exactly right Hugh.

I was thinking the same exact thing --- someone is looking to make money not protect consumers.

Or you could be living in a paranoia dream world..

You honestly believe that "natural" supplements get some sort of magic pass and they MUST be all good for you and why is the FDA picking on those poor, little, natural supp companies..

Pssh..Those companies are raking in billions of dollars a year from delusional people who believe that "collioal silver" is going to help them with their health..

jla70

Agreed +1 for you!

See, very much like other peer-reviewed scientific testing, I like to know that when I buy a product, its claims have been verified and corroborated by a reputable organization.

"food supplements" guarantee no such claims. They often promise the sun, the moon and the stars, followed by "this product is not meant to treat or cure and disease and has not been reviewed by the FDA"

It's all double-talk to sell people grass clippings and dandelion root. Pleeeeaaase!

Let's just end this garbage right now and remove the "food supplement"-loophole

If you're going to claim a weight-loss or muscle enhancing product does what it claims to do, I want to know what concentrations it is in, what side-effects it may have, and what effects it should have based on reputable scientific and peer-reviewed study.

I doubt most of these supplement companies would be able to stand up to the litmus test.

I'm perfectly fine with people buying their echinecea and ginseng et al, but get rid of the claims if you cannot corroborate them and you better make sure that your purities are correct, because compounding the product with some sort of cheap filler to increase your profits is a big NONO!

Could not have said better. I have taken dietary supplements for year, never had a bad experience. I'm glad there are some educated people, who know how to measure and exact amount, ever time. Also to make sure the product is free from contaminats, etc. I'm 65 plus years old take NO meds. Not that all meds are bad, they have there place. Lets keep the balance in both.

Oh good grief! I agree with you that the FDA has failed spectacularly in recent years, but a lot of that has to do with the constant pressure to 'privatize' and Congressional efforts to stop regulating everything. No one gives a rat's rear end about 'market share.' You think big pharma is jealous? Compare balance sheets. It just ticks me off no end to see con men making millions on products that are either worthless or downright harmful. There are a handful of legit companies producing high-quality products, but outside of that, buyer beware. Any time people start talking about a vast conspiracy to deprive them of their supplements, they have slipped into delusional territory. You want to spend thousands of dollars taking magic pills, no one's going to stop you. But when the products are actually dangerous, supplement manufacturers should have no more right to market them than any other manufacturer would. The legislation passed in 1994 was a Clinton handout to a regulation-bashing Republican Congress. It leaves marketing and integrity of claims up to the manufacturer, because we all know how upright and honest businesses--like BP, Toyota, Chinese toy manufacturers, etc.--are. That's why there chocolates that will make you lose weight, boost your energy and help you grow hair and concentrated veggie tablets that will cure anything that ails you. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Drug manufacturers would be shut down (and laughed out of the industry) in no time if they made the sort of absurd claims many supplement manufacturers do and gullible consumers buy it hook line and sinker.

I take supplements and believe they have an appropriate and valuable role in health, but I research every aspect of the company and the product before I do, just like I would with any other drug or chemical. And the minute a manufacturer starts suggesting that the medical community is trying to shut them down out of jealousy over their 'miracle product,' I rule them out. It is a sure sign of a con.

We need a whole new federal aAgency to regulate the supplement industry. As concerning the FDA there is an inherent conflict of interest - the FDA is nothing more then an arm of the pharmaceutical industry. If FDA/Big Pharma had their way you would have to get a prescription for Vitamin C! If the FDA want's to do anything lets start with inspecting food and supplements from China for contamination and industrial (pesticides, heavy metals, etc.) contamination.

Of the more than 54,000 dietary supplement products in the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, only about a third have some level of safety and effectiveness that is supported by scientific evidence," the report reads.

Interesting. That's about the same percentage of pharmaceutical drugs that have "some level of safety and effectiveness that is supported by scientific evidence."

And certainly almost every pharmaceutical drug damages the kidneys, liver, etc. Ironically, once you start taking pharmaceutical drugs for hypertension, you don't dare stop because your blood pressure will spike through the roof. Yet long-term use damages other vital organs.

Clean your own house, FDA, before you start poking around in mine. Pharmaceutical drugs kill many thousands more people each year than herbal preparations.

