In a recent decision the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) put out an advisory asking pharmaceutical companies to put additional warning labels on pain killers such as aspirin, acetometaphen, ibuprofen and naproxin. While I heartily applaud the action, my big question has to be; “What the heck took you so long?”

Did you know that an estimated 16,000 people die each year from taking these NSAID’s (non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs).  This is a staggering number considering if 1/10th of a percent of those deaths occurred using a natural substance, you can bet the house it would be yanked off the market in the blink of an eye. Yet, over and over, the media claims that natural supplements are unregulated (which is a lie) and have potential for harm. So allowing 16,000 people to die each year is regulated and few if any deaths on natural substances is unregulated. Am I missing something here?

Something, somehow is terribly wrong in our health care system.  This doesn’t seem like and issue that can be resolved easily but something has to give and soon.