dietary Supplements: Bacground Information. (2003, June 22). Retrieved April 29, 2008, from ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/dietarysupplements.asp#h4.
Gout - researchDiet & Lifestyle. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2008, from http://www.internethealthlibrary.com/Health-problems/Gout%20-%20researchDiet&Lifestyle.htm.
Gruber, A. (n.d.). Many drugs slip through regulatory 'black hole' - CNN.com. Retrieved April 29, 2008, from http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/09/26/unapproved.drugs/index.html.
Harris Interactive | News Room - Confidence in FDA Hits New Low, According to WSJ.com/Harris Interactive Study. (n.d.). Retrieved Sep. 7, 2008, from http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=1301.
Milligan, A. (n.d.). Why The FDA Suppresses Natural Remedies and Cures. Retrieved April 29, 2008, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-The-FDA-Suppresses-Natural-Remedies-and-Cures&id=643078.
Ross, D. (2007). The FDA and the Case of Ketek. The New England Journal of Medicine, 356(16), 1601. Retrieved May 6, 2008, from the ProQuest Health Management database.
Sterling, M. (n.d.). Anthocyanins. Retrieved May 20, 2008, from http://chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/Anthocyanins.shtml.
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