Tank Carson

We need a whole new federal aAgency to regulate the supplement industry. As concerning the FDA there is an inherent conflict of interest - the FDA is nothing more then an arm of the pharmaceutical industry.

Yes, but this is due to the fact that no one has the guts to clean out the agency for conflicts of interest! Think of all the times (great examples in Food Inc.) that a former Agri-business or Big-Pharma exec makes it onto one of these regulatory agencies (or the SCOTUS) and doesnt recuse themselves when making a decision on something that involves their former (or current) colleagues!

Making a new regulatory agency just adds more confusing bureaucracy and more places for corporations to lobby and corrupt. Instead, I suggest that every person that goes onto the decision-making end of these agencies be exposed to strict liability for making a decision when there is a conflict of interest with the party(ies) involved.

This way, even if they did come out of the private sector, they will know better than to put their neck on the line to make a decision that might aid old friends at the expense of the party for which the agency was designed to protect.

*stares angrily at the USDA, FDA, DOA, DOJ, FTC, SEC, etc.*

If FDA/Big Pharma had their way you would have to get a prescription for Vitamin C! If the FDA want's to do anything lets start with inspecting food and supplements from China for contamination and industrial (pesticides, heavy metals, etc.) contamination.

Quite possibly, but to be technical about it, vitamins are regulated by the FDA since they fit into the 2,000 calorie diet schematic. Vitamins truly are, by definition a food supplement...it's just a shame that Congress expanded the definition to include all sorts of other garbage which has not been conclusively proven to be in a category as vitamins.

As for other items, I agree. The prescription process has indeed been partially hijacked to act as a barrier to entry for competition to bring in comparable items...it is also a weired grey area that sits close to the ideology of "War on Drugs". You can only legally buy your highly addictive, holucinogenic and narcotic substances from FDA approved distributors.

It is not the government's job to protect people from themselves. this is why we have a court and justice system. It is the ultimate regulator.

The corruption in our government is at an all time high. There have been dozens of FDA scandals over the years. It is clear, that the danger for government to use its authority to weed out competition is higher and more of a threat to liberty and freedom, including health, than a few "bad apples" in the supplement group.

If the FDA really wanted to help, it would create suggestions and recommendations for how consumers on how they could verify claims or viability of supplements. There are several things you can do to be a smart supplement shopper.

But no, the FDA works for big pharma just as the SEC works for Wall Street and the FCC works for the major telcos.

These are not "conspiracy" theories but mere fact.

It is amazing when you study the abuse of power and corruption of leadership from the beginning of government in history to today, that people want to call cooks those whose default position on all things government is skepticism... Based on history it is the only logical response.

yep dont need obama telling me what i can and cant buy, say no to communism

Maybe Big Pharma does not like competition?? After all the dangerous medications that have been approved by the FDA, i question who they work fo: The american People or Big Pharma!

I agree, more and more people are turning their backs on western meds, andpharms spend great amounts of money to buy the doctors and everything else they can do to keep alternative anything out of their way. It would really suck for them if people grew their own st johns wort and turned off the prozac nozzle, which apparrently doesn't wotk as well as they want to have people believe. Pharms will have to come up with a disease that people can't grow thier own to heal.

The only people complaining are the pharm companies and the doctors. Everyone here has posted the truth and that is there are just as many FDA approved medicines causing the same. They haven't said anything about the doses that people in these test are taking and forget that medicine itself started as a reproduction of what nature offers. I can attest with my allergies. never had them until a couple years ago and started taking claritin otc, this year it exploded and besides that I had to take a nasal spray, eye drops and sudafed. Yes all of that stuff is approved but cannot be good for my body. I started taking Oil of Oregano, yes it is wild oregano suspended in olive oil. And now I take none repeat none of the other stuff and have no problems with my allergies. Companies just want to control the market because they know the money involved. That's why recently a pharm company came out with prescription fish oil, what a joke. They market it as the purest and finest fish oil. They just miss the money.

This article is nothing more than a way to try to justify the government's recent efforts to make vitamins and other supplements something you'd need a prescription for. Nothing but more corruption from DC. Do you folks really want to have to get a doctor to allow you to take vitamin C?

