Article HERE. It’s not a great piece, because it fails to pinpoint the key issue, which is the overall lack of regulation of the alt med industry, and the failure to adequately police quack marketing campaigns. But for all that it’s very lengthy and detailed.

Ingredients of Shady Origins, Posing as Supplements
By NATASHA SINGER
Published: August 27, 2011

BOSTON

DR. PIETER COHEN is scanning the shelves inside a shop in Chinatown here when something familiar — and potentially dangerous — catches his eye.

“What’s that yellow box, behind the other one?” Dr. Cohen asks the clerk.

It is Pai You Guo, a supposedly natural weight-loss supplement from China that, according to federal authorities, has tested positive in the past for containing two hazardous drugs, including a suspected carcinogen. The product was recalled in 2009.

<snip>

Even though there is little evidence that many dietary supplements provide real health benefits, legal supplements, from multivitamins to ginkgo biloba, are a big and growing business. Americans spent $28.1 billion on them last year, up from $21.3 billion five years ago, according to estimates from Nutrition Business Journal, a market research firm. ...

$28 billion is a lot of money ...

$28 billion is a lot of money ...

Which is the reason the supplement industry has a vested interest in staying completely unregulated, and spends mega-moolah to stay that way.

I mean, perish the thought they should actually be required to prove by real science that what they’re offering is safe and does what they claim it does instead of being over-priced snake oil which just might kill you.

We just can’t have that now, can we?

dougsmith - 28 August 2011 11:37 AM

Article [url=http://nyti.ms/p8bFeu]
Even though there is little evidence that many dietary supplements provide real health benefits, legal supplements, from multivitamins to ginkgo biloba, are a big and growing business. Americans spent $28.1 billion on them last year, up from $21.3 billion five years ago, according to estimates from Nutrition Business Journal, a market research firm. ...

$28 billion is a lot of money ...

Which creates a job of jobs which is good for the economy right?

What do you want to do? Put all them folks out of work?

I talked to an immigrant from Russia. Well he immigrated a long time ago but for the past twenty years he has been making a living sell such supplements.

He told me he has a degree in electrical engineering. However selling supplements was more money and less work.

Hey people! Stop buying the stuff…

Cult level, peer pressure, multi-marketing. It’s evil.

On supplements my doctor gave me the best information I have ever heard.  He said unless you have a deficiency as determined by medical test all you do by adding supplements to your diet, including vitamins, is make you urine very expensive.

deros - 21 September 2011 01:50 PM

On supplements my doctor gave me the best information I have ever heard.  He said unless you have a deficiency as determined by medical test all you do by adding supplements to your diet, including vitamins, is make you urine very expensive.

Good advice.

dougsmith - 21 September 2011 02:19 PM

deros - 21 September 2011 01:50 PM

On supplements my doctor gave me the best information I have ever heard.  He said unless you have a deficiency as determined by medical test all you do by adding supplements to your diet, including vitamins, is make you urine very expensive.

Good advice.

I’ve been saying that for years!

Hey, I have a high opinion of myself.  I deserve to have expensive urine. 

Occam

Occam. - 22 September 2011 06:21 PM

Hey, I have a high opinion of myself.  I deserve to have expensive urine. 

Occam

deros - 21 September 2011 01:50 PM

On supplements my doctor gave me the best information I have ever heard.  He said unless you have a deficiency as determined by medical test all you do by adding supplements to your diet, including vitamins, is make you urine very expensive.

LOL, I been saying that exact thing to my patients all the time for the past 10 years. Either you’re one of my patients or someone out there is stealing my material : P