[extropy-chat] Campaign Launched Against Dietary Supplements

[BillK]

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 14:34:06 -0500, Joseph Bloch wrote:
> Don't start panicking yet. Michael Leavitt, the about-to-be new
> secretary of Health and Human Services, told the Senate committee going
> over his nomination that "he would not increase regulation of dietary
> supplements". Significantly, that's one of Orrin Hatch's pet issues (he
> being on the committee). Not coincidentally, Utah is a center for the
> dietary supplement industry.
> 

There is an alternative view, of course, that it is about time
somebody tried to control the "supplements" industry.
See: <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=403037&page=1>

Quotes:

According to many industry experts, the problems with herbal
supplements are just beginning to be understood.
"One out of four has some sort of problem," said Dr. Tod Cooperman,
physician and president of ConsumerLab.com, an independent laboratory
that tests dietary supplements. "People should keep that in mind."

In many cases, Cooperman's group has found that some name-brand
supplements contain only a fraction of the ingredient on their labels
— if any at all.
"Some have none, some have 80 percent, some have 20 percent," Cooperman said.

Another problem with supplements involves contamination. In two
separate cases last month, pesticide residue was found in a batch of
ginseng at a distributor in New Jersey, and toxic heavy metals like
mercury, lead and arsenic were discovered in herbal supplements on
sale in stores in the Boston area.

Researchers have also found significant amounts of Viagra and Cialis,
prescription medicines for treating erectile dysfunction, in "natural"
sexual enhancement supplements. "There are increasing instances of
them being spiked with pharmaceutical products to make them more
effective," said Cooperman.

"As I see it, the main effect of the DSHEA has been to allow
supplement companies to run rampant and make claims that are not
substantiated," said Dr. Kevin Scott Ferentz, residency director in
the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland School
of Medicine in Baltimore.

"They sell products that do not contain what they are supposed to.
They do not have efficacy data, safety data, quality control data or
anything that any pharmaceutical product in America must have," he
said. "There are few, if any, supplements that have a data base that
is sufficient to recommend their use."

End quotes
-----------------

Without controls, there could be anything in these magic pills. I am
sure that if you were paying 100USD per month for 'organic Alaskan
worms', then you would be convinced that eating worms was good for
you.

BillK