Free Republic

Of the fifty-one thousand products introduced since 1994, only 170 (0.3 percent) have any documentation of their safety Americans spend more than $32 billion a year on more than 85,000 different combinations of vitamins, minerals, botanicals, amino acids, probiotics, and other supplement ingredients. 1 While it costs millions of dollars to develop and substantiate a pharmaceutical product, selling supplements requires no such investment. And new products are easily sold as supplements. The only common feature among them, as defined by the FDA, is that these are edible things not intended to treat, diagnose, prevent or cure diseases. However, this is...

At age 72, I have been taking a full range of vitamin and mineral supplements for years. Even I find it amusing to open more than a dozen bottles every morning to extract vitamins A, B, C, D and E, along with zinc, potassium, selenium, and fish oil. On the advice of my physician long ago, I also take a low dose aspirin every day. I also take some herbal supplements. In early January, I fell and broke my collar bone. A month later, it was completely healed. I don't get the common cold, although I do experience seasonal allergies...

The manufacturer of a popular diet supplement containing ephedra urged a judge to block a nationwide ban on the herbal stimulant that was taking effect Monday, arguing that there is no proof it is dangerous if used properly. The herbal stimulant, once hugely popular for weight loss and bodybuilding, has been linked to 155 deaths and dozens more heart attacks and strokes. In a lawsuit filed last month, lawyers for NVE Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Newton, manufacturer of the supplement Stacker 2, asked for a temporary restraining order blocking the ban on ephedra pending further scientific tests. U.S. District Judge Joel...