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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."
Supplement makers announce pill to cure people of the desire to take supplements; FDA confused as to how to proceed.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
so called "medicenes" like homepathy treatments exist precisely because they do not fall under the regulations of medicenes. So that isn't anything to do with the regulator being soft, it is the regulator currently has no power over them as they aren't classified as medical treatments and as long as they keep their claims vague enough with innuendo etc they are not subject to medical regulations.
That was from the linked NYT article and scared me! Fortunately it seems that that's in referral to the seizures from a couple of years ago. There were so many complaints from satisfied customers that the FDA relented. P.S. I'm not affiliated with any companies selling Kratom, nor do I have any financial interest in it.
Theanine is generally recognized to work as advertised, and to be reasonably safe at the recommended doses. It's in tea. Same deal with Kava Kava, it was the extraction from the wrong part of the wrong plants that affected a very few people. CBD oil is now legal, thus a supplement, and its grateful users would be livid if anyone tried to deny them its benefits. It's amazing how many herbal supplements are out there that have been taken for thousands of years for specific purposes that modern analysis now can confirm as being due to specific chemical components. Safe use has always been a consideration, and that along with the BS claims of some is where the FDA should focus.
You could just make it illegal to scam people, you know?
As in lying about the properties of your product, claiming things that you have no evidence are true, and advertising features or advantages your product does not actually have.
But you guys dug yourself a deep grave the day some idiots in robes decided that corporations are people and thus the first amendment applies to them and now they can spread whatever lies they want and say "free speech".
The simple rule "advertisement must be truthful" would kill all this bullshit instantly. But I guess free speech for profit-based legal entities is more important than not scamming people.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
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.
Anything advertised as medication should be regulated, it's got nothing to do with the origin, be it straight from nature or from a complex industrial process.
I suggest to make a nice smelling tea from the pretty Lily of the Valley, I guarantee it will solve all your physical problems!
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
He singlehandedly made America stupid? That's a feat, all the religions combined couldn't accomplish that, and not for a lack of trying.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's harmless until someone tries to cure cancer with sugar pills.
It's sad to watch people die that don't need to because they fell for some bullshit peddlers.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In the UK if you claim to cure a disease then you are a medicine and have to regulated
If you claim to cure cancer then this is a special case ... your product is illegal and you will be shut down and fined
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
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