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FDA Warns Supplement Makers To Stop Touting Cures For Diseases and Cancer
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The Food and Drug Administration on Monday warned 12 sellers of dietary supplements to stop claiming their products can cure diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to cancer to diabetes. At the same time, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agency's commissioner, suggested that Congress strengthen the F.D.A.'s authority over an estimated $40 billion industry, which sells as many as 80,000 kinds of powders and pills with little federal scrutiny. These products range from benign substances like vitamin C or fish oil to more risky mineral, herbal and botanical concoctions that can be fatal.
"People haven't wanted to touch this framework or address this space in, really, decades, and I think it's time we do it," Dr. Gottlieb said in an interview. He is particularly concerned about supplements that purport to cure diseases for which consumers should seek medical attention. "We know there are effective therapies that can help patients with Alzheimer's," he said. "But unproven supplements that claim to treat the disease but offer no benefits can prevent patients from seeking otherwise effective care." The companies included TEK Naturals, Pure Nootropics and Sovereign Laboratories. In a letter to TEK Naturals, the F.D.A. and the Federal Trade Commission chastised the company for marketing Mind Ignite as a product "clinically shown to help diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer's and even dementia."
"People haven't wanted to touch this framework or address this space in, really, decades, and I think it's time we do it," Dr. Gottlieb said in an interview. He is particularly concerned about supplements that purport to cure diseases for which consumers should seek medical attention. "We know there are effective therapies that can help patients with Alzheimer's," he said. "But unproven supplements that claim to treat the disease but offer no benefits can prevent patients from seeking otherwise effective care." The companies included TEK Naturals, Pure Nootropics and Sovereign Laboratories. In a letter to TEK Naturals, the F.D.A. and the Federal Trade Commission chastised the company for marketing Mind Ignite as a product "clinically shown to help diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer's and even dementia."
The so-called Quack Miranda Warning.
Basically, there was a push in the early 90's to put this stuff under some long overdue regulations, so the snake oil industry organized a huge campaign to defend their business model. They ran ads about how evil government was coming to take your precious, essential, life giving, natural supplements away for their Big Pharma cronies, or something to that effect, and their customers wrote a lot of letters to politicians demanding the supplement manufactures be given leeway.
It worked, con artists successfully convinced the public (enough of it anyway) to act against their own best interests, and that's how you can sell homeopathy as a sleep aid, curry powder as a weight loss pill, the latest superfruit fad as the wonder everything pill, and other items of questionable benefit as something with the deceptive appearance of medical value. You just have to say the magic words "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease" on your product.
You mean Thanks Reagan, because that's when the regulations about supplements were loosened.
Try asking your doctor about drinking a cup of willow bark tea each morning with your high blood pressure and back aches. He'll tell you it works, suggest a baby Asprin instead, it could go either way since they are the same thing.
Actually they're only similar as the Willow contains Salicin which is metabolized into salicylic acid whereas Aspirin contains acetylsalicylic acid. The salicyclic acid is much harder on the stomach then the acetylsalicylic acid though they do have basically the same medical qualities.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism