Lethbridge Herald –  For hundreds of people who keep mental illness at bay with a high-potency vitamin supplement there has been almost audible relief. Word has it that some shipments of Empowerplus have made it across the border from Utah into Canada.Without the product, patients beleaguered by bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, depression and other neurological ailments say they will experience a rapid return of psychotic symptoms and may even become suicidal. ”I know people have been going to the States themselves to pick up their supplements, but other people have had success in having the product shipped by Canada Post, the more expensive way, instead of by UPS,” says Autumn Stringam, a pregnant Lethbridge woman with bipolar disorder.

Stringam and eight other women whose lives have been affected by mental illness and who’ve found help through Empowerplus, went to Parliament Hill last week and stood in the rain with red umbrellas to protest Health Canada’s stand against the product. While there, they were able to meet with more than 60 MPs. Health Canada has issued an advisory against taking Empowerplus, which it says should be classified as a drug, since the company that developed it, Truehope, makes health claims associated with its usage. Health Canada set up a 24-hour toll-free help line for people worried about being cut off from their supplements.

Since early May, the feds have been seizing shipments of Empowerplus at the Canadian border and sending them back to the manufacturer. Users began lobbying Health Canada almost immediately to draw attention to their plight. Meanwhile, Stringam and the “Women With Red Umbrellas” are regrouping this week to bolster their letter-writing campaign to MPs in Ottawa. Stringam is the daughter of Tony Stephan, who co-developed Empowerplus along with David Hardy. The southern Alberta men began investigating the likelihood that vitamins and minerals might help with bipolar disorder after Stephan’s wife Debbie – Stringam’s mother – committed suicide after years of suffering with the rapid-cycling form. Debbie Stephan’s father committed suicide, as well.

Health Canada’s crisis line is 1-800-504-4156. Health Canada has also set up a complaint line (1-613-946-3592.) Truehope’s Web site is www.truehope.com.

Users of banned pill protest to McLellan: Health Canada says it’s not convinced supplement is safe

The Ottawa Citizen

Friday, June 13, 2003
Byline: Joanne Laucius
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

A dispute is raging over a vitamin and mineral supplement users say has saved their lives. On one side is a group who say their mental illnesses have been brought under control by Empowerplus, which was developed in Canada and is produced in the U.S. On the other side is Health Canada, which started halting shipments of the pills from the U.S. last month, and the Ontario Schizophrenic Society, which fears that some schizophrenics are descending into psychosis because they have dropped their medications in favour of the supplement.

This week, nine women who take the supplement gathered on Parliament Hill in the hopes of putting their arguments before Health Minister Anne McLellan. Inside the House of Commons, in response to a question, Ms. McLellan’s parliamentary secretary Jeannot Castonguay said vitamins can present a health risk. ”I am sorry but I have to say that astronomical quantities of vitamins can be fatal to patients,” he said. Health Canada is investigating the company that developed the supplement, Alberta-based Truehope Nutritional Support Limited, also known as Synergy, said Ryan Baker, a spokesman for Health Canada.

But some say without the supplement, they might be suicidal or back in the psychiatric ward. Calgary resident Patricia Schantz, 23, has bipolar disorder. She started taking the pills about 21/2 years ago. She stopped taking her medication in six weeks and hasn’t been back on them since. ”Even missing one dose, the symptoms start to return — the mood swings, the paranoia, the fear,” said Ms. Schantz. More than 3,000 people in Canada and 9,000 in the U.S. have used the supplement, said Truehope co-founder David Hardy. Truehope’s supplement first hit the news several years ago because because of its link to a feed treatment for pigs.

Tony Stephan of Cardston, Alberta, was concerned about his children, who had bipolar disorder. His friend Mr. Hardy, who ran an animal feed business, noted similarities between the disorder and ear-and-tail biting syndrome in pigs, which was treated with a supplement. They adapted the pig supplement for humans. Mr. Hardy said his son, who has schizophrenia, has used it. Other users have seen improvements in symptoms of brain injury and Parkinson’s disease. However, there is a disclaimer on the label. ”We haven’t advertised it as treating anything,” said Mr. Hardy. Leonard Wall, president of the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario, said he knows of several schizophrenics who have stopped their medications because of the lure of a “miracle cure.” ”They go off the only thing that helps them and onto something that doesn’t,” he said. “When people with psychoses are not on their meds, they’re more of a danger to society.”

Ottawa psychiatrist Dr. Ruth Biggar, who has about four patients using Empowerplus, said it works for some patients. Others show partial improvement or none at all. It tends to be more effective for people with bi-polar disorder. ”Anyone who is doing this needs to be followed by a psychiatrist or doctor,” she said.

No hearing in Ottawa for backers of vitamin supplement: Health Canada warned against Empowerplus, shut down research

Edmonton Journal

Friday, June 13, 2003
Byline: Susan Ruttan
Dateline: EDMONTON
Source: The Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON – Supporters of a nutritional supplement used to treat mental disorders failed to get a hearing in Ottawa this week. Nine women from across Canada, led by the daughter of the owner of the company that makes the Empowerplus supplement, spent two days sitting outside the Parliament Buildings in hopes of talking to Health Minister Anne McLellan or Prime Minister Jean Chretien. ”She just basically brushed us off,” said Autumn Stringam of Lethbridge, daughter of Truehope Nutritional Supplement Inc. founder Tony Stephan. The women called McLellan’s office every day, she said. Stringam has taken the vitamin supplement for seven years and says it has helped her conquer bipolar disorder and got her off the five-drug cocktail she was taking before Empowerplus. The supplement is also sold as a treatment for schizophrenia, depression, autism and fibromyalgia.

