Matthias Rath, M.D., the world-renowned physician and scientific researcher, received the prestigious 2001 Bulwark of Liberty Award sponsored by the American Preventive Medical Association and the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine. The award was presented to Dr. Rath on May 26th at the First Amendment Freedom and Bulwark of Liberty Awards Celebration in Clifton, Virginia.

Candace Campbell, Executive Director of the American Preventive Medical Association, presents the prize to Dr. Matthias Rath

The Bulwark of Liberty Award recognizes those who have made extraordinary efforts to advance nutrition science, educate the public on the health benefits of nutrients, and end government censorship of health information. The Bulwark of Liberty Awards will be distributed in conjunction with The Pearson v. Shalala First Amendment Freedom Awards given for the recent litigation victory against the Food and Drug Administration.

In his speech at the Award Dr. Rath called on the American health movement:

“I encourage you to continue this fight for natural health. I encourage you to look into the future. I’m joining everyone here saying we will win – because we’re right. No army in the world can stop the truth once the time has come.”

An advocate for patient rights, Dr. Rath strives to improve the health and quality of life for people across the world:”My scientific discovery of the scurvy-heart disease connection triggered one of the fiercest efforts to suppress the proven health benefits of vitamins and other essential nutrients by the pharmaceutical industry. Future healthcare has to serve the health needs of millions of people and not the financial greed of a few corporations.”

According to Jonathon W. Emord of Emord & Associates, P.C., the Washington, D.C.-based law firm representing the plaintiffs in the Pearson v. Shalala litigation, “The individuals receiving the Bulwark of Liberty Award have passed national boundaries and have improved health and enhanced life around the world. This award is a fitting tribute.”

Widely known for his major scientific breakthrough based on research of vitamins and cardiovascular health, Dr. Rath developed the world’s first patented therapy for the natural reversal of cardiovascular disease. His scientific and clinical research has proven that vitamin deficiencies cause the most common chronic diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes. These discoveries have prompted him to use natural remedies to prevent and treat these diseases as opposed to the pharmaceutically-based approach to health care which in the United States is responsible for 106,000 deaths annuallyfrom side effects from correctly administered prescription drugs.

Dr. Rath led the crusade against legislation in Europe that promoted the pharmaceutical industry’s efforts to restrict access to natural health information and to vitamin therapies through the UN’s “Codex Alimentarius” Commission.

Berkley Bedell (right), former Member of Congress, chairman of various congressional subcommittees in conversation with Dr. Matthias Rath at the Bulwark of Liberty Award

Dr. Rath’s studies have appeared in numerous publications, including Arteriosclerosis, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and European Heart Health Journal. Additionally, he has authored books on science including Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks-But People Do!, and a series on cellular health.

Introduction of Dr. Rath by Candace Campbell, Executive Director of the American Preventive Medical Association

“Dr. Rath is an internationally recognized and respected physician and scientist who discovered important associations between vitamin C and cardiovascular health. His publications have appeared in American Heart Association publications and other scientific journals respected worldwide. He is the founder and President of an international research and development firm that studies and publishes on issues of nutrition science.

I have certainly known about Dr. Rath’s work. The activity that caught my attention most recently was the very powerful opposition that he launched against the «Codex Alimentarius» effort.

I am sure you are all aware of that and how important it is to the health freedom movement. He had billboards all over Germany, especially in the city where the Codex delegates were meeting. He led a demonstration that I was told about with three or four thousand people making a human chain around the building where they were meeting. He was on television: there was no missing the import of the message.

What really isn’t filtering into the American consciousness yet, and we are told here, is that «Codex» won’t matter to us; that it won’t have anything to do with our health care freedom. I think he’ll tell you differently. He is certainly doing more than his part to protect our health care freedom.

And now please join me in welcoming Dr. Matthias Rath.”

Dr. Rath’s Award Acceptance Speech

“Thank you very much for this great honor. I’m cognizant that I’m the only recipient of this award who is not a U.S. citizen. It speaks for the committee that made that selection that they acknowledged, that whatever happens here in the USA through the F.D.A. is not a separate event. There is a global context for that.

I come from Germany – the largest export nation of pharmaceutical products in the world. Precisely that is the reason why the meetings of “Codex Alimentarius” take place under the auspices of the German government.

The battle that led to the “Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act”, the efforts of the F.D.A. in 1992/93 to make vitamins prescription drugs, were no coincidence. When they lost that battle, the pharmaceutical interests regrouped at the international level. Under cover of the United Nation’s “Codex Alimentarius,” they have been trying to outlaw preventive and therapeutic health statements worldwide ever since. Since 1996 they have met every two years. The next meeting is taking place in November of this year – again in Berlin, Germany.

And the “Codex” effort does not stand alone. There are efforts at the level of the European Parliament on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry to lower the availability of vitamin therapies all over Europe – through binding legislation. There are efforts at the level of national governments in various European countries. In 1998, the British Government put the MLX 249 legislation on the table – criminalizing the spreading of natural health information. Great Britain is the number two exporting country of pharmaceutical products.

Helen Chenoweth-Hage, Congresswoman, Member of the House of Representatives 1994-2000, is one of the admirers of Dr. Rath’s civil courage

This year, new legislation was proposed in Switzerland, criminalizing the spread of natural health information related to vitamins and non-patentable natural therapies. Switzerland is the number three export nation of pharmaceutical products – ranging before the United States.

We are dealing with a global contest. The pharmaceutical “business with disease” versus the right for millions of people to have unrestricted access to natural preventive health information. That is the global picture.

I was privileged to contribute to this development. In 1991, I discovered the scurvy-heart disease connection, the fact that cardiovascular disease is an early form of scurvy. Just as in scurvy, your artery walls become fragile in cardiovascular disease – if you get too little vitamins. It is a scientific law. This discovery triggered the first attack of the US Food and Drug Administration on vitamins.

Two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling and I held a press conference on July 2, 1992, in San Francisco, stating that for the first time in history the eradication of heart disease has become possible! That message was followed within weeks by the F.D.A.’s attack trying to outlaw such scientific statements in relation to vitamins and natural therapies.

In Europe we succeeded in blocking “Codex Alimentarius”. Before the “Codex” meeting in June 2000, more than half a million people used our website to send protest Emails to all the members of this “Codex” commission. In 1998, we spread a newspaper to all the two million households in London, picturing a sailor dying of scurvy. The message was clear: We said if the MLX249 law comes through you will not be able to state this scientific fact any more. The pressure from the public became so strong that Tony Blair had to call his cabinet in the middle of parliament’s summer recess. MLX249 did not go through.

I encourage you to continue this fight. I encourage you to look into the future. I’m joining everyone here saying we will win – because we’re right.

No army in the world can stop the truth once the time has come.

Thank you very much for your graciousness to give me this award.”