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DANGEROUS Dietary Supplements-Response to Dateline 3/18! Special Report
March 21st, 2012 at 4:39 pm

I have postponed our detox article for this week in order to address concerns stemming from a Dateline program which aired this week:

March 19, 2011
Are Dietary Supplements Safe?
Dateline NBC Tonight — March 18, 2012
 
Story Overview
Chris Hansen of Dateline aired a 30 minute story on March 18th, 2012 that detailed poor quality and dangerous dietary supplement manufacturing and testing practices. The story featured a dietary supplement, Total Body Formula (a liquid multivitamin weight loss product). Several consumers were interviewed who suffered harm (dramatically illustrated by complete hair loss). Chris Hansen's investigation determined that the product contained dangerous levels of selenium due to an error in how the product was manufactured. Additionally, the story showed tape from court proceedings in which a manufacturing employee recounted unacceptable manufacturing processes, such as the use of panty hose to strain out unidentified black particulate from the supplement mixture. Further, to compound the situation, this product was not tested accurately. Specifically, the lab (Atlas Bioscience) that ‘tested' this product produced a certificate of analysis that failed to find the high selenium.  This lab was investigated by Chris Hansen posing as a supplement manufacturer. In this investigation, the lab produced a certificate of analysis without any findings, despite the fact that the sample provided by Dateline had been purposefully adulterated with arsenic (toxic heavy metal) and sibutramine (an appetite suppressant drug). When labs provide certificate of analyses that are not based on testing, the practice is known in the industry as ‘dry-labbing'. Dateline interviewed Dan Fabricant, Director of the Division of Dietary Supplement Programs at the FDA, who spoke to the FDA's current and continued efforts to crack down on these practices.
Strengths of the story
  • The investigation highlighted a serious issue which the dietary supplement industry itself is concerned about.
  • The investigation did not characterize the poorly made and tested supplement as indicative of the state of the industry as whole. At the outset of the story, Chris Hansen noted that the majority of dietary supplement manufacturers and laboratories are responsible and produce safe supplements.
  • Dateline stressed the importance of using licensed or otherwise qualified laboratories to test dietary supplements.

Limitations of this story
  • While this investigation revealed a significant problem, it did not include context in terms of the many reputable and responsible dietary supplement manufacturers and laboratories. The result was a report that could be interpreted to mean that the relatively few ‘bad actors' in the industry represent the industry as a whole – which they do not.
  • This report did not present the integrative healthcare provider as a viable solution – a knowledgeable guide for the public in their use of dietary supplements.
  • There was no mention of the many industry self-policing activities including third party certification of manufacturing (NSF, NPA, etc.), acceptable laboratory qualification and certification practices (ISO certification, split sample testing, etc.) and additional industry self-initiated quality efforts such as our distributor: (Emerson Quality Program, Natural Products Foundation TruLabel Program, etc.)
 
Suggested actions based on this story
  • Practitioners, like myself,  have a responsibility to provide their patients with recommendations based upon reliably high quality dietary supplements.
 
  • Emerson Quality ProgramSM(EQP):
  • Emerson Quality Program (emersonecologics.com/quality) provides a thorough summary of the specific quality specifications and practices of each participating brand. [Logged in practitioners can click on the seal of any EQP Partner brand and then view their detailed Quality Summary for a full view into their manufacturing and testing practices.]
  • EQP Partners have been assessed by:
    - A rigorous review of their standard operating procedures, ingredient and product specifications, supplier and laboratory qualification program
    - Independent product testing by one of Emerson's qualified laboratories (each one qualified by an on-site audit, document review and blind split sample testing)

    -
    On-site audit of all EQP Gold Partners and any other EQP Partner who has not been audited by a third party certifier (NSF, NPA, etc.) within the last year

  • One of the most important benefits for patients who seek guidance from healthcare professionals is that they obtain individualized supplement recommendations and are then monitored for response. Regular monitoring by a trained healthcare practitioner will help to identify adverse reactions in a timely manner and thus minimize the potential for harm from supplements.
  • We agree with the call of the dietary supplement industry to the FDA to take strong enforcement action against unscrupulous dietary supplement brands, manufacturers and testing companies.
  • We actively support the use of safe and high quality dietary supplements in the optimization of health.

 

 

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