September 19, 2003 – The therapeutic virtues attributed by online merchants to natural health products (NHPs) are far from always complete and honest, found American researchers.
They visited 443 websites selling NHPs and examined the virtues attributed to eight well-known products, including echinacea, ginseng and St. John’s wort. They found that 292 sites claimed that these substances could “prevent” or even “cure” certain diseases. US law allows such claims, but only if it is specified that they have not been verified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which 153 of the sites visited did not.
In Canada, legislation due to come into force on January 1, 2004 will allow NHP manufacturers to link certain therapeutic claims to their products, as long as they are able to provide evidence to support their claims.
Worse, 39% of sites offering kava failed to mention that the FDA issued a warning last year1 concerning the possible hepatotoxicity of the product.
The editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association, in which these results are published2, come to the conclusion that the verification system in place is not effective and should be reviewed. For her part, the president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, an organization that brings together certain manufacturers of dietary supplements, said that this study should not lead the population to conclude that all NHPs are ineffective, since some have well-documented beneficial effects. .
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
According to CBSNews.com; September 16, 2003.
1. Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Kava-Containing Dietary Supplements May Be Associated With Severe Liver Injury. www.cfsan.fda.gov.
2. Morris CA, Avorn J. Internet marketing of herbal products. JAMA 2003 Sep 17; 290 (11): 1505-9.