Wake up, people. There is absolutely nothing that the Federal government is doing with your best interests in mind. It's all about power and nothing else.

oh brother, what are you thinking Hugh? Remember about 4yrs ago when our toothpaste made in China was poisoned? Hospitals threw it all out. Corporations shipped USA jobs over their so they really could kill us and make them richer. What's a few dead American citizens, so what if they are children.......all for corporate greed..

I want the stuff made here and have the fda inspect things we are ingesting into our bodies. You know you can't trust the companies anymore, the bottom line is the almighy dollar

Can you say CODEX ALIMENTARIUS anyone ???? This article is pure propaganda supported by Big Pharma. Plain and simple. It's a way to keep Big Pharma in the profit making business and to keep the public from using non-dangerous natural remedies that actually WORK and CURE illness.

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/

I agree 100%!!! They probably say those things about the suppliments because they don't have their hand in the $$ pot on the profits.

are you a fool or what? The big pharma is the worst thing that happened to this country, agreed? But did you know that supplements made in China have no regulation on what goes into the pill? So would you say now that big pharma and supplements with no fda inspections are equally bad? Have you looked on your omega 3 (or fish oil capsules)lately? Did you read anything about the PCB'S in them? Who would of thought? Get our vitamin supplements out of China and start making them in the good old USA, that please God, will get some good regulation back, that was cut back so drastically during the reagan admin.

Here they come trying to regulate your supplements..

Has the FDA thought about all the big pharma poison it allows into our lives..

@Michele-290272

It's not a conspiracy, there have been proposed laws on the regulation of supplements and that would make them 'by prescription only'.

http://www.jbs.org/health-care-freedom-blog/5957-proposed-dietary-supplement-regulatory-bill

Wake up all you pill poppers. Many of these supplements are produced in China. Remember them? the ones that sold tainted baby formula to their own people. put lead in toothpaste. If I was a big pharma I'd want people to keep taking these so that they would need to use my more expensive meds when they damage their organs.

In the 90's the FDA was constantly berrated because they took too long to allow new drugs on teh market. They were interfering with free trade. Europeanshad access to better suff before Americans, imagine that. So, there was a push to speed up the approval process. Surprise, now all these "miracle drugs" that were rushed onto the scene have nasty side effects.

The reason why the government has formed regulatory agencies like the FDA, is because before these organizations people were dying from unscupulous individuals that were more than willing to sell tainted meat, produce inundated with e-coli and salmonilla and would sell flavored kerosene and cocaine as health elixers. I agree that the FDA needs to get its act together, but honestly, while your popping all those magic, natural miracle enhancers you really have no idea what your putting in your body.

Here is a solution to appease everyone. Have the FDA put a FDA seal of aproval on tested supplements. If someone wants to buy supplements probably higher priced then go nuts. If someone wants to buy a cheaper non FDA aproved supplement then take it at your own risk and do not expect to sue someone if makes you sick because it is probably a chinese company and it was your choice to take it. If the FDA finds something they think is unsafe then have them post their bulletins they love posting so much.

And if you think greed has nothing to do with the FDA'smotives here, I have some nice mortgage backed securities from 2007 to sell you.

yes you are mr. rogers, please pray tell, give us the incite to the FDA's greed factor.

I can't believe how naive people are. People bitch and complain about gov't regulation but they want safety. Let me let you in on a little secret, private industry does not care about you or your family. They care about the bottom line, money. They need regulations. After 9/11 the airlines started to lay off mechanics and send the jets to china for the big mechanical jobs, that needs to be done after so many miles. It was so much cheaper. Who would you feel better about fixing an aircraft they you or your family might be flying on, the slave labor in China or the airline mechanic who's family might be on board?

FDA is in the same boat as the big pharma. Of course big pharma wants to eliminate competition from dietary supplements - so does the FDA, because they do not redulate supplements.

It is mostly about power for the FDA. And money, if they first work for FDA and prove themselves so useful to the big pharma that they get a sweet, cushy job from them in return. This is how a lot of US government agencies work. Big oil and big pharma are exactly the same.

"I do not want anyone especially the FDA to tell me what I can consume or not consume."

Sorry. That's not how it works..or do you want to besides ruining your health with non-existent or unproven medicines trying to convince other people of the same delusional properties and getting them sick? Maybe you don't care about quality controlled food or water and just want to eat anything given to you?

Cocaine, weed, and heroin are also drugs or do you want the DEA or FDA not try to regulate those too?

