FALSE HOPE?: Although supplement manufacturers are required to qualify any statements about unproved benefits, a recent investigation of supplement sellers found that many sales staff do not abide by the same standards.
Image: ISTOCKPHOTO/CATHYCLAPPER2
-
The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
Read More »
Numerous recent studies have undercut the purported benefits of various herbal supplements. Gingko, echinacea and Saint John's wort, have all been found relatively ineffective against many of the ills they have been claimed to help.
This does not seem to have slowed purchases by U.S. consumers, who spent $14.8 billion on these and other natural supplements in 2007, according to a report released last summer.
It also hasn't stopped many supplement sellers from making the false claims and even recommending potentially dangerous uses of the products to customers, according to a recent investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). To obtain a sample of sales practices, the agency got staff members to call online retailers and to pose undercover as elderly customers at stores selling supplements.
Customers were not only told that supplements were capable of results for which there is no scientific evidence (such as preventing or curing Alzheimer's disease); the advice and information also was potentially harmful (including a recommendation to replace prescription medicine with garlic). Excerpts from secretly recorded conversations are available on the GAO's Web site.
Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found the practices "improper and likely in violation of statutes and regulations," according to the report, which was delivered as testimony on May 26 by Gregory Kutz, managing director of Forensic Audits and Special Investigations at the GAO, to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.
But the potential for harm did not appear to end with marketing and staff recommendations. Following up on previous studies that had found contaminants and other adulterants in herbal supplements—which are regulated by the FDA as food products, not drugs, and thus not subject to pre-market approval or testing—the GAO sent bottles of 40 commonly purchased supplements to a lab for testing.
The lab found 92 percent of the tested herbal supplements (which included pills, capsules and other products derived from plant products but not vitamins) contained trace amounts of lead and 80 percent had at least one other contaminant, such as mercury, cadmium and/or arsenic. The levels (none were more than 0.05 part per million) did not exceed what the FDA and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently considers hazardous, but, notes Marcus Reidenberg, chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, "ingesting these heavy metals is of no benefit." And the GAO report states that "consuming high levels of the contaminants for which we tested…can lead to severe health consequences, such as increased risk of cancer."
The supplement industry shared the concern raised by the report, Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, one of several supplement trade groups, said in Senate testimony also delivered May 26. But, he noted that "the majority of American consumers who take dietary supplements are using safe, high-quality supplements to maintain and improve their healthy lifestyles," and also pointed out that "pharmaceuticals, conventional foods, medical devices and cosmetics—all regulated by FDA—likewise have accidents and rogue players." Regarding the GAO's findings, he had told The New York Times he did not think they "should be of concern to consumers."
Label liability
Millions of Americans continue to buy herbal supplements based on the belief that they will improve their quality of life. But just what goes into these supplements and what body part or function they purport to help is largely up to the product's manufacturer.
All dietary supplements, including herbal supplements, vitamins, enzymes and other substances, are regulated by the FDA under the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which says that only the manufacturers are responsible for making sure a supplement is safe—and recommending how much a consumer should take. It also mandates that only manufacturers need to determine if a supplement can stand up to claims made about its benefits. And, as noted on the FDA's Web site, supplement-makers are not required to present any information to the government about how they arrived at safety and effectiveness conclusions.
As with other food products, the FDA conducts routine monitoring of products and inspections of manufacturing processes, but it does not evaluate supplements before they hit the shelves to see if the ingredients match those listed or that the ingredients—listed or unlisted—are of safe levels. And if a product appears to be causing harm, it is up to the FDA to "demonstrate that the dietary supplement presents a significant or unreasonable risk" before it can be pulled from the shelves, the report pointed out.
In labeling supplement-makers cannot claim a product will cure, treat or prevent a specific condition, as that would make it a drug. Instead, labels can boast of general "body function claims," such as "aids digestion," "improves heart health" or "boosts brain function" etcetera, says Paul Shekelle, an internist at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare Center and director of the Southern California Evidence-Based Practice Center at the RAND Corp. Although these claims must be followed by a standard, asterisked FDA disclaimer ("This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."), people often do not get the right message, Shekelle says.
