Dietary Supplements Need Some Pharmaceutical Regulation
Thursday, April 18, 2013 - 11:59
in Health & Medicine
In America, a person who cuts your hair for $8 has to be licensed and obey minimum safety standards, but dietary supplements, which accounted for more than half the Class 1 drugs recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 2004-12 (meaning they contained substances that could cause serious health problems or even death) are stuffed full of unapproved medicinal ingredients, including steroids, a new study from St. Michael's Hospital has found. The majority of those recalled supplements were bodybuilding, weight loss or sexual enhancement products, said the study's lead author, Dr. Ziv Harel, and almost one-quarter of the substances are manufactured outside of the United States, he said in the paper. read more