""I took a FDA approved medication (antibiotic - Levaquin) and it almost permanently crippled me. It took me over 5 months to recover to almost normal.'

I'm sorry to hear that but you know that some drugs have adverse reactions to the population and ingesting anything holds a risk. I had a bad reaction to a drug given to me and took me a while to recover but I don't hold the FDA responsible. Your doctor thought the risks outweigh the benefits and had to tell you about what you were getting into. Blame your doctor not the FDA.

Hey Jla70,

Before you start blasting others, go and do some research on the FDA's ignorance of the GMO (that's genetically modified organisms - Roundup Ready Soybeans, Corn, Pigs and Salmon) before you jump on the FDA bandwagon.

These products are found to be very unhealthy when studies were done in Europe and most likely are responsible for a LOT of the health problems Americans are facing.

Since the FDA is owned by Monsanto (all previous execs) they get a free ride and don't even have to test these frankenplants.

So, if you think for one second the FDA is protecting you, you don't have a freeking clue buddy.

There is also a HUGE movement for the FDA to take over the supplements industry so it can be regulated and handed to the big phara corporations so THEY can get paid for all the vitamins, supplements and other 'natural' things the planet has to offer.

Don't be naive, if it says FDA Approved, think twice.

Here is a little information on GMO's - You should avoid these at all costs and yes, they are FDA approved.

Europe reached the tipping point in April 1999 and within a single week, virtually all major manufacturers publicly committed to stop using GMO ingredients in their European brands. This consumer-led revolt against GMOs in the EU was generated by a February 1999 media firestorm after a top GMO safety researcher, Dr. Arpad Pusztai, was 'ungagged by Parliament' and able to tell this alarming story to the press.

Dr. Pusztai was the world's top researcher in his field and a senior researcher at the prestigious Rowett Institute in Scotland. He had been working on a UK government grant to design long-term testing protocols that were intended to become part of the official European GMO food safety assessment process.

But when Pusztai fed supposedly harmless GMO to rats, they developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, smaller brains, livers, and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and a damaged immune system. Moreover, the results clearly indicated that the cause of the problem was due to the unpredictable side effects arising from the process of genetic engineering itself. In other words, it suggested that the GMO foods already on the market, which were created from the same process, might also create such effects.

When Pusztai expressed his concern, he was fired from his job after 35 years and silenced with threats of a lawsuit, his 20 member research team was disbanded, the testing protocols were abandoned, and the pro-GMO establishment embarked on an extensive disinformation campaign to discredit the study’s results and protect the reputation of GMO foods.

When an invitation to testify before Parliament allowed Pusztai to finally tell his story, all hell broke loose. The outpouring of news coverage, wrote one columnist, 'divided society into two warring blocs'[1] over the GMO food issue. The tipping point was reached quickly thanks to the buying power of consumers that convinced manufacturers to keep GMOs out of the EU, in spite of official approvals by the pro-GMO European Commission.

Americans are Uninformed and Misinformed on GMOs

In the US, the Pusztai story was barely mentioned. Project Censored described it as one of the 10 most underreported events of the year. Indeed, the US mainstream media has been consistently close-lipped about the enormous health risks of GMO foods. They failed to cover the preliminary study from the Russian National Academy of Sciences, for example, that showed that more than half the offspring of mother rats fed GMO soy died within three weeks (compared to 9% from mothers fed natural soy). They neglected to report that the only human GMO feeding study ever published showed that the foreign genes inserted into GMO food crops can transfer into the DNA of our gut bacteria.

This means that long after we stop eating GMO corn chips, our intestinal flora might continue to manufacture the 'Bt' pesticide that the GMO corn plants are engineered to produce. And Americans were not told about the estimated 10,000 sheep that died within 5-7 days of grazing on GMO cotton plants — also designed to produce this Bt-toxin.

Many consumers in the US mistakenly believe that the FDA approves GMO foods through rigorous, in-depth, long-term studies. In reality, the agency has absolutely no safety testing requirements. (The tests that biotech companies voluntarily perform on their own crops are often meticulously designed to avoid finding problems).

The reason for the FDA's industry-friendly policy on GMOs is that the White House (under the first George Bush) ordered the agency to promote biotechnology. Also, the person in charge of developing the policy was the former attorney of biotech giant Monsanto—and later their vice president. The policy he oversaw claimed that the agency was not aware of any information showing that GMO crops were different 'in any meaningful or uniform way,' and therefore didn't need testing.