"Those distinctions can be confusing to consumers," who often might not have all of the information to separate body-function statements (such as "boosts brain function") from specific treatment indications that they might be seeking (for example, "prevents Alzheimer's"), he notes. And messages can get mixed when a sales associate steps in to do the interpretation for consumers.
Because the FDA is in charge of keeping track of what's on a supplement's packaging, whereas FTC watches for false claims in advertisements, few eyes are turned to the individuals who are selling products and engaging in conversation with a potential customer.
See what we're tweeting about
57 Comments
Add CommentLook who's funding the studies. St John's Wort has like a 500 year history of anecdotal efficacy reports - in countries that have no FDA...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt best anecdotal evidence suggests topics for clinical and epidemiological studies. If what you assert is true, the FDA should carry out a full clinical study of St. John's Wort's potential benefits. Until I see clinical, or at least epidemiological, evidence of such a supplement's efficacy, I think it's still dubious despite the compelling anecdotes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMan has not all of a sudden become smarter then he was 100,000 years ago, just greedier. Doesn't anybody know where these pharmaceutical corporations get their ideas from....nature. They take natures gift with relativly little potencially hazardous side effects, then they try to figure out a way to make a chemical in the laboratory which mimics natures gift. They never quite get it right, but they can get it close enough that they can make billions off it by selling it to you the consumer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey bad mouth herbs because they cannot control the market the way they can drugs that can only be synthesized in the laboratory usually using petrolium by-products as the base for the construction, go figure. Just watching their commercials with all the harmful side effects and the shady lawyers add right after offering to help you sue the phamaceutical company that made the drug that was in the previous commercial. It ludicris. People have lost the ability to analyze facts by way of logic and reason where-by the may reach the truth of a matter. A phamaceutical corporation's bottom line is the dollar, as is the oil industry, they don't care about us. They do not give our politicians millions of dollars for their campaigns so as you should have a good representative which will represent the people, they do it so as the politician in major political offices will represent their needs, their bottom line.
To think those who represent the phamaceutical industry, our government is going to be truthful about anything that takes a dime from their meal tickets think again.
We've become a country of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation.
Please feel free to mind your own business in regard to what I,and others consume for our health related concerns. Studies over the years have indicated the AMA medical establishment is responsible for the deaths of upwards of 200,000 Americans every year in the U.S. I'll keep my fish oil etc.,and you can keep your toxic pharmaceuticals.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease feel free to mind your own business in regard to what I,and others consume for our health related concerns. Studies over the years have indicated the AMA medical establishment is responsible for the deaths of upwards of 200,000 Americans every year in the U.S. I'll keep my fish oil etc.,and you can keep your toxic pharmaceuticals.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery misleading connotations have been applied here: "but...ingesting these heavy metals is of no benefit." Well, duh! How can you frame that as a catch to the prior statement? It is not like people take the supplements to get trace amounts of heavy metals.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd here: "consuming high levels of the contaminants for which we tested…can lead to severe health consequences, such as increased risk of cancer." Of course. And they were tested for, and found to be at safe levels, as previously stated. Why reintroduce this as a caveat when a previous statement has already encapsulated and disposed of it?
Furthermore, trace amounts of elements are an entirely separate issue from the veracity of supplement companies' claims and the sensibility of their advice. It is an issue, but only relates to the main idea as a Red Herring.
Also, why only mention recent studies on St. John's Wort while neglecting to mention the massive meta-analysis that concluded it was just as effective and safer than all major anti-depressants?
This article has at best, a misleading spin.
I think the statistics demonstrate that unnecessary (except to the medical establishment's financial health) and ofttimes faulty procedures and drugs by members of the AMA cause many more deaths than does misuse of herbal supplements. The real problem lies in the fact that basic incentives in medicine are set up to reward treating SICK people. There is little reward however in making sick people healthy or keeping healthy people healthy. Oh yea, I remember. Physicians are doing their work out of their inherent goodness with no thought of financial reward. That's why medical care is so inexpensive!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisvisit http://www.whitakerwellness.com/about-us/dr-whitaker-philosophy/
Well when you can present multiple studies that were in a controlled, double-blind randomized environment that even supports your strawman of a statement THEN you can talk about how the efficacy of vaccines, antibiotics, and other highly-studied drugs on the market are shitty for you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor what it's worth you can go have your ginseng drink to cure your diabetes. Cause you know what? It won't. You'll die a stupid fool.
