Letters to the Editor

Bill C-51 & C-52 Feedback

Please keep educating and urging Canadians to take political action. It is crucial that Canadians be aware of the dangers of these Bills as they threaten Canadian sovereignty and violate our human rights. As well, more information on CODEX needs to be spread around – the dangers of nutrients being classified as toxins and having restrictions applied to maximum dose allowed, which would be such a small amount as to have no effect on humans. Canadians need to know what we can do to prevent this from being pushed through and how to wake up our members of Parliament to the real dangers. Thanks for being an advocate for Canadians.  

A. Hinsperger

There is far too much profit in people being sick and not taking charge of their own health. I am sure the pharmaceutical and health care industries would be very upset to lose their lifestyles and all that profit. It was the same with the accounting industry when there was the prospect of a flat tax. They put a stop to that very quickly. They don't want a population that can “think” and be responsible for themselves.

Serena

Prescription Drug Allergies

I recently discontinued the use of antibiotics and codeine at a very early stage (6 pills out of 20) after reading Helke Ferrie’s March 2008 Vitality article Drugs Dethroned. Otherwise, I might have ended up on kidney dialysis.

It started one morning when I took myself to the doctor with a bad cough. After listening to my chest my physician prescribed antibiotics and cough syrup. The third day after starting the medication I noticed that my colon had lost its function – severe constipation combined with unusual stool...

On the fourth day I noticed both feet and ankles swollen to almost twice their normal size. My physician told me that the veins in my upper legs had lost their resilience and that the blood wasn’t circulating. He told me not to worry because the swelling would go down in time (conflicting comments to my mind). He went further to explain that he has prescribed the same antibiotic quite often with no allergic reactions reported.

On the fourth afternoon of medication, feeling much worse and depressed I decided to apply the simple laws of physics: I concluded that medication was the cause. I flushed the antibiotics and cough syrup together with the $86 I had paid for them, and began taking anti-inflammatory and antioxidant herbs.

Within three days the swelling of my feet was down by 50% and so was the cough and chest pains. After seven days all my sickly symptoms had disappeared. It’s disappointing to see doctors today still prescribing antibiotics so casually, furthering the drug resistant syndrome, and causing the deaths and serious illness of thousands due to allergic reactions.

Rudolf Manook, Toronto

Healthy Hair Care

Just a quick word of praise for the article by Geoff Tarbat on hair dye: Gorgeous Hair (March 2003). I have long known that hair dyes are problematic but it can take an enormous amount of personal resolve to buck the constant media images that tell us we have to look a certain way. Every so often I look at this article and it gives me strength to not yield and know that I am doing okay by me. It is supportive. Many thanks.             

Jane

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