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Claire Kennedy
English 1104
November 8, 2017
Dietary supplements are taken by millions of people everyday. Yet millions of people
have no idea what is truly in these supplements. Due to advertising and lack of regulation,
dietary supplement manufacturers are able to make false claims and sell inadequate products to
the public. The public are guinea pigs in the eyes of the law. The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has no legal control over dietary supplements until the product is sold for consumption,
resulting in unnecessary death and harm to the public (Dietary Supplements: What You Need to
Know). If dietary supplements manufacturers were mandated to perform clinical trails and prove
their products did what they claim the consumer would no longer be in danger due to the
Supplements should be obligated to the same laws and regulation as prescription drugs.
No one would ever consider taking prescription drugs unless it had undergone countless clinical
trails to determine all the risks and side effects. So why is the public so eager to take unregulated
supplements? One reason. Dietary supplement companies market products as wholesome and
all natural causing consumers instinctively believe that it must be true because the FDA
oversees them. Dietary supplements are a billion dollar industry and manufacturers do whatever
it takes to keep the money flowing. Even if it means putting innocent Americans at risk.
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The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 placed dietary supplements
under the control of the FDA. This resulted in supplements being classified as food instead of a
drug. Many believed this would put an end to the false advertising in the industry. Instead, this
law did the complete opposite. Manufactures are not required to prove that a supplement is safe,
nor are they required to put the supplement through any clinical trails to prove the product does
what the companies are claiming (FDA 101: Dietary Supplements).The FDA can investigate and
evaluate the safety of a dietary supplement only after people become seriously ill or die! The
industry is only growing. There are over 4,000 manufacturers in the U.S and the consumers
demand for dietary supplements is skyrocketing. Dr. Stephen Ostrof former commissioner of the
U.S Food and Drug Administration shared that the FDA does not know the exact number of
manufacturers that are needed for inspection because there is no formal registration process that
is required (Docherty).
supplements. People are assuming that the dietary supplement manufacturers labels and claims
have been proven and tested. Millions of Americans are vulnerable because of the lack of
oversight in this billion dollar industry. A study done by Dr. Lla Harris in the journal Regulatory
and Ethical Issues in Dietary Supplements, found that 260 Asian patent medicines that were sold
in California contained very harmful and potentially deadly compounds, such as 14% containing
arsenic, 14% containing mercury and 10% containing lead (Harris). There is zero regulation on
these products in China, one of the largest distributors of dietary supplements. However the FDA
Whos at risk?
170 million Americans take dietary supplements on a daily basis. Many believe that
dietary supplements contain all natural ingredients and nothing harmful can come from them.
However, dietary supplement overdose is real and far too common. Harvard Health editor Patrick
J. Skerrett notes that other "all natural" supplements, such as the weight-loss supplement
ephedra, have been linked to deaths and other serious side effects. Taking too much of a
supplement can cause dangerous levels of toxicity. This can be seen through many different
effects, sometimes it might be fatigue and headaches, or in some cases liver damage and
abdominal pain (DiLascio). Since most consumers of dietary supplements believe the products
they are ingesting are wholesome and natural they tend to take up to three or seven supplements
daily. Mixing various supplements together can be a deadly combination. When multiple
supplements are taken together it tends to magnify the side effects or cause new ones.
Dr. Andrew Geller from the Federal Center for Disease and Control Prevention concluded
that supplement complications resulted in heart problems such as irregular heart beat or chest
pains. Using data form sixty-three emergency rooms he discovered that 23,005 emergency room
visits occur each year due to dietary supplements and 2,154 of those patients required
There is a lack of clarity in the medical world of what is a safe amount for various
supplements like vitamin D. Doctors have been held liable for inadequately treating patients with
vitamin D because the data is extremely unreliable and they do not even recognized the problems
being caused by vitamin D to their patients. Beginning of this year I began to feel very fatigued
even though I would get plenty of sleep and was exercising regularly. I was told I had vitamin D
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deficiency. My primary physician recommended I take 2,000U daily while the nutritionist I saw
recommended 5,000- 10,000U daily. There is no consistency with dietary supplements. No one
truly understands or knows what is the proper dosage or the effects from certain supplements
because no regulation is enforced. The FDA does state and elaborate on the dangers of dietary
supplements, but this is not common knowledge. No one is making the public aware of these
issues, and without personal experience or curiosity no one would know (FDA 101: Dietary
Supplements). The only way to fix this dyer problem is to have dietary supplements regulated
as prescription drugs.
Many advocates for keeping the regulation as it is claim that the products are what they
say they are and there is nothing to worry about. Then why do they fight so hard against stricter
regulation? Theres a reason. They are lying. When PBS, Frontline began interviewing for their
documentary Supplements and Safety many large chain pharmaceutical companies shared their
concerns and constraints with the consistency of the supplements. The pharmacies took matters
into their own hands and started testing the supplement products since the manufacturing
companies do not have to. They began requiring that any supplement filled must at least meet the
labeling standard. Ninety percent of the companies did not respond to this request and the ten
percent that did, did not met the labeling standard by any means (Docherty).