JoeyC: Everything you said about pharmaceutical companies is equally true of the people who make and sell supplements. The only difference is that the drugs made by pharmaceutical companies have to undergo years of clinical trials on humans before they can be sold, and the ingredients are tested and verified to be as advertised. The people who make supplements don't have to do any of these things, so they can make a concoction of arsenic, lead and cadmium in someone's garage and sell it at the local store with nobody being the wiser.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe may all die stupid fools as you say, but there is a difference in having an intentional wall of ignorance about the world when it comes to scientific fact, merely just because 'someone said it wasn't true.' Humans are biased, the results of science in a well-controlled repeatable experiment are not. Of which opponents of vaccines will say it's just a conspiracy by Big Pharma. What do they have to backup their claims? They don't, and continue to ignore simple scientific methodology when they themselves claim their own scientific findings which have no merit whatsoever.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'' just pose this question: when you have a perfectly curable infection, will you take an herbal medicine off the shelf at your local health food store, or will you see a real medical doctor to perscribe the correct antibiotic WHICH HAS BEEN SHOWN IN STUDY AFTER STUDY TO WORK. Once you die from not taking the antibiotics, science and darwinism wins.
yet more pro pharma rubbish from sciam. you only have to read the physical magazine to see the huge pharmaceutical company ads
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe drug companies are the crooks, all their research is 'in house' they bribe everyone they need to bribe, withhold negative studies about their drugs...Vioxx, poster child for this, killed 100,000 people ...and it was just a drug for arthritis. it was kept on the market for years after they knew it was causing heart attacks and strokes. where has the big sciam spread been about this? it is always down played when it is a drug company, and talked up when its about supplements
but what can we do?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGinkgo is intended as a blood thinner and as an aid to circulation within the brain. This article starts by stating that Ginkgo doesn't do everything that is claimed for it. But, later, we get "at his hospital if someone is planning to get surgery, "we regularly ask if they take ginkgo because it increases the bleeding time."" Sounds like the hospital folks know that Ginkgo does its primary job.
You will never get large, double blind studies of the effectiveness of herbs. It costs too much money - the kind of money that only the drug companies can afford.
And they won't conduct such studies because they can't patent natural substances. So, there is no way for them to gain monopoly positions in herbal supplements.
I have had enough success with herbal supplements to say they have a place in our health system. Yes, buyer beware applies. Yes, there are plenty of bogus claims and ineffective supplements. But, a little reading and common sense can point you to supplements that might help - a little or a lot.
I think the main purpose of this article is to build support for the pharmaceutical companies as they try, once again, to stifle this little bit of competition - so they can achieve full monopoly positions.
Show me one article that says a pharmaceutical drugs killed 100,000 people. Please post or cite your credible sources. Otherwise you're spewing nonsense.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy are you even on this site? You obviously aren't for science.
John, I suggest you read this: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=3235
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd before you start conjuring big pharma nonsense, you can read the replies that have been posted by the site's users citing actual journal articles for inefficacy of other herbal supplements. If you care to do your actual research, a lot of universities do these studies as well. By no means are they too expensive for anyone else but the pharmaceutical companies.
Yet again someone else who is blind to logic.
It sounds like 14.8 billion dollars out of the AMA and the chemical pharmacopiea's pocket wrote this article. Those trace amounts of heavy metals can be found in any food that is grown within a hundred miles of a fossil fuel extraction plant or fossil construction site. These heavy metals and other chemicals listed in this article pollute almost every countries water supply and heavily contaminates all of Americas water supply and soil where these herbal plants grow. And it is guaranteed that every herb or herbal supplement you get from China is heavily contaminated with these chemicals and heavy metals to dangerous levels.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy would these idiots who did this experiment ask a sales clerk to diagnose their medical condition and then prescribe a supplement to fix or cure their ailments? I am sure that every sales clerk in this country who works at a herb store is well qualified to diagnose or prescribe medications or herbal supplements...stupid idiots!
