Dietary Supplements: What (2013) founds that dietary supplement may be perceived as a harmless stimulant to health. Some of dietary supplement products have demonstrated benefits, many of which we cannot say the same. Unlike what happens with curative drugs, the FDA does not evaluate the safety and effectiveness of dietary supplements, and depending on current medications or health problems we have; "natural" supplements can have risky health effects. This lack of regulation can lead to wildly inconsistent quality and there are no guarantees that the ingredient touted on the label of a bottle will be in the supplement at all. According to federal law, dietary supplements cannot be promoted as effective for the treatment of a disease because that is not proven to be safe and effective. According with Desai, K. (2012) the consumer reports from 2007 …show more content…
to 2012 showed that FDA received 6,300 cases for adverse reaction to the dietary supplements including 115 deaths and more than 2,100 hospitalizations. In recent years, the FDA discovered hundreds of dietary supplements that contain drugs or other chemicals, particularly slimming products to enhance sexual performance or increase muscle mass. Usually, the "extra ingredients" are not listed on the label but can cause serious side effects or interact dangerously with other medications or supplements you are taking. There have been cases of people who suffered heart attack or stroke, severe liver damage, kidney failure and pulmonary embolism (a blockage of the pulmonary artery), and some cases of dead people. According to Food, Dietary (2014), the regulations on dietary supplements are similar to food regulations.
This means that: The FDA does not approve dietary supplements before producing or put them on sale, and can only take action against products that are unsafe or products that make false claims after they are on sale. In other words, the FDA cannot even inspect the manufacturing process of the company unless there is reasonable evidence that their products are harming people-and this means that some people need to be hurt before the FDA can step in; if somebody ask me that is a bit late. It is incredible that someone has to be damaged in order that FDA takes action. The dietary supplement manufacturers are responsible for the safety of its products and must meet a series of standards for quality assurance in manufacturing, packaging and labeling of their products. Manufacturers of dietary supplements should also make monitoring for adverse events reported regarding their products and report all serious adverse events to the FDA. The advertising of dietary supplements is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC). If we have to trust in the manufacturer and government institutions give no guarantee of safety, so why people buy products that is not safe? Many people buy these products because sometimes they have low prices; a product with an exceptional low price is a magnet for consumers. Sometimes, people are seeking the greatest benefit at the lowest cost by establishing a cost-benefit relation; generally they prefer the most economical products. Also special offers like buy one get one free, or coupons are a good attraction for clients who look for cheapest products instead brands. There are a variety of products, so offering the same product in different variants help people to find their perfect choice. Dietary supplements have high levels of demand in the market because people are more concerned about their health. Marketing is the other way that people buy products without know them; if the product looks attractive they buy it. A good advertising is one of the ways to buy product to consumers without knowing whether the product is safe. If the advertising offers security to consumers, they will feel confident to buy because you can be assured that your purchase will always work. People buy these kinds of products because they think that they are safety. Many people are consumerist and buy products for personal satisfaction or because they like to collect them.
Recently, another weight loss supplement has stepped into the ever-increasing market. This drug, called Stimulife 750, is a supposedly all-natural herbal supplement that promotes weight loss without any effort from the client. Both the parent company – Stimulife International – and various distributors of Stimulife 750 make bold blanket statements such as “Stimulife 750 has everything good and nothing bad,” which set the success of the pill far higher than is possible. Furthermore, these individuals attempting to sell the product use a variety of marketing techniques to encourage purchasing the supplement; however, they provide no scientific evidence to support the claims they make regarding the safety and effectiveness of the product. By appealing to the clients’ desire for a natural and easy way to lose weight, providing pseudo-scientific statements to convey a sense of authenticity to the product, and befriending the client by seeming to care for their best interests, the distributers attempt to woo more clients. However, Stimulife 750 contains many ingredients included in other “unsafe” weight loss supplements and scientific research shows no clear evidence that Stimulife 750 is any more effective or safe as other diet pills.
In Lee Ann Fisher Baron’s “Junk Science,” she claims that the “food industry with the help of federal regulators” sometimes use “[a science that] bypasses [the] system of peer review. Presented directly to the public by…‘experts’ or ‘activists,’ often with little or no supporting evidence, this ‘junk science’ undermines the ability…[for] everyday consumers to make rational decisions” (921). Yet Americans still have a lot of faith in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to a 2013 Pew Research study, 65% of Americans are “very favorable” or “mostly favorable” of the FDA. When it comes to what people put in their bodies, the FDA has a moral obligation to be truthful and transparent. The bottom line of the FDA’s myriad of responsibilities is to help protect the health of Americans. Deciding what to eat is a critical part of living healthily, and consumers must be able to trust that this massive government agency is informing them properly of the contents of food. While the FDA does an excellent job in many areas, it has flaws in other areas. One of its flaws is allowing the food industry to print food labels that are deceptive, unclear, or simply not true (known as misbranding). This is quite the hot topic because a Google search for “Should I trust food labels” returns well over 20 million results, many of which are blog posts from online writers begging their readers not to trust food labels. HowStuffWorks, a division of Discovery Communications, published an online article whose author claims that “[the food industry] will put what they want on labels. They know the game….” While the food industry is partially at blame for misbranding, the FDA is allowing it to happen. If a mother tells her children that it is oka...
