April 5, 2017 — A remarkable collaboration is taking shape to set a higher bar for the quality and safety of dietary supplements. This week in Washington the Dietary Supplement Quality Collaborative (DSQC) brought together people from the supplement industry with consumer advocates, health professionals, and scientific organizations. This group has been taking shape over the last year. The shared […]
February 13, 2016 — A new study in Obesity points out how difficult it can be to find an evidence-based weight management program. In a sample of 80 weight management programs in northern Virginia, eastern Maryland, and Washington, DC, Kimberly Gudzune and colleagues found that most of those programs flunk on five simple criteria used as hallmarks for evidence-based weight management […]
November 24, 2015 — The U.S. Justice Department has filed a criminal indictment against two dietary supplement companies that were selling magic weight loss products and generating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales with them. These products have two problems: they don’t work and they contain substances that are illegal because of the danger they present to human health. […]
October 22, 2015 — As a matter of policy, FDA tolerates magic weight loss scams. They really don’t have much choice. Unlike prescription or over-the-counter drugs, FDA was effectively stripped of the power to regulate any claims of effectiveness for dietary supplements by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994. Supplement marketers can make any claims they […]
April 9, 2015 — Even knowing the complicated history of dietary supplements for weight loss, current reports of FDA foot dragging on dangerous supplements are nothing short of shocking. In an academic journal this week, a group of scientists revealed that dietary supplements containing an amphetamine isomer are still on the market — two years after FDA first knew […]
February 18, 2013 — Acting on behalf of the FDA, U.S. Marshals seized weight-loss supplements last week from a Florida company, Globe All Wellness. According to FDA, the products were seized because they contained an unapproved drug, sibutramine, that was not disclosed on the product label, and the company made unsubstantiated disease claims that require FDA approval. “Companies that […]
February 16, 2013 — Some of the most important consumer protection reforms in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), such as coverage for people with preexisting medical conditions, have yet to be provided by 39 states, according to a report by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund. The report highlights a critical issue just 11 months before the reforms are scheduled to […]