Herbs have been used as medicine to treat diseases, ailments, and injuries for thousands of years and they have worked just fine and have not killed anyone with enough sense not to abuse them, and Garlic does stabilize your blood pressure and helps to break down the fats in your blood and that has been proven even by chemical doctors like Dr. Mendal. Garlic also kills bacteria that causes certain kinds of heart disease. Hawthorn strengthens your heart and when it does that, your circulation improves. It was a chemical doctor that knew nothing about herbs that claimed that Ginko cures brain diseases. Ginko and Gotu kola improves the blood circulation to your brain, thus helping to prevent stroke and when the blood, that does not contain a lot of fat cells, is allowed to circulate through your brain, some brain cells and memory sometimes restore themselves to a point where you can function again and live a little longer.
The phrase coined by herbalist Green, the author of the Male Herbal, "Be Kind To The Earth For It Is Our Best Medicine" should stay in the mind of every person who cares more about their health than they do the billion dollar profit.
FDA does not do "clinical studies." It's up to the manufacturer or some other professional group to initiate these well designed and controlled studies. So, don't hold your breath and don't believe everything you read. Most supplements = snake oil.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe JOURNAL of the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000 article written by Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, to whomever wanted it, that is your "how many people do doctors kill" reference. Avandia, Vioxx, aspirin, motrin (all non steroidals cause heart attacks) just to name a few. 1 person out of 100 taking lipitor in high doses gets myopathy and given that 10,000 people per year have to take it to prevent one heart attack, that means 100 people get myopathy to prevent one MI (which could be helped more by fish oil and niacin). Look, the FDA can't keep E. coli out of food or find a way to protect our meat and these two things cause far more death and disability that the few herbal issues that arise every year. The fact is, it is dangerous to take many pharmaceuticals (listen to the warnings on direct to consumer tv commercials) and they don't work very well either or people wouldn't spend their own hard earned money on "snake oil". By the way, the interviewed Starfield a couple years ago, and she thinks with the new drugs and technology, medical deaths are probably over 300K now. Herbals may not work as advertised (but Oriental medicine NEVER prescribes just one herb to work, so we in the USA can't even get that right) but most of them won't kill you (if they did we would all be watching senate hearings) but most pharmaceuticals don't work and will kill your butt. I didn't realize that SciAm was all that interested in defending Big Pharm or was this written by the skeptic idiot.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually elizabettac123 everything I said about the phameceutical industry does not apply to the herbal industry. And your arguement does not hold water for several reasons. The biggest one being the amount of money involved. The phamaceutical industry has hundreds of politiciuans in their back pockets, I doubt the herbal industry has any. Man has been using herbs as his medicine for thousands and thousands of years not because man was stuipid, but because man is intelligent. The studies done by the pharmaceutical industry are all bogus for the most part meant to get the drug on the market fast. They are not safe. They are not tested to be safe. The are tested to see if the drugs profit margine will be more then enough to take care of the lawsuits created by the harmful side effects. If the drug comes out on the plus side by a wide enough margine it goes to market. If you think the pharmaceutical industry really cares about you haven't paid attention to the facts, or if you have you have not processed the facts by way of logic and reason.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd your garage theory comes from left field thinking these people add the micro amounts of these substances they have found.
Man has contaminated the whole world, you'll find microamounts of contaminants in all food products, in everything.
And again you can trace the cotamination back to corporations, like the phamaceutical industry, who's bottom line is the dollar, not your health.
Wake up America.
JamesDavis for people to think that the amount of money involved does not influence the truth of any matter is mind boggling. Hasn't anyone seen how money corrupts? Do people really think the phameceutical industry gives millions and millions to our politicians expecting nothing in return? And if your a phamaceutical industry making billions of dollars and your bottom line is the dollar what would be the only reason you'd give a politician millions of dollars to get elected? Doesn't anyone have the ability to process information by way of logic and reason anymore?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it any wonder we have such a poor educational system, this system couldn't function if American's could analyze facts by way of logic and reason.
