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Standards of supplements
There are now so many supplements on sale but with huge discrepancies in prices. How does one assess the strengths, standards and safety and why do some brands cost so much more? If I buy conventional products, I know they have met certain clinical standards. What reassurance can the alternative therapy industry offer? I am not anti, just concerned about safety.
Your concerns about are timely in light of the recently adopted EU directive - which will, if fully implemented, severely restrict the range of supplements currently on sale within the next five years. This will stamp out innovation in natural health and mean everyone will be selling the exact same thing, unless the UK can persuade its European partners to take a more liberal interpretation of the new legislation - which as it stands, will see around 300 nutrients wiped off the health shelves.
Formulations which are under threat include those which combine nutrients with herbs (e.g. immune-boosting echinacea with immune-boosting vitamin C to combat a cold) and all herbal preparations; unless the maker can prove the finished product has been safely used for 30 years, 15 of which must have been in Europe. One of the first victims, for instance, will be the innocuous flower essences made from overseas plants which really is ridiculous since if you sent one of these to a lab for testing, you would be told there’s nothing in it except brandy which many ranges use as a preservative.
You say you know you can feel reassured that conventional medications have passed stringent clinical criteria and it is true that it now costs some $800 million to bring a new drug to the market place but do you really know how much testing has been done or the results?
I don’t.
It is claimed that the new European restrictions have only been adopted to improve “safety” in nutritional and herbal supplements but how many people have been killed by these formulations? What the new law will actually achieve is a more level business playing field between member countries and far less choice for you.
* To register your objection to the new EU restrictions, contact Consumers for Health Choice on 020 7544 0016; www.healthchoice.org.uk. For a detailed account of why some supplements cost more than others look at our article called Buying Vitamins.