TBD Working Group meets Jan 28-29 in Washington, DC; view reports now
Jan. 24, 2020
The 11th meeting of the federal Tick-borne Disease Working Group will be held on January 28 and 29, 2020. TBDWG is an advisory panel under the auspices of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
According to the agenda, the Working Group will:
1) hear presentations from eight subcommittees on their findings and potential actions for the TBDWG to consider;
2) hear updates from the Public Comment and Inventory Subcommittees; and
3) further discuss plans for developing the 2020 report to the HHS Secretary and Congress on federal tick-borne activities and research.
The meeting will be held at the Hyatt Place Washington DC/US Capitol, 33 New York Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002.
In-person attendance at the meeting is limited to space available. Therefore, preregistration for public members is advisable and can be accomplished by registering here .
Members of the public may also attend the meeting via live webcast.
2020 Subcommittee Reports
The TBDWG established eight subcommittees in June 2019. Each subcommittee identified priorities and developed a report to the TBDWG that described current efforts, gaps in research, and potentials actions relevant to their topic.
The TBDWG will discuss the subcommittee reports during public meetings and incorporate certain content and action items into the upcoming 2020 report to the HHS Secretary and Congress.
TOUCHED BY LYME: Vote now to recognize “Lyme and Reason” for excellence
Fox5NY has done a stellar job of covering Lyme disease in recent years. This has included three half-hour programs in its “Lyme and Reason” series.
The most recent one, Lyme and Reason: Battles and Breakthroughs Against Lyme Disease, has been nominated as a finalist in the 2020 Sharecare Awards.
The Sharecare Awards, in association with The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, New York Chapter, seek to reward excellence in health-related programming.
The public can vote—once per category, per day, per device—through January 31.
Among those featured in the program are journalist Mary Beth Pfeiffer, Lyme Disease Association President Patricia Smith, Congressman Chris Smith, researcher Dr. Sin Hang Lee and patient/advocate Olivia Goodreau.
If you haven’t seen the episode yet, it’s well worth your time.
[Real Talk] Behind the Latest Major Supplement Recall: What You Should Know
by Dr. Bill Rawls Posted 1/30/20
Recently, the FDA forced the recall of more than 1,200 supplements from the manufacturing company, ABH Pharma Inc. Dr. Bill Rawls explains what this news reveals about the supplement industry, and shares information on how to find a supplement company you can trust and depend on to support your health and well-being.
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Video Transcript
Hello, everyone. This is Dr. Rawls with a bit of news from the supplement industry. Last week, the FDA forced a large supplement manufacturer in the state of New York called ABH Pharma Inc. to recall more than 1,200 different supplement products. This recall affects over 850 different supplement lines from various different companies, and includes some well-known brands that are commonly seen on the Internet and in stores. You’ve probably heard some of them, and you may even have some on your shelves.
The FDA inspection found significant violations in GMP regulations — that stands for Good Manufacturing Practices. Those are the standards set by the FDA for supplement manufacturers to ensure both product quality and safety.
The violations that they cited include failure to meet specifications for identity, purity, strength, and composition of ingredients. That means that the ingredients that were going in the capsules or in the products didn’t necessarily match what was on the label. That also might mean that they weren’t testing for contaminants like bacteria, heavy metals, and organic toxins like they should.
The cited violations also included failure to implement a production system that ensures quality of supplements. That means that their operations didn’t have the proper checks and balances in place to ensure that the products were being made as intended.
Also cited: A failure to include necessary information on its production records. In other words, they weren’t following the protocols that were set in place.
And, failure to investigate customer complaints. In other words, they were basically ignoring complaints they got from customers, and they weren’t addressing quality issues.
The FDA also cited illegal claims. For instance, there might be a claim that the product was treating cancer or some other illness, when there was no actual evidence that was a case.
And the FDA had concerns about misbranding, that what was in the bottles wasn’t necessarily what was being represented on the labels.
Now this is just one manufacturer. The problem is, the FDA doesn’t have the bandwidth to properly regulate the whole supplement industry. This manufacturer received a warning letter seven years before this recall, and then there were multiple audits over that seven years. But nothing was done by this company to correct the problems, and nothing was done by the FDA to enforce it.
There are probably other big companies out there that the FDA just isn’t looking at. And that leaves a lot of the onus on the supplement companies that are marketing the products, and on buyers like you. You really have to do your homework to ensure that you’re getting a good product.
You want to buy from a supplement company that has a trusting relationship with the manufacturer they use to create products, and regularly audits the manufacturing facilities to verify that the product specifications are being met. That way they know exactly what’s going in their products. It’s up to those companies that are marketing the supplements to make sure that the products contain the actual ingredients that are stated on the label, that they don’t contain contaminants, and that they’re at the potency that would provide the expected benefits.
Typically, companies that go through these steps will be very transparent about it. Reputable companies are proud to offer exceptional products, and they display their procedures on their website. You know, they will post the procedures that they have for verifying the quality of ingredients in their final product in a very visible location — somewhere on the website, or somewhere that’s very visible for consumers.