Just playing bit of devil's advocate, but when you have influenza, go to a "real"medical doctor, and are prescribed antibiotics (which only kill bacterial infections), this isn't based on "real" science. Or "real" facts.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am not convinced that Big Pharma's science is "real." Why? Because they are businesses. Businesses exist to make money, not discover the truth. They are in the same camp as BP as far as I am concerned.
The truth in America in regards to any any aspect of the corporate industry, who are government represents, is variable in direct proportion to the amount of money the industry gives to our politicians.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKava Kava works, it is a known and proven narcotic and is available in most health stores in the US, Just go to the pacific islands (or make your own) and have a bowl of Kava and relax.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSnake oil is of all times. Inspite of scientific advancement people are as religious, superstitious and dumb as ever. Nothing new.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut even when a drug goes through FDA trials, the results can be juked to make the drug look more effective than it is, as in anti-depressants. These drugs are shown to be little more effective than placebo, but when a trial shows the drug to be LESS EFFECTIVE than placebo, the pharmaceutical company won't publish the results. Supplement companies may deceive, but that's partly because they don't have the money to bury trial results and buy Congressmen.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMust we assume that Scientific American is a card-carrying member of the medical industrial complex? Comments seem to indicate that this is a highly biased article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMan has been using herbs for medicine long before currency existed, so the snake oil theory... ain't much of a theory.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAgain the phamaceutical industry models most of their drugs after componds they isolate in herbs as the active ingredient.
The Chinese still use herbal medicine. It is mainstream. If it were snake oil the medical profession who prescribed the herbs and the people who grew them, and the distributors would of been all rounded up long ago never to be heard from again.
And again back to illness, you can trace allot of it back to poor diet. Again brought on by the people who brought you soy bean by products, hydrogenated oils and their biggest money maker high fructose corn syrup! Shows how much the government serves the peoples needs.
Why did they started using so many wonderful new pesticides after WW2? Anyone? Anyone? To use up or vast supplies of the lovely chemicals they manufactured during WW2 to kill humans. Then after they (People like Dow chemical and Monsanto) determined how much profit could be reaped from the new industry they decided to overlook the wonderful side effects to humans, the stuff does kill bugs too afterll, we make tons of money, we've got "the right" politicians on board......Full steam ahead!
Our government does not care about us, they care about those who put them into office. We vote by how well the canidate sells themselves to the American public, not by what they represent based upon whose funding their election, their past actions in government, their values based upon their actions as they have lived and loved. Few people who love people more them money could afford to sell themselves to the American public and get elected to a major political office. People are to easily manipulated and believe me they have it down to a science with some of Americas best minds earning huge saleries whose job is solely to figure out way to sell you b.s. Such as the war on drugs and war on terror. Ways to make fat cat's and their cohorts who hang in Washington D.C. money...that's all. Can you say military industrial complex? Can you say prison industrial complex? It's all a racket of unimaginable proportions, that we even sacrifice America's youth on to make it look good. A sad state of affairs indeed. If they really only wanted to kill Osama Bin Laden and his small band of mercinaries it could of been done by C.I.A. assasins. We wouldn't of invaded Iraq. We would of been quiet for two weeks, taken care of business, then told the people. Instead..
Are you guys serious? You don't use "anecdotal evidence" when analyzing the efficacy of a drug! These things don't pass double blind studies. They basically amount to placebos, which will have a measurable effect when measured from the view of the patient. But that doesn't mean they are doing what their proponents claim they would!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis doesn't even address the interactions these things have with other supplements and FDA regulated drugs.
Its just insane that these things are regulated.
Only your fascistic government is qualified to tell you what is safe for your health. Everything else must be banned with the threat of criminality.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFollow the money trail.... Big money aka, big drug companies truly have a reason to destroy any evidence of how good the supplements are...... It hurts their profits. Any study that does not declare in depth their funding source, MUST be considered suspect.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPersonal experience and that of numerous trusted friends absolutely contradicts the 'so-called' scientific studies.
As an aside, 'orthodox' medicine,(the AMA et al) was found guilty under the Ricoh Act in ~~ 1987 of conspiring to destroy Chiropractic, and paid millions of US$ in fines
I repeat...follow the money trail before believing anything
One of the great problems in our society, is that anyone can publish anything. A huge problem is when so-called 'trusted ' sites such as Sci-Am publish articles without truly researching the 'source and application' of funds as to who paid for the article' s research money
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou guys are a bunch of idiots.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess all those studies, tests, and trials, you know the"science" behind a lot of drugs on the market today are completely worthless. I guess that is why we have vaccinies for many diseases and virus', as well as methods to get rid of cancer.
