By David Blyweiss, M.D.

Television’s hit show Dateline isn’t the only place you’ll find undercover investigations. Now, the U.S. government has gotten into the act and it just might affect your access to the vitamins and herbs you rely on for good health.

It seems that the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the independent investigative agency that works for Congress, has been conducting covert “sting” operations in health food stores. That’s right, health food stores! GAO employees, posing as shoppers and armed with hidden recording devices, walked into these stores with one goal—to try and get the store employees to give them information on how to treat their health problems with supplements. Unfortunately, many of these well-meaning health food store employees did exactly that, even though they aren’t supposed to.

While this might not seem like a big deal, the information gathered during this covert operation could be used to classify supplements as drugs that require a lengthy and expensive approval process. And that means that the vitamin C or ginseng you take every day could be in jeopardy.
The GAO also tested 40 popular supplements for heavy metals and toxins. While neither the GAO nor the Environment Protection Agency found any contamination above acceptable levels, Consumer Labs—a for-profit supplement testing company whose credibility has been questioned—reported that they found contaminants in many of the supplements.

As I write this, the Senate Special Committee on Aging is holding a hearing titled “Dietary Supplements: What Seniors Need to Know.” It is likely that the hearing will not be generally positive for the supplement industry or for consumers who take these products. In fact, I suspect that it will likely be a pretty direct attack on supplements, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) and consumer access to these products. That shouldn’t be surprising since this committee has a long history of attacking supplements and nutritional approaches to health.

If it seems like the fix is in before the hearing even begins, it wouldn’t be the first time. This committee has an agenda. Among the witnesses that are scheduled to testify are folks from Consumer Lab. No doubt they will talk about how supplements lack research, may not be safe and are putting senior’s at risk. Of course, we know this is simply not true. Well-researched supplements keep seniors healthy, prevent many illnesses and could save both seniors and the Medicare system money.
The final witness to be called is FDA Deputy Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein. I hope someone asks Dr. Sharfstein about why the agency has failed to enforce DSHEA in any meaningful way for more than 15 years. The agency’s refusal to enforce the law has brought us to the point we are at today. I would hope such a blatant disregard for the law and the Senate would be of interest to the committee.

Two lawmakers who have taken notice of this lack of enforcement under DSHEA are Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). In a bipartisan move, they have introduced a bill that would provide the FDA with additional resources over a five year period to accomplish important regulatory mandates set out by DSHEA. This includes assuring that manufacturing facilities are GMP compliant, developing criteria for establishing a reasonable expectation of safety for new supplement ingredients and developing consumer education initiatives that will create more informed supplement customers.

DSHEA was enacted to ensure consumers have access to beneficial, high quality supplement products.  It also provides an important regulatory framework that safeguards the general public from adulterated, mislabeled or harmful products. This legislation, if passed, will go a long way toward demonstrating that DSHEA works. It will also reinforce the safety, quality and benefit of supplements you and I depend on.

I urge you to call your Congressman and/or Senator now to make sure no provisions restricting the use of supplements get included in this new legislation. If you’d like to contact your Congressman and/or Senator, visit www.NPAinfo.org.

In the meantime, it’s clear that the anti-DSHEA forces are ramping up for a fight. I’ll send out an update on today’s hearing as soon as possible to bring you up to speed and discuss what you can do to help fight for our supplements…again.

References:

“Kohl to Examine Consumer Safety and Marketing Issues Related to Dietary Supplements.” U.S. Senate, Special Committee on Aging. http://aging.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=325240.

U.S. Sen. Harkin: Senators Harkin and Hatch introduce bill to protect consumers, clarify regulations for the dietary supplement industry. IowaPolitics