Minutus

Hi List,

glad to report that, according to what I have read, the commission did
not accept the limitations on vitamins etc. that the German commission
wanted.

One thing is bad, however: the opponents of such restrictions make
themselves look bad by false assertions.

I read a statement that e.g in Germany Vitamin C is not available in
doses over 200 or 250 mgs. This is not true: I very recently bought
tablets of 500 mgs in a drugstore (not pharmacy). There one can also
get very inexpensive Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) powder in cans of 100
grams - so anyone can dose as they wish (I usually buy this).

And the idea that in Germany one has to have a prescription for all
products that have to be sold in pharmacies is quite ridiculous - one
can e.g. even buy products for injection (Vitamins and oodles more
stuff) OTC. It is true that most products are higher priced in the
pharmacies.

Regards

Luise

--
One thought to all who, free of doubt,
So definitely know what's true:
2 and 2 is 22 -
and 2 times 2 is 2:-)
==========> ICQ yinyang 96391801 <==========

Thanks, Luise. Without being there it's hard to know what to believe, and
it's good to have an "eyewitness account." Rosemary

On May 6, 2007, at 4:24 PM, Luise Kunkle wrote:
Luise, do you k now if there are restrictions on what *can* be sold?
E.g. (trying to think what stocks the shelves in our health food
stores) individual amino acids; DHA, DHEA, various algaes, a zillion
herbs, Melatonin, grapefruit seed extract, various extracts of various
sorts, probiotic and "prebiotic" formulas, protein powders of various
sorts, vitamins both singly and in various combinations, in potencies
ranging from low to very high (e.g. 100s of times the RDA, speaking of
useless measures), and bunches more that I haven't noticed because I
wasn't looking... Would you say that nutritional supplements are
*freely* available (and/or were they, say, ten years ago), or are there
restrictions?
Shannon

Hi Shannon,

to the best of my knowledge, they are all freely available - i.e. I do
not know of any restrictions - but perhaps Gaby Rottler will comment
on that, I am not an expert.

Freely available in the sense that there are no restrictions put on -
it does not mean that they are all around.

There are restrictions on Chinese herbs to a degree. That is defended
with the argument that herbs from China and otherwise outside Germany
tend to have a high degree of chemical pollution in them - caused by
much more freely applied herbicides, by storage conditions etc. Laws
on this kind of thing are pretty strict - for foods and remedies both.

So there seems to be a tendency that Chinese herbs have to be sold in
pharmacies, and before they have to pass a lot of tests - which makes
most pharmacies unwilling to bother and which makes them very
expensive.

This I know from own experience - there may be other restrictions on
other herbs etc. I do not know about.

Regards

Luise
--
One thought to all who, free of doubt,
So definitely know what's true:
2 and 2 is 22 -
and 2 times 2 is 2:-)
==========> ICQ yinyang 96391801 <==========