USA Today 8/4/10 High risk of žsupplements gets exposed

[Guest guest]

Today's debate: Pills and potions

High risk of žsupplements gets exposed — yet again

Our view:

Yes, some work. Others are useless or worse. Safety? Not easily found.

" We Americans do love our dietary žsupžžplements, " says the watchdog

publication Consumer Reports in its latest issue. And indeed we do: The craving

for pills, potions and powders as a quick fix for myriad concerns about health

and well-being has created a $27 billion industry. That's roughly as much as the

nation spends each

year on shoes.

And, as Consumer Reports points out, while many users believe that sale of

unsafe or ineffective žsupplements must be illegal, it is not. The public has

little protection from useless, fraudulent, dangerous or even deadly products,

thanks to special protection Congress gave the industry in 1994.

Want to ease your aches and pains? Lose weight? Improve your prowess on the

athletic field or in the bedroom? The žsupplements industry has something for

you, even if it has never been subjected to any credible scientific testing,

even if tests that have been conducted show it to be useless, even if it has

ingredients that might come from tainted sources or uninspected factories in

China, even if it's touted as " natural " but in fact includes undisclosed

chemical ingredients, including some that have been banned by law because they

are dangerous and others that could mix badly with other medications you're

taking.

The Consumer Reports analysis spotlights a list of 12 widely used žsupplement

ingredients linked to serious health risks, including cardiovascular, liver and

kidney problems

Little of this is new. Congress' Government Accountability Office and studies

ordered by congressional committees and various private organizations have shown

repeatedly that ingesting žsupplements can be a game of chance. Though in some

cases, a žsupplement could help, in others its only visible impact will be on

your wallet, and in a few instances it might have dire consequences.

On top of the litany of supplement-use horror stories recorded over the

years, many of which we've cited in previous editorials on this subject,

Consumer Reports offers more:

•A Tennessee man who took a health žsupplement developed diarrhea, joint

pain, hair loss and lung problems, and lost his fingernails and toenails. The

distributor eventually recalled the product but is fighting its former

customer in court.

•A student-athlete who bought a performance žsupžžplement online that claimed

to b e " legal " wound up in the hospital with liver failure due to the illicit

steroid it included; the illness caused him to lose an athletic scholarship.

•An Oklahoma woman bought a supposed treatment for Lyme disease that turned

her skin blue.

Spokesmen for the self-described " responsible " part of the industry claim

that the limited powers given the Food and Drug Administration are adequate to

protect the public. But the record says otherwise. It's so hard for FDA to ban a

product that only one such case has ever succeeded. That effort, involving

ephedrine alkaloids, dragged on for years while weight-loss products that

included ephedra were implicated in thousands of illnesses and some deaths.

Unfortunately, in the present anti-government climate, there's little stomach

in Congress for improving consumer protection. Thus Consumer Reports advises the

public to be skeptical of claims made for žsupplements in ads, on TV and by

pill-store sales staff. But people will always yearn for a magic elixer, which

is why žsupplements, like drugs, shouldn't be allowed on store shelves till

they've been proven safe and effective.