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994". December 1, 1995.
To begin, the Federal Food and Drug Administration does not have the power to regulate supplements like it does with drugs. Once a product is out on the market, the FDA has to prove that it is dangerous or has illegal additives before it can be removed. The FDA has targeted around seventy tainted weight loss products after learning that they had been mixed with undeclared stimulants, diuretics, and antidepressants (Trebilcock 2). The Federal Food, and Drug, Administration is responsible for ensuring that the manufacturers of foods provide safe ingredients and the correct amount of dosages for their products.
does not mean it is perfectly safe. Some medicine may have side effects, but the FDA considers
... satisfaction guaranteed because of the FDA. It must be inspected and approved by them. And also, on everything that we buy as consumers, we can read what is in the product because of the label; the FDA requires every ingredient to be listed.
One of the reasons that there is so much confusion is the lack of involvement by Federal Food and Drug Administrations in herbal remedies. The Dietary Supplement Health Education Act of 1994 put herbal remedies into the category of dietary supplements. This means that these herbal remedies are not subjected to the same sort of testing that over-the-counter or prescription medications are (USFDA). Michael Mc Guffin, the president of the American Herbal Producers Association has said that testing of these products is unnecessary because, “ these products are tested by years and years of use”.
The major use for herbal medicines is for the promotion of health and for therapy for chronic conditions, instead of being used for life-threatening conditions; except in the event of say advanced cancer or new infectious diseases when conventional medicine practices no longer are working an individual may use traditional remedies. While traditional medicines are often mistaken that because they are natural that they are safe, non-toxic, which is not always the case. In cases when an individual is taking herbs with prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, or other herbs that may cause some adverse side affects. As a flourishing commercial enterprise, it doesn’t matter why an individual uses traditional medicines, it provides important health care services for individuals that have access physically or finantually to allopathic
Dietary supplements are used to add additional nutritional value to the diet. Some common forms of supplements include: vitamins, amino acids, minerals, herbs, and enzymes, and can be found in a multitude of forms such as capsules, liquids, gel caps, powders, and tablets. Dietary supplements are becoming increasingly popular among Americans today. According to the Centers for Disease and Control, “Over half of the adults in the U.S. use at least one type of dietary supplement, the most common being multivitamins.”1 Many use these vitamins because they are believed to present a number of benefits, such as helping or treating diseases, etc. While dietary supplements can be beneficial to your health; Americans should also be cognizant of the health
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
The Journal of Dietary Supplements discusses the increased use of “Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)” and how it is becoming a need among physicians to educate and train themselves so that the idea of Integrative Medicine is a realization to the public (Litchy, 2011). This holistic approach allows the ability for conventional medicine to be incorporated with alternative interventions which, further enables the patient to decide which route of care best suits their specific preferences.
Some examples of claims are "low-fat", "lite", "light", "reduced", "%fat free" and "No added". The food industry is very keen to make health claims on food labels, and the ANZFA has considered lifting the ban that stops them from doing so. Many disagreeable claims are made regarding the ability of nutrients to prevent certain diseases. Food manufacturers are now only allowed to make the following well-established claims concerning relationships between diet and disease: Calcium and a reduced risk of osteoporosis. Fat and increased risk of cancer.
When it comes to supplements, I feel that there is a lot of misleading health benefits from actually taking them. As I learned from monitoring my own nutrient intake, our diet sometimes is lacking of important vitamins and minerals. There are so many supplements that promise curse and longevity by taking their pill, however, their claims have not been to my standards scientifically supported. In contrast, vaccines still have a negative stigma or attitude concerning side-effects which sway parents away from having their children receive these lifesaving vaccines. There is volumes of clinical research that supports the benefits of vaccines against deadly diseases and dispels most concerns over any serious
In recent years, the exposure of pill-peddling pharmaceutical companies and the dangers- such as the various toxins and the risk of dependence- that their manufactured drugs pose on the body has turned more and more people of the western world back to basics for their health care. Richard L. Nahin from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine states that according to the institute’s latest research, "It's clear that millions of Americans every year are turning to complementary and alternative medicine."
Herbal and natural medicine is becoming increasingly popular in 21st century culture. It may be surprising to some that many of these herbal treatments and medicines have been around for centuries and are the basis for both commercially prepared medications, as well as the chemical manufacture of new pharmaceutical compounds (Phaneuf, 2005). One of these compounds, which has influenced chemistry and medicine for centuries is willow bark, which contains the chemical salicin (Boon, 2009). Its origins and discovery, as well as the historical culture, have influenced its incorporation as the common pharmaceutical preparation known as aspirin.