Try telling a breast cancer survivor that her cancer could be cured by using a vitamin concoction or homeopathic pill. I can guarantee you that if she had the option and it was FULL PROOF TO WORK without chemo and radiation therapy (and surgery) she would've taken it. But nope, I guess all cancer survivors are paying for Big Pharma and their scams.
When you get seriously ill go to a chiropractor or a naturopathic witch doctor and ask for a solution. You won't do it. You know? Cause you'll more than likely die.
You guys are a bunch of idiots.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess all those studies, tests, and trials, you know the"science" behind a lot of drugs on the market today are completely worthless. I guess that is why we have vaccinies for many diseases and virus', as well as methods to get rid of cancer.
Try telling a breast cancer survivor that her cancer could be cured by using a vitamin concoction or homeopathic pill. I can guarantee you that if she had the option and it was FULL PROOF TO WORK without chemo and radiation therapy (and surgery) she would've taken it. But nope, I guess all cancer survivors are paying for Big Pharma and their scams.
When you get seriously ill go to a chiropractor or a naturopathic witch doctor and ask for a solution. You won't do it. You know? Cause you'll more than likely die.
With the number of deaths reported per year due to side effects of prescription drugs, why do people continue to take them? When it comes to natural healing and the use of herbs, I never take anything I do not prepare myself, that way I know what is in it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA similar study was done in the UK, where "mystery shoppers" visited Health Food stores and described the symptoms of chronic depression. They found that the one product the stores sell which has been shown to be of some possible benefit in depression (St John's Wort) was seldom advised. Kings College London also did a study of the advice given of the contradindications of St John's Wort, which can react badly with other medication, including the contraceptive pill - and found very few customers were given accurate information about this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere's an article stating the FDA estimates Vioxx caused over 27,000 deaths. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/vioxx_estimates.html
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGeorgio here commenting from Australia. In these debates I find people are often mixing up what emergency Pharmacy Medications are good for and what herbs, vitamins and therapeutic doses of Amino Acids and the like are good for. For one the world is a better place for modern medicine, but the statistics show that greed and money gets in the way when big pharma want EVERYONE to use their products even when they are not applicable. If I overdose on Vitamin C for example which is pretty dificult I wont die, but if (and as happens every day in the USA) overdose on Big Pharma's medications, death is the outcome. Sure it would be good for the USA to have more regulations on herbal remedies etc as is the case in Australia, but not be regulated by the same body that looks after Drug Medications because it is a different ballgame and it is no secret any longer that Big Pharma have their influence on the members on such boards, and so they are not independant they are speaking for big pharma. The stats speak for themselves as to how many innocent citizens in the USA die every year from doctors misdiagnosing and handing out dangerous meds to children, especially in the area of mental health when such drugs have made these kids lives a misery, caused many of them to commit suicide, instead of GP's and Psychiatrists referring them for counselling and nutritional advice first, because herbs and cutting down excess sugar intake and junk food, that has been proven to cause ADHD and others, is not solved by giving kids and adults drug medications. I have travelled the USA extensivley and am astounded how citizens are brainwashed by TV advertising to get drugs if they feel down for normal life events, and then having a quick drug to fix it. Pure greed by big pharma so no wonder US citizens are waking up and wanting the herbs and the like that have helped thousands of years of people that have lived on earth. Finally big pharma have been caught out at showing the results that make their meds look good and hide the ones that reveal the truth as to how bad the chemicals are that they want humans to injest so that they can make super profits and why do meds have to be SOOOO expensive America?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWarm Regards from Georgio (down under).
