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As Drugs Fail, Natural Solutions to COVID-19 Ignored by Government

Alternative Health

As Drugs Fail, Natural Solutions to COVID-19 Ignored by Government

Many COVID drugs are failing. Natural medicine may hold the key—but can government cronyism be overcome? A large analysis has found that antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine had no benefit for COVID patients, causing more deaths than standard care. Other pharmaceutical treatments are also turning out to be useless. Emerging evidence suggests that natural medicines like zinc, quercetin, and potassium could help, sometimes in conjunction with drugs, but the government refuses to acknowledge these benefits because nutrients aren’t as profitable for drug companies. While hydroxychloroquine may be ineffective on its own, there are trials that have combined the drug with zinc. Zinc inhibits viral activity, but it is difficult to get high levels of zinc into cells. Hydroxychloroquine may help by aiding zinc’s entry into cells. Studies show quercetin may also do what chloroquine does with zinc but without toxic side effects. Some researchers believe that zinc in general is one of the most important things we can take both to avoid Covid-19 infection and treat it. Hydroxychloroquine comes with the usual laundry list of dangerous side effects, while quercetin could help prevent heart damage along with many other benefits. Research indicates that many other natural medicines could help prevent or treat COVID-19.

New Bill Could Help Save Natural Medicines

Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA) has reintroduced a bill to ensure continued consumer access to customized natural medicines made at specialized pharmacies (known as compounding pharmacies). While other challenges remain, the Preserving Patient Access to Compounded Medications Act is an important step toward curbing the attack on these important natural medicines. The Act does several important things. It amends section 503A of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (which pertains to “traditional” pharmacies, as opposed to larger “outsourcing” facilities) to unequivocally permit “office use” of compounded drugs, which allows a doctor to keep a supply of certain medications in his or her office in order to provide immediate treatment to patients who need it. For example, without office use, a patient in extreme pain would have to wait for days, get his or her prescription filled, and then return to the doctor for an injection. The bill also mandates the FDA to accept USP monographs for dietary supplements. This is a pivotal issue.

Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Could Eliminate Integrative Physicians Who Recommend More than Just Pharmaceutical Drugs

For years now, we have been reporting on the machinations of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), especially their most recent efforts to pass their Interstate Medical Licensure Compact in as many states as possible. If the FSMB isn’t opposed, its power over the practice of medicine will continue to grow—power that we expect will be wielded against integrative physicians. Once enacted, an Interstate Commission comprised of representatives of each member state would be created to administer the interstate medical licensing compact. It should first be noted that the organization has demonstrated its antipathy toward natural health since the mid-1990s, when it discussed altering the definition of health fraud to include alternative medical care! It would appear that FSMB considers innovative approaches to healthcare to be nothing more than exercises in “quackery.” Extending the power of this organization over the licensing of doctors across multiple states—or all states, if the FSMB gets its way—gives the FSMB more opportunity to throttle or undermine integrative doctors. If that indeed becomes the case, patient access to these doctors will suffer.