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Alexandra Meister

Professor Watson

English 2089

February 25, 2019

Exploratory Essay

From 2007 to 2017 the retail sales for vitamins and dietary supplements jumped nearly

$12 billion, leaving the total sales for this product at $36.1 billion in America alone. By now,

most Americans are aware of what vitamins are and most likely have even taken one at some

point in their life. Therefore, it is extremely important that Americans must also understand the

other aspect of the vitamin world which is what goes in to them and who is making them. The

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate the vitamin industry as many would like

to believe it does. For this reason, the FDA may have a bad reputation in most eyes, but the FDA

is only working under the laws of the constitution. Dietary supplements, vitamins, are potentially

very dangerous since the FDA doesn’t have full regulation of the industry. There are many

aspects of this idea that people leave unanswered, which is why this is an interesting topic to

explore and learn more about.

Vitamins can come in many forms such as gummies, pills, drinks, etc. Their purpose is to

provide the needed value of supplements for a person in one or two doses a day. Vitamins can be

helpful for many reasons but what a lot of people don’t know is that they can contain ingredients

that aren’t so beneficial to the body as well as even harmful. According to an article from

Fortune Magazine “In those years (2007-2016), [researchers] found that one in five dietary

supplements contained more than one drug ingredient.”(Brittany Shoot) This means that 20% of

all vitamins could be potentially harmful which is a vast amount when uneducated about the
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possible drug induced supplements. Some of the drugs included were those for the use of muscle

building, sexual enhancement, anxiety, depression, drugs like ephedrine, anabolic steroids and

more. While to some, the effects of the drugs in their vitamins may be little to none, to others,

the affect could be tremendous. Mixing these possible drugs induced vitamins with certain health

conditions such as heart disease or low blood pressure could lead to critical or even fatal

outcomes. This is why dietary supplements are potentially very dangerous due to the fact that the

FDA does have full regulation rights over the industry.

The passage of the 1994 law The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act is what

allows the FDA to be able to remove products deemed unsafe from the shelves and to be

informed of all the ingredients being put into them. While this does seem like a very reassuring

law, there are still many ways companies can bypass this rule to embed useless or even harmful

drugs into their products. The reason for this is because the basic standard of practice when it

comes to the vitamin industry is that the product is safe until it is proven otherwise; which is the

opposite as to the regulation of drugs by the FDA. This means there are brand new ingredients

being put on the market that have had no clinical testing, making its true results unknown and

leaving the buyer uninformed. Featured in an article written by James Hamblin “While it costs

millions of dollars to develop and substantiate a pharmaceutical product, selling supplements

requires no such investment.”(The Atlantic) This portrays how easy it is to start a business in the

supplement industry and with no testing required, anything can be put into making a sellable

product. Therefore, dietary supplements are potentially very dangerous due to the fact the FDA

doesn’t have full regulation rights over the industry.

As reported by The American Cancer Society in an article explaining the difference in the

regulation of drugs by the FDA and the regulation of dietary supplements by the FDA. “But
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manufacturers are not required to test new ingredients or supplements in clinical trials, which

would help find risks and potential interactions with drugs or other substances. The Dietary

Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) gives the FDA permission to stop a

company from making a dietary supplement, but only when the FDA proves that the product

poses a significant risk to the health of Americans. This means they are found unsafe only after

they cause harm. This is the reverse of the way prescription and non-prescription drugs are

handled.” This describes the process in which the FDA uses to regulate dietary supplements and

shows the real meaning behind the laws they are forced to follow. The FDA is only allowed to

step in and investigate a product after it has caused harm to one or more people then requires a

timely process of removal. This proves the questionability of any dietary supplements on the

shelves and that being informed about what you’re ingesting is extremely important. Don’t

always trust the labels because companies can say almost anything to make it seem to be useful

to a buyer.

In 2004, the FDA pulled a common substance known as ephedra from the market due to

mass ephedra poisoning affecting thousands across the country. The product had the ability to

bring a perfectly healthy individual to their death bed in a matter of days. The process of removal

for this ingredient took eight years hospitalizing and killing many over the course of that time.

There are roughly 155 cases of deaths caused be ephedra, a dietary supplement put on the market

to help people lose wait and maintain their health.

While the FDA claims to ensure the safety of Americans, there is much uproar on the

topic and a lot of people who don’t agree with their work. Complaints of the FDA leaving

harmful products on the shelves for too long have left the organization with a bad reputation

when it comes to the vitamin world. This leaves America with little trust in the government
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assuring the safety of the products consumed by them. The conflict had brought a vast amount of

attention down on the commissioners of the FDA. They have explained on numerous occasions

the means of what refrains them from being able to work quickly and efficiently when it comes

to investigating and removing dietary supplements. Though the department highlights the times

they proven products unsafe, users of these so-called helpful products are left skeptical.

This photo comes straight from the FDA website to help inform buyers of what to look

for when a product may contain a concerning ingredient. Supplements like “Stiff Night” or

“Rock Hard” are alerting labels and could contain ingredients that are used in common drugs

such as Viagra. Supplements like these aren’t meant for better health but many believe them to

still be natural or healthy due to labels informing them of such. According to an article on

Proquest “many consumers to fail to question the supplements' safety, and some consumers even
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equate 'natural' with safe. But, 'natural' does not mean safe.” (Joanna K. Sax) Misleading labels

are fairly easy to pull off in the supplement industry because the companies don’t have to go

through any marketing approval before it hits the shelves. These are all a few tell tale signs to

keep in mind when shopping for dietary supplements. Consequently, dietary supplements are

very dangerous due to the fact that the FDA doesn’t have full regulation rights over the industry.

