About three years ago, I consulted with an acupuncturist because I felt as if I was lacking energy. He suggested I try something called E-lyte Mineral Test Kit. The kit consists of small bottles of liquid containing magnesium, selenium, copper, chromium, and other minerals. As I recall it, you sample small amounts of each mineral to see whether you can taste it–if you can’t, then you take a daily dosage till you can, which indicates you have a sufficient amount in your system.
Well, I couldn’t taste any of the minerals, and took them for some weeks. Within days, I could feel my energy level improving–it was almost palpable. My body was obviously depleted of key minerals, and restoring the proper levels to my body did wonders for my health. (Just for the record, I have no connection to E-lyte.)
I was reminded of my fortuitous introduction to mineral supplements by an essay in yesterday’s New York Times about the supposed dangers of nutritional supplements. It is adapted from a book with the reassuring title: "Natural Causes: Death, Lies and Politics in America’s Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry", by Dan Hurley.
The essay makes a terribly strained, or maybe I should say pathetic, effort to statistically suggest that users of supplements, especially children, risk serious illness and death because of a lack of government regulation. The statistics come from poison control centers which, if you know anything about them, deal largely with accidental overdoses of everything from insect repellant to nail polish remover to prescription drugs. I won’t bore you with the statistics–they are truly pathetic (230 deaths from vitamin reactions reported by poison control centers over 21 YEARS ending in 2004; I think that many die from prescription drugs every few days.)
It’s only when you get toward the end of the article that you begin to learn the real agenda: "Drugs marketed in the United States go through a rigorous F.D.A. approval process to prove that they are effective for a particular indication, with the potential risks balanced against the benefits. While the approval process has come under attack in recent years as unduly favorable to drug companies, it remains among the toughest in the world. There is no comparable requirement for supplements."
What the author is really suggesting is that we should only be able to buy nutritional supplements with a doctor’s prescription. So here’s how my low-energy problem might play out: I go to my doctor, tell him my symptoms, and he puts me through a battery of tests (costing thousands of dollars). Everything’s normal, Mr. Gumpert. You’re fine. Maybe you ought to forget about that no-caffeine kick you’re on and join the rest of America with a couple cups of French roast each morning. That will probably take care of your energy problem."
The idea of treating supplements as the equivalent of pharmaceuticals is something that has been proposed before, by the World Trade Organization and the European Union, among others. I wrote about it for BusinessWeek.com a couple years ago, and it seemed the idea wasn’t going to take hold in the U.S. Hurley seems determined to reinvigorate the idea. (Keep in mind, the FDA regularly goes after makers of supplements that promise cures of diseases, with threats and court orders, sometimes shutting down offenders.)
I tried to find information about Hurley on Google, but little comes up, except references on the publisher’s site to him being "an award-winning journalist in health and medical writing." That’s probably because there is little in the way of expertise.
I’ve been a frequent critic of the supplement business in several articles about people like Dr. Andrew Weil and Dr. Joseph Mercola, among others. But the problem of overly aggressive marketing doesn’t translate into a health danger. I can only conclude that Hurley is looking to sensationalize something that isn’t a problem, in order to sell books.
Here’s a way to register your disapproval with the publisher. Go to the book’s Amazon.com site, and take a look at some of the articulate reader assessments of the book; if you agree with any of them, just click on the "Yes" box in answer to the question: "Was this review helpful to you?"
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