The Health Jerk
Part Seven: Nutritional Companies and Health
Health Jerk back again. OK, we talked about the FDA and other government departments, medical doctors, pharmaceutical companies, let's have a look at the dietary supplement companies.
This industry has just exploded in the last decade. It's growth curve is straight up as more and more people realize:
- our current food supply does not meet our nutritional needs
- medical research identifies specific vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes and so on which are beneficial to our health
- medical research discovers natural herbs and substances in remote and isolated geography which provide better health to the locals.
We live longer and our bodies have a chance to develop diseases which were previously not identified or not common. This has opened up a whole new set of diagnose, symptom, treatment, cure cycles.
The baby boomers want a more physically active lifestyle in the later years than previous generations.
The baby boomers demand more physically attractive bodies during their later years than previous generations.
The ME generation demands more physically attractive bodies then, now and in the future.
Basically, we are searching for solutions to health and appearance issues which either were uncommon and nonexistent previously.
OK, our friends in the pharmaceutical industry are doing their best to keep up but they are hamstrung by the FDA rules.
FDA rules as they currently apply to Dietary Supplements only ensure that the materials are safe to consume. The FDA does not check the efficacy of dietary supplements. Now the FTB and FCC are involved with false advertising, fraud and consumer protection issues. The FDA protects itself and the consumer by demanding that all nutritional and dietary supplements (all non drugs) must be safe as in a food but all marketing statements must include the following disclaimer:
"This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease."
Talk about a kick in the teeth. The whole point of most dietary supplements is to assist in the prevention of disease. Now the FDA does not vigorously enforce the use of the disclaimer unless an investigation is triggered by complaints or blatant misrepresentation or fraud.
This market was measured in millions of dollars a decade ago. Now there are numerous companies that themselves supply hundreds of millions of dollars into the dietary supplement or nutritional supplement market. Several companies actually have sales in excess of 1 billion dollars.
The suppliers of these product can be a one man operation in the back woods of West Virginia or they can be multi-million dollar companies listed on the stock exchange. Some products are mixed up in a vat in the garage. Some products are produced in facilities which would shame some of the drug companies with state of the art sterile filling stations and state of the art laboratories for quality control and research.
Are these companies good for our overall Health System. Yes. Alternatives are always good. Alternatives always need objective evaluation as well. The FDA is responsible for our safety as consumers. We should be reasonably secure that we can consume the products without jeopardy. A major concern appears when one looks at the claims of the thousands and thousands of products available in the marketplace. Truth in advertising is patrolled by the FTC and the FCC. Fraudulent claims and refund policies are also overseen by the FTC and FCC.
The problem becomes, who do you believe? We are not all biochemists with labs at our disposal. The alphabet soup of government agencies are overworked and understaffed or at least so they claim. Our whole Health System is organized to funnel the sheep (that's you and me) to the economic slaughter. Again, who should you believe. The Health Jerk will address this question in future segments.
Later sheep.