Health Canada last week issued an advisory cautioning people not to take it. The department shut down a research project on Empowerplus at the University of Calgary in early 2002 because it failed to meet federal standards for a clinical drug trial. The trial had been funded by a $544,000 Alberta government grant. Since that time, U of C psychologist Bonnie Kaplan has applied several times for federal approval of a clinical trial, but has been refused each time. ”They are doing everything they can to block this research from coming forth,” Stephan said in an interview Thursday.

Truehope launched a lawsuit in May against Health Canada, which since April has been seizing shipments of the supplement, which is manufactured in the United States. For its part, Health Canada says it would welcome legitimate research on Empowerplus to settle the question of its effectiveness as a treatment for mental disorders. ”There were clinical trials on Empowerplus going on at the University of Calgary that Health Canada found out about,” said department spokesman Ryan Baker. “These trials were not approved by Health Canada.” Baker said the department requires that trials on products classified as drugs meet certain standards.

Researcher Kaplan has stopped speaking to the press, but issued a statement Thursday via e-mail: ”The University of Calgary research has been very promising. While the participants in our research generally benefited mentally and remained healthy physically, the results are preliminary,” she said. Kaplan has published several papers on the supplement’s effects and hopes to publish another.

Less enthusiastic about her research is Hamilton freelance health writer Marvin Ross, who has been tracking Truehope’s activities for several years. Ross has just published a critical online book on the Truehope phenomenon, titled PigPills Inc. His co-authors are Kitchener physician Dr. Terry Polevoy, who runs several anti-scam Web sites, and private investigator Ron Reinhold, a former Health Canada investigator. Ross is troubled that a product is being sold to people with mental health problems before it’s been proven to be safe. ”Proof is a randomized, double-blind placebo trial,” he said in an interview. Kaplan’s research to date has been an open-label test, which means both doctor and patient know what the drug is, he said. ”Kaplan’s research is very, very, very preliminary,” he said.

Stephan and partner David Hardy developed Empowerplus based on a vitamin supplement that was given to pigs to stop ear-and-tail-biting syndrome. sruttan@thejournal.canwest.com

Medicine Hat News
Local City, Saturday, June 14, 2003

Alberta women in fight for their lives Health supplement EMPowerplus banned by Health Canada; mentally ill users say they fear for their lives without access to it

By LISSA SWIHART

Women who flew to Ottawa to protest the ban of a controversial health supplement are coming home empty handed today. Kristy Reesor and her mother Debra Curry of Red Deer joined seven other women who pleaded for a meeting with Health Minister Anne McLellan. But McLellan refused to meet them, they said, leaving a Lethbridge woman no closer to being able to get the supplement she credits with saving her life. Autumn Stringam of Lethbridge fears for her life since Health Canada banned EMPowerplus, a supplement manufactured in the United States as an alternative treatment for mental illness. Along with many mental health consumers across Canada – some fearing they will commit suicide – Stringam is outraged at Health Canada’s advisory against EMPowerplus. ”I can’t sit back and watch while Canadians lose this battle,” Stringam wrote to The News in a letter to the editor. “My life depends on it.”

EMPowerplus is a mixture of vitamins, minerals and amino acids taken by about 2,500 Canadians. It claims to treat bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, fibromyalgia and obsessive compulsive disorder. Stringam, who swears by EMPowerplus for her bipolar disorder, wrote that she knows people who stopped taking EMPowerplus and have relapsed into psychotic behavior after years of clean health. As a third-generation manic depressive, she knows how dangerous mental illness can be. Both her grandfather and mother committed suicide. ”The Canadian government has legalized marijuana for therapeutic use but insists that I must not have access to vitamins and minerals . . . Health Canada has ordered me back to hell with their illegitimate policies. Back to the psych ward and back on the drugs. Back where I belong?” She has been drug-free since 1996 when she started taking EMPowerplus, has had two children and is six months pregnant with her third.

Ryan Baker, a spokesperson with Health Canada, said for the drug to be approved by Health Canada, the manufacturer, Truehope Nutritional Support Ltd., also known as Synergy, must provide scientific evidence that the drug is safe and effective in meeting its stated claim of treatment. ”Health Canada recognizes that individuals suffering with severe conditions are upset about the banning of this drug, but we have an obligation to ensure the safety and effectiveness of drugs available to Canadians,” he said. Howard May, a spokesperson for Alberta Health and Wellness, said the provincial government has also been receiving calls from Albertans concerned about the ban. ”We have been advising those people to phone Health Canada because they’re responsible for approving drugs in Canada,” said May.

Stringam said Health Canada didn’t mind when she “ate” Paxil, Prozac, Lithium, Haldol, Rivotril, Ativan, Epival, Cogentin and Tegretol even though they caused autoimune disease and liver damage. ”EMPowerplus claims to treat very serious conditions like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, Tourette’s syndrome, depression,” said Baker. “Those conditions are best treated under the supervision of a physician and it can be very dangerous and risky to self-treat or substitute medications.” Baker said EMPowerplus (also known as EM Power+ and EM Power) is not available in Canadians stores but is being shipped to Canadians from the U.S.

Canadian Alliance health critic Rob Merrifield said on Friday that he would talk to McLellan about getting the supplement mailed to people’s home for their personal use, said Curry. Health Canada continues to actively investigate Truehope because it continues to sell and advertise in Canada.

Canadians with questions about EMPowerplus can phone Health Canada at 1-800-504-4156 for referral options.