Universe On The Couch

The soft gloved steel hand of socialistic totalitarianism again decends on the European Union. Luckily this pan-socialistic EU looks like it's loosing ground, but thats another song. Today I address their new proposed rules on OTC dietary supplements.

The new law would essentially would limit the usual supplements (vitamins and minerals mostly) to the RDA or whatever they call them these days or something close in dose. Many other supplements would be banned.

The supplement lobby of course is up in arms. Billions of dollars are to be made here. In their advertised mythology a conspiracy between the AMA/medical profession, FDA and Pharmacuetical industry is out to stop the freedom of these highly useful treatments out of greed and power issues. Their own powerful lobby has successfully legislated essentially no meaningful regulation at all except claims to cure conditions. Of course these claims are everywhere in print and otherwise. One LA health food store I frequented had the staff pretty much prescribing to customers.

I know plenty of physicians who personally use supplements and even recommend them to patients. Doctors have done much meaningful research here as well. Many doctors even are in support of the supplement industry views. So one-third of the evil triad is debunked.

The FDA. Their job is to protect us. They are under fire as being the bitches of the Drug Industry and there is evidence that supports that position. Congress slapped their ass hard when the Supplement Industry lobbied them hard enough. So on this issue, the FDA is pretty toothless.

And on to the Evil Drug Companies. My readers know my beefs with them. They do exert much power on the government and the medical profession. But let us not forget two things. One, they are a business and profit is a motive. You are either a capitalist or not. Without money, who would bother with making medicines? The government? Benevolent rich people?

Second is that medication has really helped people. Vaccines have saved millions of lives. Polio as only one example was a sword hanging over our children until the 1950's. Check out that history by reading or DVD. Mumps, measles, whooping cough, tetanus,... Then we have antibiotics. Insulin. Blood pressure meds. Even psych meds have helped people a great deal, despite the opinions of psychiatric history scholar Tom Cruise.

Now should people be allowed to treat themselves with supplements? If so, why not prescribe their own medications too? Big Pharm would like that-more sales. Not a good idea anyways. Antibiotic resistance is bad enough now without everyone taking a powerful broad-spectrum med for every sniffle. It comes down to safety here. And there is really little to indicate toxicity from the vast majority of supplements.

But I do see some regulations are needed. First, the damn lable must be accurate. If it says its some herb or whatever, that better be what it is. Second, it had better be the amount stated. Third, anything else in it must be on the lable. Fourth, there must be reasonable proof that the substance is safe. These are no industry standards and those above are not followed to a large degree.

But let the consumer beware. The used bookstores have health and nutrition sections full of older books touting the wonder supplements of past years. We don't hear much these days about safflower oil, brewer's yeast, mineral oil, dolomite, melatonin,...