While there is the possibility of a great number of wrongfully sold dietary supplements,

there are ways to know which brands to trust and which ones to stay away from. For starters, the

FDA recommends to always consult with a doctor before deciding to consume a supplement.

When doing so, ensure with the official that whichever vitamin(s) is a reliable product. One way

to ensure to buy a safe product is to look for labels like “100 percent natural or 100 percent plant

based” implying that it should have all-natural ingredients. Always follow up by reading the

product label and the ingredient list, check for natural plants and foods that would normally

provide you with those nutrients. If there are extensive, synthetic ingredients on the list then it

probably isn’t a product worth ingesting considering there is an unknown as to what’s really in

the product. Next look for anything that your body my store and contain such as salts and sugars.

Some supplements contain things such as glucose, chloride, and bitrate which are synthetic

additives that increase the stability of the product. A key pointer when shopping for vitamins is if

there are any ingredients ending in “ide” or “ate” they are most likely artificial and to stay away

from purchasing those supplements. Another way to be informed is to ask a pharmacist if unsure

about any of the ingredients or even the product itself. There are sources other than the label for

determining whether a product is reliable or not and one of those is the internet. There are

endless amounts of reviews on products, some even by healthcare professionals and that can

determine if the products even works. As reported by Food Matters “Some manufacturers of
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commercial vitamin and mineral supplements add synthetics to vitamin products, typically to

increase the vitamin's potency, but many synthetics are made from derivatives of coal tar - a

known carcinogen found in cigarette smoke.” This stresses the importance of researching

vitamins and dietary supplements before purchasing and ingesting them. There are ways to tell,

sometimes easily, if a supplement is reliable or not, these can be used to always ensure the safety

of Americans when indulging in extra nutrients via dietary supplement. For that reason, dietary

supplements are very dangerous due to the fact that the FDA doesn’t have full regulation rights

over the product.

After much research into many different sources, there was some reassurance but also

much doubt brought out in this essay. Vitamins can helpful but also harmful in some cases this is

why it is important to be informed. There are some supplements containing drugs that when

mixed with certain health issues can cause horrific results, sometimes even deadly. These drugs

are those of the enhancing type and are most of the time used in stronger prescription medication

which is why mixing it can be dangerous which many people are unaware of. The FDA doesn’t

have the proper ability to catch the drugs being put in these vitamins because of certain laws in

place. Not everyone realizes that the FDA does only what they are allowed to which can be

timely and sometimes even useless if caught too late. If a dietary supplement is found to be

unsafe, the FDA must investigate it and prove it unsafe then get it taken off the shelves which is

much easier said than done. Contrary to popular belief the FDA many cases each year, but this

still is not enough to keep the public hopeful for the vitamin industry, and many are left angered.

Though it is a difficult process for the government to ensure the products’ safety, there are still

many ways the check in store. When reading the label check for tell tail signs and labels the may

seem misleading. A good motto to go by with dietary supplements would be if its too good to be
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true then it probably is. Vitamins are not meant to cure or heal they are only useful for assistance

of gaining nutrients. It is important to understand the products being sold and passed through by

the FDA and to always make sure it is safe even if it may seem like the world’s best product, it

could be useless or dangerous. A friend from class mentions “I think that all of the topics

covered flow very well…. I thought they [the sources] were relevant to the topic a very well

thought out choice.” This reflects the hard work and laborious research done for this essay to

exploit the importance of being knowledgeable about the vitamin industry. Therefore, dietary

supplements are potentially very dangerous due to the fact the FDA doesn’t have full regulation

rights over the product.

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Works Cited

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “Information for Consumers - Dietary

Supplements: What You Need to Know.” U S Food and Drug Administration Home Page,

Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, 29 Nov. 2017,

www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/UsingDietarySupplements/ucm109760.htm.

“GNC's New Standards.” Fortune, Fortune, fortune.com/video/2015/03/30/gncs-new-

standards/.

Hamblin, James. “Why Vitamins and Other 'Dietary Supplements' Can Contain

Anything.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 28 June 2016,

www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/supplements-make-tobacco-look-easy/488798/.

Institute, The Aspen. “Deep Dive: Six FDA Commissioners Take the Stage.” YouTube,

YouTube, 26 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGuJKAsdE6Q&feature=youtu.be.

Joanna, Sax K. “Dietary Supplements Are Not All Safe and Not All Food: How the Low

Cost of Dietary Supplements Preys on the Consumer.” Welcome to the UC Libraries Proxy

Login, 21 Sept. 2015,

journalssagepubcom.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/doi/full/10.1177/0098858815591523?utm_source=su

mmon&utm_medium=discovery-provider.
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Office of the Commissioner. “Consumer Updates - FDA 101: Dietary Supplements.” U S

Food and Drug Administration Home Page, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, 2015,

www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm050803.htm.

Shoot, Brittany. “What's Actually in Your Dietary Supplements? Maybe Drugs, Study

Says.” Fortune, Fortune, 12 Oct. 2018, fortune.com/2018/10/12/whats-in-your-dietary-

supplements-drugs-fda-study/.