Health Supplements
Health Supplements: Make Some Noise!
Health Supplements
Some swear that without their daily dose, or doses, of health supplements they wouldn’t be in the good shape they are in. Others camp on the side that with a well balanced diet and regular exercise ingesting capsules and pills is a waste of money. And then we have the good old FDA who, recently, announced their mandate to control “new dietary ingredients (NDI).” If you haven’t heard about this you might be interested to review the FDA’s Draft Guidance for NDI and the outrageous ideas this entity has in mind! Click here to peruse the NDI guidance.
In my humble opinion the FDA fails greatly at their job. Not always, but often. I posted about their debacle with the sunscreens topic earlier this summer. Because my overall trust with this governmental entity is less than favorable, when it comes to dictating what will be “allowed” in health supplements I’m ready to take to the streets! People in the USA went up in arms when this control was attempted in the ’90s. But there was, as typical, a loophole.
But it’s not only the FDA we, as consumers, need to be concerned about. There are manufacturers of dietary and health supplements that lace certain products (particulary: weight loss and erectile disfunction) with “undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients,” as Warren Matthews points out in his Xtend-Life blog. But little attention is paid to this this by the media.
The onus is ours; we need to be smart by educating ourselves on manufacturer’s practices and the ingredients used in health supplements; We need to begin questioning whether government mandates are backed by Big Pharma. We can take to the streets without actually taking to the streets…and perhaps be a bit more effective. Write our local representative or Congress person. Start a petition. Spend our money with companies who are transparent with their practices and ingredients. When enough of us make enough noise, others are forced to listen.
Resources for consumers abound…but at the risk of sounding paranoid or fanatical be aware that some of these resources are indeed backed by Big Pharma or large conglomerates looking to look good. Again, it’s up to us to know truth from hidden agendas.
Ok. I’m going to hop off my podium now. But let me close by repeating myself: if you are a dietary health supplements taker and want the best in quality, do the research and spend wisely.
Kindly,
Rebe
Thanks, Marie, for your candid comments. Obviously, we share the same viewpoint on FDA control
of our health options.
As for the animal testing issue…I’ll be writing about this in an upcoming post. As an avid animal lover
it is a topic that gets my feathers ruffled.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Kindly,
Rebe
Hi Rebe,
Couldn’t agree more with your advice and sentiment on the ludicrous FDA draft guidance. I read it…well until I fell asleep anyways (;
As I understand it, they will force all dietary supplement makers to have stringent tests on animals, with all the high costs involved. Not to mention the cruelty issue as well.
Like you say…people need to speak their mind on this issue and contact their mp, congressman or whoever to preserve our freedom of choice of our health supplements.
Just my thoughts on the issue…keep up the great work.
- Marie