The greatest problem with this is the complete lack of regulation by the FDA and other agencies which allows the dietary supplement industry to continue on the same course unchecked. These diet products put out by the dietary supplement industry offer unwarranted and sometimes completely fabricated claims about the potential effects, make assertions about how the product works and what it can deliver, and even more dangerously, do not have to offer scientific or medical research to back up such claims or prove that they are safe. As Spector states in his article, “Miracle in a Bottle” on this subjet, “Frequently such products come veiled in a cloak of science. Ads for Zantrex03, for example, claim that its ‘superior power is validated by a direct comparison of published medical studies, scientific fact… irrefutable clinical data” (Spector 2005). In fact, since there is no research agency to perform extensive tests on these products and no regulatory agency responsible for monitoring and validating claims, this public danger continues unabated and unchecked.
Another interested item in the article by Michael Spector regarding public perception of the dietary supplement industry is expressed in a few figures. “One recent Harris poll found that most people believe that if a supplement is on the market it must have been approved by some government agency (not true); that manufacturers are prohibited from making claims for their products unless they have provided data to back those claims up (no such laws exist)” (Spector 2005) and that generally speaking, there is some degree of oversight and no harm, medical or otherwise, can befall them because “somebody” up there is looking out for them. This fallacy in public perception is one of the greatest dangers facing the millions of Americans taking these unregulated products put out by the dietary supplement industry. The only solution to this incredible problem is to simply give the people what they think already exists—extensive oversight of the dietary and supplement industries by the only agency powerful enough to enact such regulation, the FDA or Food and Drug Administration.
As Spector notes in “Miracle in a Bottle” in his discussion of the many deaths of children resulting from the unregulated distribution of the drug Sulfanilmide that was used to prevent step throat “It has usually taken a disaster to persuade Congress to adopt strict regulations” (Spector 2005).In the wake of tragic deaths occurring from other unregulated over-the-counter products such as ephedra (although now banned after multiple victims suffered heart attacks, strokes, and other illnesses) one has to wonder if it will take another wide-scale tragedy to force the federal government to increase restrictions on supplements and become regulated by the FDA. Certainly, such a move toward mass regulation of the many dietary supplement products available almost anywhere will increase truth in advertising of such products, which might lead to better public understanding of the many risks that might be involved in taking these products. Sadly, without instant regulatory measures and the instant involvement of the FDA, a wide-scale tragedy may be the only way the current situation will change.
Due to a lack of federal regulation and oversight of the supplement and diet industry by the FDA and other agencies, government or otherwise, a wide array of false claims can be made by the dietary supplement industry with little or no consequence. As a result, in all forms of the media, the average person is exposed to one “scientific” claim after another, all of which are promising to make our lives better or to allow us to live healthier. The biggest problem is that none of these claims need to be screened for validity and since we hear so many each day, we become almost immune to idea that there needs to be scientific research to back up such claims. With so many claims being made about the true “scientific” or “medical” efficacy of a particular dietary or other supplement, there is no way to easily distinguish the true from the false unless one actually spends a day recording every instance a claim was made with this kind of “data” and further research into how this is or is not true. In terms of this industry that has remained unchecked in its shameless marketing under the guise of science or “proven effective” medical benefit, the only solution to this problem would be a new push to expose all of the dietary and supplement industries to federal scrutiny—namely by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
