Noted Manufacturer of Dietary Supplements
A new report from the United States Department of Health and Human Services report says some dietary supplements make false claims and are illegally labelled. This is a problem with dozens of products for weight loss, as well as immune system supplements. The products aren’t properly labelled, and they lack the recommended type of scientific evidence to back up their health claims.
This cannot possibly be any sort of a surprise for anyone who has been paying attention. In supplements sold to people, federal law doesn’t require supplements to go through rigorous testing to prove they are safe or even that they work. The Food and Drug Administration can act only after consumers get sick or a safety issue comes to light. And in animals, there is essentially no oversight at all. Basically, the current system is set up to allow companies to mislead consumers. And mislead they have, to the tune of an industry that’s worth an estimated $20 BILLION dollars.
You can read and/or download the whole report if you CLICK HERE.
You can read and/or download the FDA’s position, as well as recently issued warning letters to supplement companies if you CLICK HERE.
Supplement Industry Theme Song
DR. RAMEY NOTES: In 2011, I reported on an analysis of 5 supplements that are sold to horse owners. They aren’t made according to any apparent “balance,” and they make some pretty preposterous claims. You can read the analysis, and see a copy of the slide presentation, if you CLICK HERE.
And it’s not just me that has these concerns. Take glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate (please), two wildly popular, and very expensive supplements for “joint health.” Not only is the evidence for such products so low as to preclude any meaningful interpretation of the results, but a 2006 study found that most of the products don’t meet label content anyway. To me, it’s a mystery how a product that doesn’t work, is supposed to work when it doesn’t have much of the desired supplement in it. Go figure.