But 44,000 FDA internal documents made public from a lawsuit show that this was a complete lie. The overwhelming consensus among the FDA's own scientists was that GMO foods were quite different and could lead to unpredictable and hard-to-detect allergens, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They had urged superiors to require long-term studies, but were ignored. Evidence of this apparent fraud at the FDA was presented at a Washington, D.C. press conference in 1999. Although major media were in attendance, they didn't run that story either.

Americans know so little about this subject, that only about 1 in 4 are aware that they have ever eaten a GMO food in their lives (even though the vast majority of processed foods contain derivatives from the four major GMO crops: soy, corn, cottonseed and canola). Thus, the same companies that carefully avoid GMO ingredients for concerned Europeans are happy to sell GMOs to unknowing consumers in the US.

Without the FDA to regulate ingredients, purities, and truthful labelling of products. THe only way for the consumer to differentiate between safe vs. harmful vs. ineffective vs. effective products is strictly through trial and error combined with word of mouth.

Personally, I'd rather not find out after the fact that that whey protien powder was full of BGH and cow steroids laced with chalk for filler.

Remember, the FDA was created because businesses will lie to make a buck, especially if they can get away with it.

Cheating is a competitive advantage so long as you never get caught...as sad as that is

That's why the rules of the game have to be enforced. If food-supplement companies can substantiate their claims through standard FDA peer-reviewed testing, then they have nothing to worry about.

...hmmmm...why all the fuss then?

Patrick --

What is the source of all the information on GMOs? Your use of LOT, HUGE, THEY, etc. starts to make you sound a bit paranoid.

Patrick. Good info!

People need to go back to basics and eat properly.The wouldn't need to take diet supplements, it's so unnatural.It freaks me out how aspartame got the green light.Well obviously someone got paid big.Aspartame is poison to the body, one person I know is in perfect shape, eats well but drank diet coke daily and got heart arrythmias and almost had cardiac arrest, the heart was functioning at 20% when diagnosed.People need to wake up.

If people want to lose the weight

Don't eat or take what mother nature didn't make!

Many sources for GMO.

The one quoted I forgot to link.

You can find it here. http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/articles/campaign-healthier-eating.php

Sorry for not giving them credit.

Also, the author of this article, Jeffery Smith, has a book called "Seeds of Deception" and details the testing, coverup of the dangers of GMO's in Europe and the USA.

A great move to watch is FOOD INC and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO.

Americans know very little of this, but when Monsanto donated tons of GMO seeds to Haiti, they not only refused to plant it, they burned them. There are many countries that refuse to plant and eat this crap after testing it on animals but the USA is ruled by the almighty dollar.

Sorry for sounding paranoid JustME, it get a little upset when I see so many people in pain, kids that are obese and all the medical problems that plague us. It is our food supply (and kids being in front of video games and not being active) that is killing them with diabetes.

Did you know that Aspartame is a Neurotoxin? It was developed as a bioweapon but now we find it in all the diet drinks, kinds vitamins ect. It's everywhere and it is very bad, despite what the FDA tells you.

I am a recent convert to healthy eating. I am not a vegetarian but after doing some research and digging into these stories, I firmly believe our food supply is not only less nutritious than 20 years ago, but also dangerous. The Estrogen found in most beef these days can be directly linked to lower testosterone in men and many other medical problems. The bottom line is the FDA is owned by big companies and despite what you think, they really don't care about your health.

Did you know that the studies done at Monsanto for the RBGH (growth hormone) in milk was so bad the team of researchers was disbanded after presenting their findings? These same group of scientist also went out and purchased their OWN COWS so they don't have to worry about drinking it. These are not stories I am making up, these are documented stories that have been buried.

When stories of the FDA attacking supplements comes around, it sparks a little anger in me. I do agree that there needs to be something done about the contamination, but if the FDA has its way, they will regulate these (mostly) healthy supplements to death and we will be without them unless we have a prescription for them. This isn't just me being a conspiracy theorist, this has been big news in media that actually care. Your big media outlets will not cover stories like this because they don't deem it important.

Anyway, if anyone cares and wants to have better health, please just drop me an email via newsvine and I will point you to the websites I visit, the NON-GMO sites I visit and also try and point you in the right direction to a healthier way of eating.

