Why Regulating Nutritional Supplements Is Stupid And Why Drugs Are Over-Regulated

26 Feb, 2010 by Melissa Clouthier

Print this article Font size -16+

Yesterday, my esteemed co-blogger John Hawkins wrote a post stating that he agrees with John McCain about regulating nutritional supplements. They’re both wrong.

First, it’s important to examine how effective the FDA is in protecting the people when it comes to regulating drugs. Not very. Deaths from prescription drugs are “soaring“. Check out this recall list. That means that these drugs were approved as safe.

Second, an FDA approval gives a false sense of safety. Any substance designed to manipulate physiological functions is inherently dangerous. An FDA approval does not change that.

Third, unregulated nutritional supplements cause a tiny percent of deaths. See table.

Now, all sorts of claims are made about supplements, but those are already regulated. People go through trends and often spend money on “worthless” supplements. Some nutritional supplements really help a person’s health. Some supplements offer only the placebo effect.

If a dude buys a supplement to enhance his “performance” and “size”, he’s stupid, but most of the time, that’s not fatal. Viagra, on the other hand, can be.

I would suggest that regulating this industry further is just an expansion of the nanny state and another way to infantilize the consumer. More than that, it’s a push by the medical industry because they’d like to put their competition out of business. They’d like to be the only ones to make nutritional recommendations and claims even though they have far less training than chiropractors and nutritionists. This is an economic argument and a desire for market share and nothing more.

So no. I don’t want the government pushing their nose into nutritional supplements. Mind their own damn business and cut the debt. I don’t want one stupid bureaucrat telling Americans one more thing about how they should live their lives.

Also, I think the FDA is pretty much bought and paid for by drug companies. Too much to get into now..but there are many experimental drugs that could help people. My opinion is to let people try them. It’s called choice.

Too often, people die while waiting for a drug to be approved when a drug has been used for years in another country safely. The FDA process also makes bring a drug to market so expensive that it creates a monopoly for huge pharmaceutical companies.

Free up the market. Tell people they’re on their own to research it. Let freedom ring when it comes to drugs and supplements. We should be opening this market, not giving the government more control.