In wake of increased FDA scrutiny of natural supplements, Ann Arbor company calls for more regulation of industry
An FDA field inspector presents an assortment of illegal imported products marketed as dietary supplements. The FDA works to stop the sale and distribution of such products, which may contain undisclosed and potentially dangerous ingredients.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
They’ve got names like “Magic Power” and “Xtreme Muscle Activator,” and the Food and Drug Administration says these and other dietary supplements are spiked with hidden ingredients, deceptively labeled and potentially dangerous.
This week, the regulatory agency announced new steps it has taken to inform the public about so-called natural supplements, including a new public notification system on its website. So far, the organization has alerted consumers to 80 dietary supplements marketed for sexual enhancement, 70 for weight loss and 80 for bodybuilding.
Ann Arbor-based NSF International, a non-profit organization which independently tests nutritional supplements to protect consumers from tainted products, supports the FDA’s reinvigorated focus on the effort, said Ed Wyszumiala, the general manager of NSF's dietary supplement certification program.
But he also said the announcement is an indication that a more rigorous enforcement process should be in place before these products hit the shelves at all.
“Consumers think they’re safe because supplements are governed as a food. Most would think if a food is governed and on the shelf that it’s safe, and the product is going to contain what is on the label.”
But that’s not always the case.
He said that while the supplement industry has many reputable companies, there are also numerous unscrupulous operators. Consumers shouldn’t assume what’s on the label is in the product.
NSF does offer consumer protection; the organization has contracted with the NFL and other professional sports organizations since 2004 to make sure supplements taken by athletes contain what the labels say. It tests numerous other natural supplements, too.
But consumers in other sectors of the natural supplement industry could use the same kind of protection as professional athletes have, he said.
NSF never certifies weight loss or sexual enhancement supplements, Wyszumiala said.
Photo courtesy of the FDA
One of the products targeted by the FDA is “Man Up Now,” pills marketed as a dietary supplement for sexual enhancement that contain a variation of an active drug ingredient found in Viagra. According to the FDA, it can dangerously lower blood pressure.
Products that contain prescription-strength drugs while being marketed as “herbal” or “all natural” expose consumers to the potential for death or injury via unpredictable risks, the FDA says.
Instead of being “all natural,” as labels claimed, the products often contained active ingredients of FDA-approved drugs or other compounds, such as novel synthetic steroids, which don’t qualify as dietary ingredients, according to an FDA announcement.
In general, consumers should cast a skeptical eye and proceed with caution when they notice the following potential warning signs on products marketed as dietary supplements:
- Claims that the products are alternatives to FDA-approved drugs or have similar effects to those of prescription drugs.
- Claims that a product is a “a legal alternatives to anabolic steroids.”
- Products marketed via mass e-mails or primarily in a foreign language.
- Sex enhancement products with promises of rapid or long-lasting effects.
- Warnings that a produce may lead to a positive result on “performance enhancement drug tests.”
The old adage “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” will also serve the public well, an FDA announcement said.
Juliana Keeping is a health and environment reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter
Comments
AlphaAlpha
Sat, Dec 18, 2010 : 9:18 p.m.
Let's also remember the poisons the FDA has blessed...trans fats, the partially hydrogenated oils (a remarkably unnatural food 'manufacturing' process), high fructose corn syrup, the litany of coal and crude oil based food colors, all kinds of very polysyllabic chemicals which, with 'industry encouragement', are placed into a category such as "Generally Regarded As Safe' until proven otherwise. Their track record is poor; that fact isn't changing anytime soon.
a2jp
Sat, Dec 18, 2010 : 8:12 p.m.
Whatever they might say, the thrust of this kind of article is to pursuade the public to be afraid of anything that is not prescribed by a doctor or marketed by a large corporation. There are other sources of information that should not be silenced.
dogpaddle
Sat, Dec 18, 2010 : 10:41 a.m.
I agree with technojunkie. While I think doing something about products that claim to be "all natural" that aren't and are dangerous are a good idea, I'd still like to be the ultimate decider in what goes into my body and I trust places like Whole Foods, Arbor Farms, the Co-op, to name a few, to do that and make sure nothing goes on THEIR shelves except for pure ingredients and so on. I don't want the government regulating natural vitamins and herbs for me as long as that's indeed what they are. And still a word a of caution to all: do your own research and be your own educator. Even the purest ingredients straight from the ground can be harmful in large doses or have negative interactions with pharmaceuticals. So ask your doctor and your pharmacist if you are taking or start to take herbal supplements with a prescription. For example, my mother can't have grapefruit juice any more because of something she is on.
Technojunkie
Sat, Dec 18, 2010 : 9:03 a.m.
If it can be done without breaking legitimate supplement makers, OK, but federal regulations have the nasty habit of destroying small businesses and protecting big ones. Such mandatory regulations would do wonders for NSF's business, I'm sure. Marketing a prominent voluntary NSF certification logo to supplement makers would be a good idea though. I've found a few supplements that have made a major difference in my health, all from one small company. I don't want to lose them. Given some of the stuff the FDA says is safe, such as neurotoxic synthetic food additives that save multinational food manufacturers a few bucks, while crushing small farmers who dare sell raw milk, their interest in regulating supplements doesn't inspire confidence.
Speechless
Fri, Dec 17, 2010 : 2:31 p.m.
"... the FDAs reinvigorated focus on... so-called natural supplements...." In the early 1990s, the FDA, then under the consumer-oriented leadership of David Kessler (appointed, amazingly, by Bush One), made a high-profile move to clean up the sometimes shady market for natural supplements. It's good to see that Kessler's ideas are now slowly coming back to life. Back then, most of the natural foods industry went all tea party on us (so ahead of their time!) by virulently condemning any serious proposal that would increase federal monitoring for the safety, quality, and health claims for natural supplements. Even many food co-ops, to their eternal shame, bought into this thinking, which claimed to champion "consumer freedom." In reality, the anti-FDA campaign of that era primarily protected the industry's more notorious snake oil marketers. Although, at the time, a few supplement makers and herbalists quietly admitted that more regulation would probably help more than restrict, but dared not express this openly. Stiffer regulations likely could have aided the more honest and competent supplement makers by giving consumers greater confidence in what they were getting. The Beltway 'hero' for the natural products industry and the co-ops, the Senator who decisively smote the regulatory efforts of Kessler and the FDA, was Utah's Orrin Hatch. According to the Washington Monthly in 2001: "...Thanks to Hatch, the U.S. now has standards as low as those in many Third World countries for the sale of many products with serious, pharmacological effects.... As former FDA Director David Kessler wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine last year [2000], 'Congress has put the FDA in the position of being able to act only after the fact and after substantial harm has already occurred.'..." [ www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0109.mencimer2.html ]