Patrick-1112710

Agreed about Monsanto, but I suggest using more reputable sources than "savvy vegetaria". They clearly have a bias, even by way of their name.

But yes, there is indeed a reason why Europe rejects many of our GMO food products. However, that is also not the whole story. Europe also rejects many of our products because they use it as a means of supporting their protectionist policies and protect their industries from our cheaper products.

There is probably some harm from GMOs, but it's hard to prove, and very much like the cigarette companies did back in the 90's, they are going to obfuscate and buy-off scientists to make counter-claims to slow down the process.

I'm very ticked off with how the FDA (along with many other agencies) have become patsies for big business.

However, we are also getting ripped off by the "food supplement" crowd which sells everything from anabolic steroids to watered down grass-clippings.

There is a middle ground.

De-regulation IS NOT IT! These agencies were created to prevent these companies from cheating. The problem is not the regulation, the problem is that the regulatory body has been corrupted. IT NEEDS TO BE CLEANED UP, not removed.

Overregulation IS NOT IT! We already have enough bureaucracy! the existing departments do more to stifle competition and protect monopolies than to aid the consumer. These agencies need to get gutted and restaffed with new people that know that they will be held PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE for signing off on a product that they knew or should have reason to know had some sort of harmful defect.

I understand what you are saying....and with herbs you have to be careful. I generally take more vitamins and protein shakes......I have tried yohimbe.....However I guarantee you that more harm has come to people from FDA approved drugs than from supplements. Just listen to the side affect warnings during a drug commercial. Drugs can effectively do the job they were designed to do but can cause alot of damage as well from the side affects.

@Dave, I'm sure some of the side effects of the "Natural" supplements could be just as bad, if not worse, if they were legally required to clearly label them also. Seriously what is a little oversight into what people are putting into these supplements? You should watch a documentary like bigger, stronger, faster, to see how some of these supplement companies operate.

Yea, we need MORE GOVERNMENT telling us what we can and cannot eat. I would rather 'gamble' on natural products than eat anything that is FDA Approved. The FDA is owned by Monsanto.

They are crooked and have set our food supply back by 40 years with their policies.

Eat organic, take supplements from American companies and do your research before taking any supplements. Some do not play well with medications or other supplements.

Be responsible for whatever you put in your mouth.

I don't blame the FDA at all but they have their special interest like all other agencies. The real problem are the test that are determining these issues. Like most test the companies involved either on the losing end or winning. this case it's the pharm companies on the losing end and they are providing the dosages that they used. Just like some of the recent prescription drugs that are causing problems are usually test at high dosages that no one should ever take anyway and then labeled dangerous. I know some of the products work and that they are natural. I myself like natural over chemically lab made and can prove the benifits of this. Again look at the studies done and see who has an interest in these products whether to sell or to get them banned.

If you're looking for safety, you'd be better off to buy from Europe than the US.

God forbid you should buy anything from China.

Just about everything is made in china...

The term "natural" drives me nuts. Digoxin is "natural", comes from the foxglove plant. It can kill you. Vincristine is "natural", is derived from the vinca plant, and is a chemotherapeutic agent. Actually many of the chemotherapeutic medications are plant based. Penicillin is "natural", produced by fungus. I have seen people come into my hospital because of "natural" products, products my patients consider safe because of THAT word. My patient who took the "natural" mushrooms her friend recommended for her nausea when she was pregnant won't ever take "natural" products again...they would interact with what she now has to take because she needed a liver transplant. "Natural" products have drug interactions and side effects, just like prescription medications, yet they are not monitered by the FDA because they are considered food suppliments. And greedy companies play on that "safe" feeling consumers get because they think something is natural.They have their place. I take suppliments but I know what I am doing. There are many unsafe products out there. An earlier poster mentioned all the side effects listed in commercials for prescription meds and I think that is the point. We expect our prescription meds to have side effects or negative reactions, we are told they do, but the companys marketing these nasty 12 are trying to convince us they are safe when they are not. In my experience we overmedicate ourselves, whether prescription or Over The Counter. Chemicals are chemicals and they can do harm (or good) no matter where they come from.

Cyanide and arsenic are natural. That doesn't make them good for you.

