By Kevin Begos

Do We Know What We're Taking?

By Kevin Begos

Even though tens of millions of Americans are using herbal supplements and natural products with the belief that they prevent or cure diseases, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t recommend dosages and no federal law requires proof that a product is safe. The FDA has been able to step in only after a product was on the market, and only when there was proof that a product was harmful, mislabeled or made false health claims. Many medical professionals say the current system just doesn’t make sense.

But as CR went to press, an FDA spokesman told CR that the agency will soon establish a regulation that will, for the first time, create standards to ensure that dietary ingredients and supplements are not contaminated, and that they are labeled to accurately reflect the active ingredients in the product.

For now, the U.S. treats natural health products essentially as foods, with little medical oversight. The same was true in Canada until recently. But in 2004, the Canadian government dramatically changed the way it regulates natural health products, according to Heather Boon, a pharmacist and medical sociologist at the University of Toronto. Under new Canadian law, the government’s Natural Health Products Directorate is now in charge of regulating “herbs, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids and homeopathics which are used to prevent, diagnose or treat disease, restore or correct function or maintain or promote health that are endorsed for self-care purposes.” Those products are now subject to strict control over manufacturing and labeling, and must provide enough information for consumers to safely use them without consulting a doctor.