In George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith, the main character, defines freedom as being the right to say that two plus two makes four. “If that is granted,” he says, “all else follows.” In a notable parallel to Orwell’s observation regarding the nature of totalitarian regimes, government restrictions on our right to communicate the scientific facts about natural therapies impose senselessly strict limits on what we can and cannot say. But when, eventually, we reach the point that these constraints on our freedom of speech no longer exist, so far as our goal of Health for All is concerned all else will inevitably follow.
In some regions of the world, such as Europe, restrictions on communicating scientific information about the health properties of supplements and foods are draconian in the extreme. So dictatorial are Brussels EU health claims laws, for example, that even the simple statement “Regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the risk of development of dehydration” has been banned.
Worldwide, the effect that these types of oppressive prohibitions are having on our health should not be underestimated. Enacted in order to protect the pharmaceutical ‘business with disease’, the regulatory control and limitation of natural health education is having a direct impact on the wellbeing of billions of people all over the globe. In the years since Dr. Rath’s scientific discoveries were first made, millions have died due to their having been denied truthful information about nutrition and access to natural therapies that could have saved their lives.
This, in a nutshell, is the reason why we have to fight for freedom of choice in natural health. Our bodies are our own and belong to us, not our governments. The decisions we make about the vitamin therapies and naturopathic approaches we want to use should not be limited by government technocrats and pro-totalitarian politicians, who effectively function as stakeholders for the trillion-dollar-a-year drug industry. In any civilized society worthy of the name, it is simply intolerable that preventable suffering and loss of life are allowed to continue as a means of protecting pharma profits.
In the fields of natural health and vitamin freedom, there have been many positive developments during 2015. Our Foundation’s newsletters and website bear testimony to this. Clearly, however, there remains much more to be done. This is why, at the global level, our Movement of Life project is so important. Ultimately, the twin goals of Health for All and Knowledge for All will only be possible if we act together and take positive steps towards making them happen. If you share our commitment to these noble aims, we invite you to sign the Movement of Life petition, write to us and volunteer to get active wherever you live. With your help, the synergies from local initiatives happening all around the globe can ensure the necessary changes to our healthcare systems begin as soon as possible and save millions of lives.