
February, 2015: The New York Attorney General did a random test of herbal products at the following stores; Walgreen’s, GNC, Walmart and Target. The results were that 4 out of the 5 products tested didn’t contain what they said on the label and instead contained cheap fillers.

At Walgreen’s a ginseng product was found to contain powdered garlic and rice. Walmart sold a gingko biloba product that was found to contain, powdered radish, houseplants and wheat (despite the label saying it was gluten and wheat free).

At Target gingko biloba, St. John’s wort and valerian root had none of these ingredients, but did contain powdered rice, beans, peas and wild carrots. GNC products were found to have fillers such as powdered legumes, peanuts and soybeans, potential hazards for those with allergies to those items.

Nutritional products are not subject to the F.D.A.’s premarket approval for safety and effectiveness. The F.D.A. has rigorous manufacturing and testing standards for drugs, which for the most part keeps the public safe, although sometimes drugs that get approved for market end up being more dangerous than originally thought. When this happens the F.D.A. is able to pull these problematic drugs off the market.

So, why doesn’t the F.D.A. regulate nutritional products like they do pharmaceutical drugs?

The main reason is the inability to patent natural products. All pharmaceutical drugs are made through a process that allows them to be patented. Millions of dollars go into research and development of these drugs so that they can prove to have the desired result when given for the treatment of various diseases. They must go through clinical trials and prove to be safe and effective.

Once a drug is approved and can begin being administered through prescriptions by medical doctors. The company that manufactured it and spent all of that money can begin to see a return on their investment. These returns are usually quite large, as they should be.

I don’t have any problem with a company spending millions of dollars to develop a drug that can save millions of lives. I also don’t have a problem with that company profiting from all of their hard work and investment.

So, let me be clear, I am not anti-drug. When a person has a life threatening condition and a drug can save their life, I’m all for it.

What I am against however, is the rush to prescribe prescription drugs to those who can get the same or better results with a natural, holistic approach.

Is it a bad thing that natural products aren’t controlled by the F.D.A.?

That depends. If the F.D.A. did control natural herbs and vitamins then they would only be able to be administered to the public via prescription. Furthermore, companies that manufacture nutritional products would have to spend millions of dollars proving the safety and effectiveness of their products.

Of course the upside is that if this were the case, we would at least get what the labels said were in the products, but we would have to go to our Medical Doctor to be able to get the nutritional product via prescription. If nutritional products were sold this way, the prices would be astronomical. This would make our already sky high insurance rates go even higher, or if they weren’t covered by insurance the cost would be prohibitive to the consumer.

For thousands of years people have turned to natural herbs and nutrition for relief of their maladies. The information collected from many different cultures has been passed down through generations.

Most people would agree that many natural therapies work and would rather use something natural before having to turn to a prescription drug. People who look towards natural approaches as a first choice are usually attempting to avoid an expensive trip to a hospital or medical doctor.

So if one chooses to go with a more natural holistic approach, where should they turn for high quality nutritional and herbal supplements?

Products that you can be confident contain the ingredients they list on the label. What is the best way to go about doing so? In my opinion you should seek out health professionals with good credentials and track records.

Most high quality manufacturers of nutritional supplements sell their products to the public only through health care professionals. A healthcare professional can be a medical doctor, chiropractor, osteopath, naturopath, dentist, acupuncturist, or nutritionist. Though this isn’t a complete list, it does encompass most.

This is not to say that a healthcare professional couldn’t accidentally sell a sub-standard or fraudulent product, but the chances are less.

As a chiropractor that provides nutritional products to my patients I have had to educate myself on the various products out there and how to be sure they are of the highest quality. There are a number of things that I look for.

First, do the manufacturing processes have standards of testing to ensure that what the product label states is actually in the product. This is known as “stability testing” which is a random test of the bulk materials that make sure that all ingredients listed are actually in the product. This is an expensive process, one company shared with me that they do stability testing on every single production batch and it costs them $10,000 per batch. Other companies perform these tests on every other batch or at other regularly scheduled intervals.

Another important point, are the ingredients verified by the USP? USP stands for United States Pharmacopeia and is a non-profit organization that establishes federally recognized standards for the quality of drugs, nutritional supplements and foods. When a nutritional supplement lists USP after an ingredient, this is what it means.

- Contains the ingredients listed on the label in the declared potency and amounts.
- Does not contain harmful levels of specified contaminants.
- Will break down and release into the body within a specified amount of time.
- Has been made according to FDA current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) using sanitary and well controlled procedures.
- When a nutritional company goes to these lengths in the manufacturing of their products, it costs them more. An unscrupulous company that only cares about profits will cut these corners to save money. So because of this, you often get what you pay for when it comes to nutritional products.

That is why when a patient asks if they could buy their vitamins elsewhere after I’ve made recommendations, I remind them that they may not be getting the quality necessary to make a positive change in their biochemistry. We use what is referred to a Nutraceuticals (pharmacological grade nutrition) that gets results.

By using a scientific approach to nutrition here at Bradley Chiropractic Nutrition Center, we are able to evaluate a patient’s biochemistry through blood, hair, urine, stool and saliva analysis. This detailed evaluation gives us the information necessary to put together a specific regiment of nutritional products, along with dietary and lifestyle modifications. We demand the highest quality nutritional products available because we need to see change on the laboratory testing when a patient re-tests.

It is often necessary to take nutritional supplements to help bring a patient’s body back into balance. And yes, if you use high quality products that are manufactured to provide both the right ingredients and clinically appropriate dosages, change in a person’s health can and will occur. But, don’t take chances by buying your nutritional products from sources that are not guaranteeing the ingredients and potency of those ingredients.

Remember, when it comes to nutritional supplements, you get what you pay for.


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