In a specific case, Purity First owner Candice Tripp was selling every dietary
supplement imaginable. She produced these supplements in her kitchen at home with zero
education in the medical field! Consumers loved her product and the message it stood for. Purity
first. Cases of erratic behavior and health issues began to stem from Purity First users. After tests
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were done on her products it was found that Purity First manufactures had been contaminating
the supplements with steroids. To make matters worse, the FDA could not remove the product
from the market for six months due to lengthy legal processes. This was undetected because the
FDA does not have the power to assess or regulate manufacturing plants or their processes
(Docherty).
In order to be a safe consumer one must always educate themselves and seek help if
needed. Dietary supplements are far too often self prescribed, and it needs to be stopped.
Supplement manufactures have an invested interest in making as much profit as possible off its
consumers, so they have no problem falsifying ingredient labels or making inaccurate claims. It
is hard as a consumer to be fully aware of whats factual or not. Various supplements have been
taken off the market due to harmful effects such as Oxy Elite Pro (Harris). There were various
reported accounts of liver damage to the point of needing a transplant, and one individual died.
Supplements like Oxy Elite Pro are still on the market today! With the regulation today someone
has to die before any action will be taken. The only way to reduce ones risk to the possible
even if all precautionary steps are taken one is still at risk to the dangers of dietary supplements
The supplement St. Johns Wort has been used for centuries to treat mental illnesses such
as depression. St. Johns Wort effects serotonin levels similarly to antidepressants like Porzac
and Zoloft. When taking St. Johns Wort with an antidepressant can cause serotonin syndrome.
Symptoms of serotonin syndrome include: tremors, diarrhea, muscle stiffness, drop in body
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temperature, and death (St. John's Wort and Depression). A few years ago as an experiment I
went to a GNC store and told them I was on Prozac and asked if St. Johns Wort was safe to take
as well. They informed me that is was all natural and it is completely safe. Supplements are
dangerous, and deadly when taken with out input from a healthcare provider.
Drugs are considered unsafe until proven safe, while dietary supplements are the
(DiLascio). There is no explanation for the different treatment and regulation for these two
products other than greed. By continuing to allow dietary supplements to be considered food
rather than drugs will increase the marketing of misleading and inaccurate claims of supplements
contents. No consumer can realistically make an informed decision on what supplements are best
for their lifestyle and health because of the lack of regulation. Society wants products that are
safe and labeled correctly. If dietary supplements were regulated as drugs, the public would be
fully aware of any possible side effects, and they would know the correct dosages. The risk of
death and harm would decrease significantly (DiLascio). Healthcare professionals would be
aware of any issues with prescribing certain medication with supplements, making for a safer
consumer and healthcare system. Also, medical professionals would be able to monitor
supplement intake much more efficiently because self prescribing supplements would no longer
be an option.
The regulation of dietary supplements is in chaos. The FDA can not keep up with the
exponentially growing industry and this is effecting peoples lives. Dietary supplements are
putting people everyday at risk for adverse health effects. In order to stop further damage
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supplements must be considered drugs. The only way to see change is if people begin to speak
up and hold the industry accountable for its action. Consumers who take dietary supplements
usually care about their bodies and what they are putting in it. If the majority of people were
aware that these healthy products could be hurting them or simply doing nothing to help them I
am certain no one would continue to take them. I believe it would eventually help the industry if
dietary supplements were regulated as drugs because then everyone could trust the content and
validity of a product.
Reflection
The current laws and regulations (if you can even call them that) are failing the public
and need to be changed. Now is the time to take action. The dietary supplement industry is
producing more supplements than ever before and people are consuming supplements more than
ever before regulators of this industry do not have the resources or knowledge to properly
regulate manufactures (Dietary Supplements: What You Need to Know). No industry should
have the power to blatantly harm its consumers with zero consequences. The public has the right
to know the true ingredients of a product and its effects. If action is not taken soon more
corruption and lies will continue in this industry. We live in such a highly regulated society it is
odd that this one particular industry has so much power and freedom. Manufacturers have proven
time after time that they can not be trusted with this amount of power. In order to keep the public
safe it is a necessity that dietary supplements be regulated as drugs. Deaths and serious illnesses
have been over looked for far too long now. It will be an injustice to society if the supplement
Work Citied
Commissioner, Office of the. Consumer Updates - FDA 101: Dietary Supplements. U S Food
and Drug Administration Home Page, Office of the Commissioner, 15 July 2015,
Dietary Supplements: What You Need to Know. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, U.S.
HealthInformation/DS_WhatYouNeedToKnow.aspx.
DiLascio, Tracey M. "Point: Dietary Supplements Should Face the Same Approval Process as
EBSCOhost, librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
Docherty, Neil. Supplements and Safety. PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 19 Jan. 2016,
Harris, Ila. "Regulatory and Ethical Issues with Dietary Supplements." Pharmacotherapy. 20.11.
St. John's Wort and Depression: In Depth. National Center for Complementary and Integrative
Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 5 May 2016, nccih.nih.gov/
health/stjohnswort/sjw-and-depression.htm.
Stein, Rob. Dietary Supplements Send Thousands to ERs Yearly. NPR, NPR, 14 Oct. 2015,
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/10/14/448322590/dietary-supplements-.