Lead is 100 times more deadly when mixed with gunpowder. It is natural and if used properly cures any ailment.... besides death.

I agree with JR Fan!

I have used homeopathic medications and natural supplements, including Colloidal Silver, on my kids and myself with NO ADVERSE EFFECTS. I even use NATURAL PROGESTERONE which big pharma wants to take out of the market because it works without causing cancer (like Progestin).

The problem with natural supplements and remedies, and homeopathic medications is that the effect is very individualized because it reacts with the individual symptoms. Hence, no study could gather enough data on any particular symptom because it doesn't work that way. For example, some people's cough is caused by dry air, other's is caused by humid/warm air, and a third group may be caused by damp/cold air. There are THREE homeopathic medications to treat each kind of cough. So instead of taking DEXTROMETHORPHAN (which I have used when I'm desperate), you would be taking a gentler medication to treat your very specific symptom. It takes a lot of reading to learn about these products, but the benefits are worth it.

Big pharma wants it all! I prefer to take my chances, educate myself, find professionals (naturopathic doctors, enlightened MDs and chiropractors, for example) that are supportive of alternative medicine, and heal from the inside-out, rather than supress any symptoms until it explodes as a very serious illness.

Mamaboa, you are exactly right... there is no way that anyone can test the effectiveness of herbs and homeopathic remedies because each remedy can be used for a number of different reasons solely based on the users symptoms. The problem here is that you have the general public who does not understand HOW to use supplements, herbs and homeopathic remedies properly. These people think they can self-diagnose without having the knowledge of how these actually work. The study of herbal remedies and homeopathy is complicated and you HAVE to know exactly what you're doing, what to take, how much to take and to also know which companies are reputable like Newton's, Bach, Boiron, Hylands and so forth.

Sure there are tons of fly-by-nite companies who use unpure and dangerous ingredients and those whose ethics are questionable and who are just out to make a profit and ARE "snake oil salesman". But most natural remedies have been in existance and proven for THOUSANDS of years like Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine for example. Another major reason why Big Pharma wants to destroy the supplement and alternative remedy industry is because THEY WORK and they can CURE. Synthetical pharmaceuticals were never made to CURE anything. They are invented solely to treat "symptoms" and keep you dependent on them without ever addressing the root cause of the illness/disease. If more of the general public were aware of this Big Pharma would go out of business and they're NEVER going to let that happen.

This is why there will NEVER, EVER be a cure for cancer, diabetes or any other serious illness. It's in Big Pharma's best interest to keep the sick sick and dependent. People can hold their breath because that day is NEVER going to come. However we all know there ARE proven natural/homeopathic cures for cancer and almost every illness/condition under the sun. But the FDA and Big PHarma will always continue to do everything in their power to prevent the public from having that information.

Homeopathic an supplemnets operate on the same principles as regulated pharmaseuticals. The trick to all of them is dosing and individual tolerance. The reason colliodal silver works on on certain things on a biological level is because it is toxic and inhibits certain functions. Even elemets and other compounds naturally found in the body will harm you if they become excessive. Things like potassium, which is vital to regulating blood pressure and heart function will kill you if to concentrated. A healthy body will regulate and maintain a level of this element and so say eating 10 bananas a day won't really have an effect. On the other hand, if you were to take potassium supplements and your body was not properly regulating it, your heart might stop.

So, in general most supplements are pretty much like flushing your money down the drain, unless you have a specific shortage in your diet or a health issue. Whenever you introduce a substance that is not naturally used by the body, you risk causing yourself harm be they prescription pharmaseuticals or Natural supplements.

oh please...these politicians have been in their back pocket for decades ^_^

I like that suggestion, PLUS it takes samples at the final point before it hits the consumer or wholesale market.

All-too-often, these "safe" plants that are inspected by the FDA just clean up their act in anticipation of the inspection (which btw is usually preceded by several letters notifying the establishment of said inspection).

Random sampling just after entry into the US would simplify the process and help to keep the manufacturers honest since they will no longer have control over which products will be sampled...this would add a very nice fail-safe on top of the existing inspection system that the FDA is SUPPOSED to do regularly (but often doesn't).

All of this taken COMPLETELY out of context. All of the "facts" you are taking out of context are BECAUSE THE FDA MANDATED THE COMPANIES report these numbers, which are completely inaccurate FYI.