Are supplements that bad?

[Sinclair]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/05/opinion/seres-herbal-supplements/index.html

"Second, there are no controls in place, where supplements are concerned, to regulate how we might be biased by conflicts of interest. This is illegal when it comes to pharmaceuticals. Not so with supplements."

Can anyone tell me what are the sanctions a biased MD face regarding such a conflict of interest with pharmaceuricals? Does anyone knows any actual conviction? Thanks!

(The political economy of health services and inputs becomes more and more interesting the deepest you get into it!)

S.

 

[barbc56]

Nutritional science is very complex. If these substances are effective, they are acting as drugs and should be regulated as such. Given the clear potential for harm, and even death, from these unregulated supplements, and the lack of ethics in the absence of strong prohibitions, it is time for better laws. But meanwhile, let the buyers beware.

Barb

 

[Martial]

I always erred on the side of caution when purchasing my herbs/supplements, trying to purchase from the most trusted and reputable seller. This really causes for some disillusion though. I mean its one thing to have unknown fillers that got put in during manufacturing, completely another thing to not even have what is advertised on the bottle.

Granted these are some very low quality brands and doesn't represent the whole market. You just really have to do research and make sure you buy from someone that is honest and has a good reputation to back their product.


Consumer Labs has testing done across different brand names and various different herbal and vitamin supplements, this can be pretty helpful to weed out the potential false products. The simple fact is since the FDA doesn't regulate the market you really do have to do all of this at your own risk.

It is criminal to put severe and potentially fatal allergens into it a companies product off label though. I hope these companies are sued for their sleazy false marketing strategies and taking advantage of a market demographic who is doing this to stay healthy. It shows that this market economy still thrives on dollar above even basic moral and ethical values. These are also name brand house hold stores.


Off the cuff you can start buying your herbs in bulk from a trustworthy grower and make capsules/tinctures yourself, I had started doing similar in treatment of my lyme disease and it saves you a ton of money. You probably cannot do the same with vitamin supplements but at be sure to purchase from a well known and trusted source again.


p.s. I remember sometime ago reading about a certain b vitamin that was pulled off the market for containing speed, the manufacturer was in mexico and they were adding drugs into the supplements to get people addicted to their product and get a real "boost". There were also a lot of reports and legal cases that had similar issues of anabolic steroids and other controlled supplements added to body building supplements.

 

[perchance dreamer]

I buy pharmaceutical grade supplements as much as possible. I like knowing that each cap or tab has all the ingredients stated and that each cap or tab in the bottle has the dosage it's supposed to.