Faulty supplement testing may lead to stricter regulation

[NHE]

A storm based on faulty "science" is brewing in the supplement world. In February, the New York Attorney General published the results of DNA tests on various herbal supplements that showed that the DNA of the plants listed on the ingredient labels were not detectable in the supplements. The conclusion taken by the New York Attorney General was that these supplements contained no material from the plants listed on the ingredient labels.

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2015/02/ ... r-quality/

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/su ... ange-that/

http://www.consumerlab.com/recall_detai ... llid=10762

As a result, The People's Pharmacy now reports that the Attorney Generals from 14 states are now "begging" congress for tighter, i.e., stricter regulation, of dietary supplements.

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2015/04/ ... pplements/

http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-s ... al-calling

However, much like the prior great scare over coconut oil in movie theater popcorn, the current concerns over dietary supplements are also based on faulty science. For example, it's certainly within reason that an herbal supplement containing a purified extract would legitimately contain little to no DNA from the source plant. A more appropriate test would be to use high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) or mass spectroscopy (MS) to detect both the presence of the listed compounds as well as their concentration. Unfortunately, the testing by the New York Attorney General's office did not utilize these more precise analytical methods.

The People's Pharmacy recently interviewed Todd Cooperman, founder of ConsumerLabs.com, a company with a long history of testing dietary supplements, and he criticizes the results of the tests. The interview is freely available from the People's Pharmacy for a limited time.

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2015/03/ ... -the-test/

Here's a direct link to the podcast. http://traffic.libsyn.com/peoplespharma ... 5Herbs.mp3

The pharmaceutical industry has been trying to get stricter control, or even outright elimination, of dietary supplements for years as it would represent a financial windfall for them. It now seems that they've been handed the means for this opportunity served up on the proverbial golden platter. While it's true that some supplements are bad, we should be encouraging congress to base policy on legitimate scientific methods, such as HPLC and MS, applicable to dietary supplements containing herbal extracts.