Wow.

I was thinking of what to write about the second installment of the CBS News herbal supplement “report”, but it looks like the comment section from their website will do just fine. I’m just going to post some of the comments from there, here.

Congratulations to the American People for writing in about this story. I was blown away by the number of comments on the site. Something tells me big-pharma style FDA regulation, or CODEX establishment if “upper limits” will not be carried out in a clandestine manner in this country. Give the people what they want.

Here are a few entries from the CBS comment board:

Delete my post again CBS, I’ll keep submitting it until I have been sufficiently amused. I have not yet read Hurly’s book Natural Causes so I quote Steve Mister, CRN president:

“The book includes more than 200 footnotes, but a cursory examination shows the author repeatedly footnotes his own inquiries, other people’s opinions and people who spoke anonymously. This is not the bibliography of a serious piece of work. Hurley relies primarily on personal opinion and isolated incidents to falsely imply that these cases represent the experience of the more than 150 million Americans who take safe, beneficial dietary supplements as part of their healthy lifestyle choices. The book Natural Causes cannot be considered a credible, scientific work. This is an assortment of extreme anecdotes that exploit rare and tragic misfortunes in an agenda-driven attempt to sell books.”

It is clear the real reasons you chose to do this story have nothing to do with facts related to the nutritional supplement industry. As has been detailed by many others posting here, one reason is your reliance on the pharmaceutical industry. Secondly, you chose this story and to get folks to watch your failed anchor Katie Couric. She and your nightly news are a failure, and by promoting this sensational story I again contend you will lose 20 times the number of viewers you could have ever gained by getting them to tune in.
Posted by catalogbiz at 11:47 AM : Jan 17, 2007

Having been an MD for the last 17 years I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work as a consultant with the two of the largest pharma companies in the World. Ten years ago these companies had full R&D pipelines with great products that kept them preoccupied. Now the number of products in their pipelines has dropped significantly and they’re turning to other areas to drive revenue. In particular Glaxo Smith Kline is moving into the weight loss category with an OTC product (Alli) that will be sold in Wal Mart this year once FDA approval is granted. This has always been an area that dietary supplements thrive in and Big Pharma has avoided. Now this is changing and Big Pharma is coming after the supplement players.
Clearly CBS did not decide to just run a prime time story about supplements on a whim. Look at who advertises the most on CBS. Glaxo… I don’t doubt for a second that the marketers at Glaxo demanded that CBS develop a story to discredit the supplement industry. Keep an eye out for Alli commercials on CBS in the coming months.
Dr Joe B
(Full name with held as I’m a practicing MD that does not need to be hassled by Big Pharma)Posted by DrJoeB at 10:34 AM : Jan 17, 2000

>Thirty years ago, my doctors predicted I would be a cripple by age 60. I started taking nutritional supplements and and still enjoying good health at age 76. Hurley is serving BIG PHARMA in making the claims he does. Thousands more people are killed by FDA approved drugs every year, relatively few by the wrong use of nutritional supplements. FDA benefits BIG PHARMA, not the people. BOBVAN30

Posted by bobvan30 at 10:03 AM : Jan 17, 2007

Thank God for supplements, after prescription drugs such as Lipitor, HCTZ, and more almost killed me. Today I eat right and take a lot of NATURAL Supplement. Unlike prescription drugs which are synthetic and toxic to the body, Supplements are mostly natural if you take the correct ones. Prescription drugs kill over 106,000 people per year and many more people have a great reduction in quality of life. I at one time was one of these, but now I feel great and my life is full of energy. On the other hand, deaths by vitamins poisoning appear to be quite rare in the US, typically none in a given year. Source Wikipedia a highly reputable source of information, unlike CBS.How about doing a story on the blatant false advertisement you are seeing every night on TV related to prescription drugs? Start with Vytorin by Merck. You probably won’t because they spend too much money with you on advertising. Cholesterol is not even the main cause of the problem and related to family, what a joke. Maybe in extremely rare cases unlike they lead people to believe. And they brain wash the public every night with those lies. Come to the 21st Century of Cellular medicine by such people as Dr. Matthias Rath and learn the truth for a change. Conventional medicine and conventional doctors are still in the “dark ages” when it comes to infective and degenerative diseases and Prescription Drugs are The largest Orchestrated Fraud in human history.

Posted by mirtocap at 11:09 PM : Jan 16, 2007

From the FDA’s own web page comes proof that dietary supplements are regulated more strictly than foods but less strictly than controlled substances (drugs):FDA regulates dietary supplements under a different set of regulations than those covering “conventional” foods and drug products (prescription and Over-the-Counter). Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the dietary supplement manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that a dietary supplement is safe before it is marketed. FDA is responsible for taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement product after it reaches the market. Generally, manufacturers do not need to register their products with FDA nor get FDA approval before producing or selling dietary supplements.* Manufacturers must make sure that product label information is truthful and not misleading.

FDA’s post-marketing responsibilities include monitoring safety, e.g. voluntary dietary supplement adverse event reporting, and product information, such as labeling, claims, package inserts, and accompanying literature. The Federal Trade Commission regulates dietary supplement advertising.

*Domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture/process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the United States are required to register their facility with the FDA.

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/supplmnt.html

Posted by neilelevin at 08:55 PM : Jan 16, 2007 CBS, Katie and the nightly news staff,

I own a small supplement company. I was surprised at how little your story did to show the kind of FDA regulation that we in the industry actually do have to deal with. There are numerous rules concerning labeling and claims that can be made about products. For example you can make a structure function claim but not a health claim or disease claim concerning your products. This information is available from the FDA. Your story would seem to indicate that the supplement industry is unregulated and has no merit. The top manufacturers of supplements in the country would never be able to afford the cost of FDA regulation if it was analogous to the way pharmaceuticals are treated. Drug companies have so much money at their disposal that they can afford the half billion dollars it takes to push something through the FDA.

I fear that stories like yours will harm companies like my own and have a deliterious affect on the health of many americans because of the way the supplement industry was negatively portrayed.

Sincerely,

Dr. Robert J. Gatto Jr.
Manager
Allegheny Nutritionals, LLC

Posted by rgattodc1 at 07:56 PM : Jan 16, 2007

I think that is enough said. Thanks again for reading our blog!

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