So again, finding a supplement company that you can trust is really important. Do your homework, dig down, go to the company’s website. Are they posting the standards that ensure quality products? It’s really important that you verify that you’re getting the quality of product that you expect.
As for this recall, if you’re concerned that you might have a supplement that needs to be returned to a company, you can download the list here — go and check it out.
But know that just because a brand is present on the list, that doesn’t mean their entire or current offering is being recalled. This recall affects supplements that have been made by this manufacturer over the past seven years. So there may be specific lot numbers that aren’t affected, or years. It really depends on when that company was doing business with this manufacturer.
Either way, it’s up to you to ensure quality. You want to get what you’re paying for.
I think that’s all I have for you today. Take care, and be well.
Dr. Rawls is a physician who overcame Lyme disease through natural herbal therapy. You can learn more about Lyme disease in Dr. Rawls’ new best selling book, Unlocking Lyme. You can also learn about Dr. Rawls’ personal journey in overcoming Lyme disease and fibromyalgia in his popular blog post, My Chronic Lyme Journey.
Please Help Fill the Senate Hearing Room at the Wisconsin Capitol on Thursday, January 23, 12:00 p. m.
Please Support Access to Complementary and Alternative Healthcare!
Great News! Wisconsin’s “Safe Harbor” Practitioner Exemption bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Health Committee on Thursday, January 23, 2020, at 12 p.m. The first hearing was Jan. 7 in the Assembly and now we are happy to report that the Senate will hear the bill too! This bill, S492/A546 protects access to practitioners who provide complementary health care services in Wisconsin, including herbalists, traditional naturopaths, homeopaths, nutrition consultants, and many others. We need you there! A strong showing will help this bill pass out of the Committee! Read the bill here. Please complete the Take Action steps below to help pass S492 into law and join us in Madison this Thursday!
Take Action Steps (How YOU Can Help Right NOW):
1. Click hereto email your personal legislators to ask for their support on S492. Please personalize the letter prepared for you to make your message more impactful.
2. Call Committee Members to ask for a YES vote on S492. After completing step one, you’ll receive an email with phone numbers for members of the Senate Health Committee and an example message to share with them.
3. Prepare and Submit your personal testimony. Sharing your story – whether in person or in writing – is so crucial to the success of this bill! Legislators love personal stories and hearing your successful experience using complementary and alternative health care could be key to unlocking a committee member’s yes vote. Use this simple form to send WIHFC your testimony and we’ll submit it to the committee for you. See below for an example. If you have questions about testifying or anything else, please join us for a conference call tomorrow night.
Pre-Hearing Conference Call with NHFA on Monday, Jan 20 at 06:30 PM:
4. Come to Thursday’s Hearing. Testimony on S492 might not begin until around 12 pm so please come even if you’ll arrive late, or can’t stay for the entire hearing, or even if you don’t want to provide public testimony! Showing up to “register in person in favor” of the bill is an important form of public participation and will be necessary for this bill to pass. If you choose, you can also testify at the hearing. You can read your testimony or just tell your story. This is your opportunity to have your voice heard. The more testifiers the better!
When: Thursday, January 23 at 12 PM to TBD Where: Wisconsin State Capitol, Room 411 South
FYI the committee won’t actually vote at the hearing; it’s our job to persuade them, now and at the hearing, to want to schedule it for a vote. For more about what this WI bill does for complementary and alternative health practitioners and their clients, see our website here.
Thanks in advance for your help! Together we can convince Wisconsin legislators to protect WI residents’ health freedom rights to access the healing modalities and practitioners they want.WI’s legislative session could come to an end as early as late February so it’s crunch-time and things could be happening fast. We want to do all we can to keep the momentum going on these bills but we will need your help!
Example Testimony: “Members of the Committee, my name is [insert name]. I live in [city]. I support S492 and I want you to please VOTE YES on S492, the “Consumer Protection for Complementary Healthcare” bill. This bill is important to me because [insert your own brief reason why you support access to complementary and alternative health care]. Thank you.”
[i.e.,
– I depend on complementary and alternative health care for myself and my family and I want Wisconsin law to protect my rights as a consumer to a free and educated choice in health care providers.
OR
– I am a practitioner of complementary healthcare and a small business owner in Wisconsin. I want to serve my clients without the fear that my state’s laws could be used to treat me as a criminal. Please update WI law to reflect what is happening in our state.]
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Have a great week and chins up! Lyme/MSIDS is not who you are. It’s just a pot-hole in the journey. Keep trucking and remember – Spring’s coming!
Lyme disease is an invisible epidemic with a much greater impact than we think. In this documentary we want to show what it’s like as a patient to have to live with this disease that is so misunderstood.
It is a film about injustice, struggles and conflicts of interest. Will it manage to break through political and medical regimen and allow the important switch to new international guidelines so patients can have a chance at a decent life? This is what we would like to see happening, but with current trends, this will not happen.
The documentary is one of the ways to raise more attention, recognition and research on chronic Lyme. (Make sure subtitles are on for English)
![[Real Talk] Behind the Latest Major Supplement Recall: What You Should Know](https://rawlsmd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/realtalk-nationwide-dietary-supplement-recall-january.jpg)
