Dietary Supplements

Do you know what really burns my biscuits? That the FDA doesn't regulate supplements at all. Did you know that? They don't. I personally think its state sponsored fraud b/c in no other business can you sell one thing and call it something completely different.

Seriously. Those vitamins you just spent all that money for? They could be sugar pills.

How is this legal?? I will tell you why. B/c the businesses have lobbied for it to be legal.

Now HALF of their argument makes sense to me. See FDA oversight usually comes in two parts - they make sure the box contains what the labels says it contains and they make sure the pills do what they claim to do and aren't dangerous. Does this pill really work better than a sugar pill? Yes. They've done studies to prove it.

See the reason why prescription medications cost so much is because while the second pill might only cost the company a nickel to make, that first pill cost them 10 million dollars. That's why they get exclusive rights for years before the generic becomes available. They have to make their money back.

Clinical trials ain't cheap people and asking the vitamin manufacturers to spend for the research to prove that the ingredients actually do what they claim they do would put most of them out of business. All for a compound they can't even patent.

Okay. That I respect. I'm not asking for clinical trials to give me detailed half life information and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this pill, say red yeast rice, really does help lower cholesterol.

BUT what I cannot condone is that something that I eat, doesn't have to be labeled correctly. If it claims theres 500 mg of the active ingredient, by golly I want there to be 500 mg of the active ingredient.

Now some higher quality supplements do get themselves certified by an independent lab. Almost all of them claim they do on the label but they don't specify who that lab is and theres no way to know if its a legit business. Thats why I try very hard to only buy USP certified supplements because its a large, well known outfit with a good reputation and you can find their very distinctive logo on the sides of many supplements. I like that. It helps me feel confident that what I am buying is what it says it is.

But sometimes you can't find a certain compound in USP certified. Thats when I just have to stick to a name brand with a good reputation and hope they're honest across the board. And fall back on the old rule that if you can't tell if the vitamin is making a difference, its probably not.

For example, I started taking CoQ10 a few years ago at the direction of my neurologist. The first bottle I got was USP certified and man that pill was awesome. Not only did it dramatically decrease the incidence of my migraines, it gave me a ton of energy. I was thrilled.

Pictured: The Good Pill

But one day I ran out of those pills and was in a hurry and didn't have time to go to Costco to get more, so I snagged Spring Valley CoQ10 at Walmart...

Pictured: The Evil Pill

It did nothing for me. Right away I missed the energy boost and after a couple weeks, my migraines were back with a venegence. I threw the bottle out and went back to my Trunature. 

That shouldn't happen. If I buy a box of Wheat Thins or a bottle of Tylenol, I know whats going to be inside. Its not going to be wood shavings or sugar pills. That would be fraud. This needs to change people. 

I'm not asking for expensive clinical trials. I'm asking for basic laboratory oversight. They randomly screen samples. If those samples do not contain what the labels claim the company can face fraud charges and fines. I think thats only fair to hold them to the same standards we expect from every other business. 

So ... who is with me?