Listen, A good deal of this is mis-information. The government wants to shut down the health food suppliment market and deny access to us getting some degree of comfort from these products. To prove my point, the Chinese Herbal Company Sun Ten Laboritories in Irvine, California had to hire a tobacco and oil company lobbyiest to validate Chinese Herbal Medicinal formulations that the Japanese Pay for on their National Insurance. They have denied you and I from getting real pharmaceutical natural products by making the Chinese Herbal Industry to be studied for a year. That was 18 years ago! Talk about government scams. This 2000 year old science has over a billion Chinese people that have proved its effectiveness over time. Sun Ten was founded in 1947 by Dr. Hong Yen Hsu of Taiwan and Bristol-Myers Squibb funded some of Dr. Hsu's early work and have packaging for Chinese Herbal Formulas. They will not allow access, because Americans will realize and decide for themselves that these formulas, made to state of the art technology, really work, and as fact, most of the rest of the World know this. It is game as usual in this country, so go ahead, take them off the shelves. During the 1990's, I called upon most of the Health Food Stores in California, and yes, the employees, who are not truly representative of the manufacturers, make health claims, based on basic information they read. Also, Sun Ten Laboritories used gas spectrometers to test all of the products they use, and make sure there is no samanela in the natural herbal products. Also, many of the products do have trace elements of toxins in them. Let us go to the grocery store today and remove all products that have traces of toxins in them, and test them with gas spectrometers. These products are toxic because the soil around the planet has been poisened by the chemical and oil companies and they do not want us to know the truth. There are products, like Ginsana, that I have seen personally, do not contain all five ginsenocides, they require to be a true ginseng. That over the counter product was producing around 60 million dollars in sales in the early 1990's. So let us get back to the real truth in advertising and stop lying to the public about these trumped up findings. Yes, there are toxins, in about everything. How about we go to the gulf and see what BP has wrought. Those people are going to need a lot of medicines! How about bringing back critical thinking in the World. Not going to happen, is it? Look at all the side effects we see daily on TV.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wish the part of this study that analyzed samples for impurities had delved into variations by brand of supplement. I would not be surprised if labs differ in their interest or ability to produce high quality products, but brands are not identified in the full study. The apparent fact that supplements favored by chain stores were an essential part of this study underlies the neglect of this factor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA list or table showing and identifying each studied supplement as specifically as possible with it's deficiencies and/or potential hazards would be much more helpful than a vague, wordy article. The studies and results are wasted unless they're published.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUnless your getting your supplements directly from a plant as a source,which you can grow yourself,then there will always toxic impurities included,and you get what you pay for the good and the bad.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHobo, China is making more and more compounds for phara drugs. I have heard that some of the compounds were contaminated with all sorts of stuff and that the compounds were not tested prior to getting into the production line and out into consumer hands. I cannot specifically refer to that info, but would you know anything about this?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the GAO is so worried about supplements, why in the world don't they fund testing for them, so see whether they are safe and effective?? What are my tax dollars supposed to do? Do they all have to go to regulating "big pharma" products? Why not test and regulate supplements?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFish oil. Pushed as a supplement for years. After rigorous testing, the big pharma sells fish oil to lower triglycerides. What is the difference between it and any quality brand you buy off the shelf? The concentration and the price. You can get the same amount much, much cheaper off the shelf, you just have to take a few more pills.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy rule. Never trust anyone who doesn't have as much to lose as you do. Big pharma or the supplement suppliers. Do your own thorough research before taking either of their products.
I'd like to see a study comparing the per dose profitability of the largely unregulated companies of Big Placebo (Big 'Bo to his friends) vs. the highly regulated Big Pharma businesses.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is a "perfectly curable infection" ? Isn't that something that the body will heal, in time, if it is healthy? Minor infections should not get antibiotics. We rely on antibiotics, so now we have antibiotic resistance like MRSA, EBSL, VRE and that new one just produced in Spain. We have to start being responsible for the condition of our bodies. We must be as critical of the advise of a doctor, or a herbalist as we would be of a used car salesman. Herbs are not good or bad, just untested.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPurveyors of herbal supplements out to have the same right as pharmaceutical companies to make outlandish claims for their products while minimizing any mention of adverse effects. Let's put everybody on the same level playing field.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeriously though, some herbal supplements do provide better treatment for disorders than drugs requiring a prescription. However, naturopathy will never receive the same respect as conventional medicine until they start performing clinical trials with their products. For example, my wife told me that one of her supplements was a "blood purifier". Heck, I thought that what was the liver was for?
