Supplements and Safety

[progressoid]

The booming 30-billion-dollar-plus vitamins and supplements industry says these products can make consumers healthier — but a new FRONTLINE investigation with The New York Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation raises troubling questions.

Supplements and Safety, premiering Tuesday, Jan. 19 on PBS stations and online, investigates the hidden dangers of vitamins and supplements — exploring how they’re marketed and regulated, and how it’s often hard to know what’s really in the bottles you buy.

“The FDA [Food and Drug Administration] does not do any review of dietary supplements before they come onto the market, and I think that all consumers need to understand this,” Stephen Ostroff, M.D., acting commissioner of the FDA, tells FRONTLINE.

The investigation led from Hawaii — where a 2013 outbreak of liver problems that overran the state’s only transplant center was linked to a fitness supplement — to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where pharmacists decided to challenge supplements manufacturers to provide proof that their products actually contain what’s promised on the label. (In the end, only 35 supplements met the hospital’s standards.)

“It is a complete unknown when you are buying a dietary supplement, unless you have some proof of what is in that product — it could be anything,” Sarah Erush, Pharm.D., of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia tells FRONTLINE.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/supplements-and-safety/

Check your local station for a re-play.

[Marie Marie]

1. Taped this for later viewing and am looking forward to seeing this.

Frontline usually has pretty good shows.

[safeinOhio]

3. Doubt if you'll

see it on Dr. Oz.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. I'll watch this when I get a chance, but it's old news to me...

A lot of stuff I read, from Consumer Reports to presumably reputable medical sources have been complaining about this for years. Now, I am down to a few supplements I know I need, and buy from only a few makers.

A while back I saw a great multivitamin deal at Costco and bought the huge bottle. It was their house brand, so I thought it would be OK. I immediately started feeling odd symptoms which cleared up after I tossed the bottle.

I hear some of this stuff can be deadly. Not much of it, but don't EVER buy a boner pill from a TV commercial.

[progressoid]

4. Are Health Supplements Too Much of a Good Thing?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/are-health-supplements-too-much-of-a-good-thing/

[HuckleB]

6. Recommended!