Back towards the end of July, just over 2 months ago, I stumbled onto USA Today's investigative series, Supplement Shell Game. Most of us believe that everything on supermarket & drug store shelves has been vetted by the appropriate authorities such that it's been proven safe & effective. But if you look at the claims that these dietary supplement manufacturers make, that clearly can't be the case as they promise miracles w/o any risk or side effect just because they're natural, organic or herbal. It's as if we've suspended belief such that wiping our a--es in the woods w/poison ivy and/or poison oak won't lead to their traditional rash. In fact, there is no mandatory 3rd party oversight regarding these dietary supplements, something that you might ponder if you read the
standard Food & Drug Administration disclaimer from behind which all the manufacturers hide.
Don't get me wrong.
All medications, whether prescription or over-the-counter, and all dietary supplements, regardless of how natural, organic and/or herbal, have side effects, some known, many not. In other words, there's no free lunch, no matter what the ads claim. And medications manufacturers are not immune from contamination & manufacture problems. But at least these are discovered & publicized by the FDA, as opposed to
dietary supplements which are only exposed & brought to light thanks to investigative journalism because their
manufacturers aren't required by law to prove either safety nor effectiveness of their claims.
If you want to see something scary,
watch the deposition given by one of the supplement designers who describes his lack of education, use of substances not previously tested on humans, and his own testing on himself & a few friends prior to marketing said substance.
Just 2 days ago, USA Today publicized the
presence of methamphetamine-like substance in a popular dietary supplement. Of course, the manufacturer said this was a contaminated counterfeit. So I was a bit surprised to find that this same
manufacturer caved in a day later (yesterday) and stopped production of this contaminated product. The only problem is that the product hasn't been recalled and thus is still available for purchase. Caveat emptor. Buyer beware.
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