What about the FDA, AMA big Pharma wrongly stating that ascorbic acid IS Vitamin C! It's not. It's the wrapping around the Vitamin C nutrients...liken to a banana peel around the real banana. Why is this myth perpetuated?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy do people think pharmaceutical companies are "big business" but supplement companies aren't? They'd take a dump in a bottle, sell it to you for $20 and you'd eat it because someone told you it was "all natural." You're putting things in your body that haven't been tested and the "big supplement" companies are laughing all the way to the bank.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd it isn't that the pharmaceutical companies "can't patent herbs" so they "won't make any money" and that's why they don't pay for supplement testing. If a scientist discovers that something cures cancer or Alzheimer's they'll win a freaking nobel prize, and possibly save a loved ones' life, so there are plenty of selfish reasons to cure cancer besides monetary ones. It's because the university tests that have shown diddly-squat. FDA approval is insanely expensive, which is why drugs cost so much and. And "big pharma's science" has FDA oversight every step of the way to make sure the science is real.
And if there is a supplement that shows good promise, the pharmaceutical companies can investigate how it works, refine the process so it works better and they can patent that so don't worry--if there is a treatment that can be proven they will find a way to profit off of it.
I think one reason why people chose fairy tale "miracle cures" over government-approved medicines is because they are terrified about how little even experts know about our own bodies on a molecular level, and that reminds us of how mortal we are. It's easier to believe that there are easy, inexpensive cures for everything and as soon as doctors and scientists stop hiding those cures from us, nobody will ever die or get sick again!
For normal people who only "supplement" with supplements, the question of who cares about trace amounts of heavy metals is understandable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe reason why they mention what heavy metals do to you at large amounts, even when they only found trace amounts, is because some people go TOTALLY OVERBOARD thinking it's safe. Linus Pauling, for instance, went berserk over vitamin C claiming it did this and that and he reportedly took 12,000 mg of it a day and 40,000 mg if he felt a cold coming on. For people who take insane amounts of supplements, trace levels aren't so much trace any more. It's basically saying the dose makes the poison.
A search of the research databases will reveal an abundance of research that has been done since 2002 showing that St. John's Wort has many biological benefits. In addition, the 2002 study tested only moderate depression. European studies had already shown it to be ineffective against moderate depression but effective against mild depression. But despite the fact that the 2002 study never looked at mild depression, it concluded that St. John's wort was not effect against depression. That conclusion was unwarranted.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat the FDA ought to be looking at is the dangerous side effects of many of the pharmaceutical antidepressants and how they are tested. But they won't because the pharmaceuticals make a lot more money than the supplement companies and have a much greater lobbyist presence.
And you think supplementare dangerous?!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/dan-markingson-drug-trial-astrazeneca
So, we're safer with drugs that have been approved in the past by the FDA (you know, that bureaucratic unConstitutional agency that conspires with Big Pharma and the AMA) that later proved to be deadly?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLook who is not funding studies on herbal medicine...the folks who sell 14.3 billion worth per year. Why are you so sanctimonious and self-righteous? If you or your children get cancer, diabetes, or any bacterial/viral infection you'll be begging big pharma for drugs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Meta analysis did not reach a conclusion about the efficacy of SJW. It showed that it was as effective as other drugs in treating symptoms of mild depression in more studies than others and was totally inneffective in treating major depression. Considering that depression medication is variously ineffective depending on the patient, no surprises there. Due to its possible side-effects and interactions with other medicines such as aspirin Wort could harm someone. Ironically the disclaimer page for an advertisement if it were FDA approved would look just like the ones for other regulated drugs. Nature makes drugs but it doesn't mean they don't have side effects.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust so you know: in the past 100,000 years evolution has strongly favored intelligence and the tools developed by cro magnon, neanderthal etc demonstrate that indeed we are smarter.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo.....the very dept of the government that is basically owned and operated by big pharmaceutical companies is telling us their main competition is bad? Kinda funny. Next thing you know they'll be saying organic food is bad for you and you should only eat GMO's.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisya but even though they do this, they still have to let us know what we can and what we cant have.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this