Natural Causes: Death, Lies and Politics in America's Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry

Natural Causes reads like a suspense novel, but it's all true . . . and scary. If you use vitamins or herbal supplements, or care about somebody who does, by all means buy this book. It will save you money in the long run, and maybe your health.

This book begins with the story of a woman whose nose was eaten off when she used a bloodroot paste sold by Kevin Trudeau's former company. Think about that the next time you see his infomercials on television. You will never look at a vitamin store the same way again. People have a mystical image of supplements, a highly dangerous view when you consider that they are almost unregulated and only 'tested' by the developers who profit from selling them. Naivete is very dangerous, and it's often emotion, rather than knowledge, that governs people's acceptance of supplements. Read this book and learn--even if it is uncomfortable, it's better to be honest than to pretend ignorance is bliss.

This book should be a must read for anyone interested in alternative health. Before reading this book I thought that the herbal and vitamin industry was full of health minded individuals that wanted to help people avoid using prescription drugs. This book shows that the herbal and vitamin industry is as much about profit as any other business including the pharmaceutical industry. The author clearly points out that herb, vitamins, and supplements are almost totaly unregulated, that the ingredients labels on them are a joke, and anyone interested in using them should be sure to educate themselves about what they are using, how it was manufactured, and who is selling the product.

Having worked in medical research for many years, and having earlier worked in pharmaceutical supply and healthcare, I found this book, Natural Causes, informative and alarming. That so many people eschew established medicine to follow natural remedies that are unproven is astounding. Further problems result from their frequent self-prescribed overdoses and interactions from unrestrained consumption of multiple of supplements. But, the real problem this book heralds is the lack of control over the products sold to the American Public. If a person decides to take a certain supplement, the product obtainable by commercial enterprise should be tested for quality and purity. In the absence of testing for efficacy, which incidentally should be undertaken gladly by manufacturers who believe their products are legitimately useful, the minimal acceptable test, should be purity. After all, supplements are regulated as foods and even foods have labeling requirements. Why do people accept capsules full of fillers and worse, miscellaneous unnamed active substances in unspecified amounts? This book, Natural Causes, is well-researched, well-organized and clearly annotated. It looks in depth at the resistance to regulation of the supplement industry, the absence of scientific studies supporting the use of dietary supplements, and at the ever-growing popularity of such substances. The personal interest stories contribute anecdotal evidence to this journalistic effort and serve their purpose of drawing attention to the potential for harm from widescale use of untested products being sold to the public. It is amazing that the US government has funded the NCCAM and its predecessors for years and found barely a crumb of support for any of the tested products. And even beyond that, as is noted in the case of ephedra, people will buy "copycat" products of unproven substances when the original product is no longer available. Where is the point where someone's allegiance to a supplement manufacturer, or the myth of efficacy, is greater than personal responsibility to maintain an open mind and healthy body? This book cannot answer that but the author does suggest some actions which can be taken to increase safety for the consumer who does wish to take dietary supplements.

This book provides a historical perspective of the supplement industry from the snake oil of the 1800's to the thousands of supplements and herbs presently on the market. The author chronicles the rise of regulation in response to dubious claims and adverse reactions over the course of a hundred years leading to the present day oversight by the Food and Drug Administration. Each chapter concentrates on a particular supplement that was later found to be detrimental to public health. The events unfold in the form of personal stories of consumer suffering and deception, marketing strategies of companies and research studies indicating that the substance is ineffectual and often harmful. The book is well researched and organized having over thirty pages dedicated in the back of the book to notes comprised of the details of the sited research as well as the author's comments as to the source and means by which he arrived at the content. The author describes how the Nutrition Health Alliance (NHA), a group of major supplement manufacturers and industry organizations with the help of Senator Orrin Hatch and Representative Bill Richardson, wrote and passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, (DSHEA), a backlash to FDA regulation. Among the provisions of the law is the allowance for supplement manufacturers to make qualitative "structure/function" statements in regards to product performance. That is, a product could be said to improve the function of the heart or build strong bones as long as it wasn't said to cure heart disease or osteoporosis. The author states that this "was a distinction without a difference" since most consumers can not differentiate curative from qualitative statements. Supplement companies may declare virtually anything concerning their products without scientific confirmation as long as they don't claim to treat, cure or prevent disease. Under DSHEA supplement manufacturers are not required to prove that products are safe prior to marketing to the public. In fact, DSHEA prevents the FDA from prohibiting the sale of supplements unless the agency can prove that a product is dangerous when used as directed. The author recalls the odd fact that under the current law in order to ban a supplement the FDA is required to conduct expensive, long term safety studies at tax payer's expense, amounting to millions of dollars. Essentially we pay for our own protection from an industry making plenty of profit. The author presents the legal paradox that a naturally occurring substance is classified as a supplement while the active ingredient contained is classified as a drug. Such is the case with the supplement ephedra, a plant, containing ephedrine, a chemical classified as a drug. Ephedra was used in supplements marketed for weight loss among other things until the FDA banned the substances after extensive and expensive scientific studies as well as legal and political maneuvering necessary to overcome the inertia of D