A significant proportion of internal medicine residents wrongly assume that dietary supplements are regulated by the FDA:
More than a third of those who took the quiz wrongly believed that dietary supplements had to be approved by the FDA before being sold. Attending physicians fared better than the overall group, though 15% still thought supplements required FDA approval. And roughly 60% of both residents and attending physicians were unaware that serious side effects of dietary supplements are supposed to be reported to the FDA.
Related posts:
- Hydroxycut causes liver damage, and why we need to regulate supplements
- Fallout from the Zelnorm recall
- The supplement-hawking radiologist
- Mark Herrmann: Regulation by lightning bolt
- How are residents supposed to learn?
- Academic medicine and hypocrisy
- Overconfident residents
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As NCCAM and others are now systematically reviewing the evidence for herbs and supplements, it strikes me as a little bit odd that the government is not also getting into the regulation game. I suppose it would be a nightmare to try to ensure quality control in the supplement world. But as we find lead in vitamins (a public health hazard), and demonstrate therapeutic effects in some bioactive substances that happen to be unregulated… it would make sense to me to consider some sort of system for helping consumers get safe doses of the herbs that may be useful for their condition. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
See my blog today (5/16) for my thoughts on this topic, but to sum it up: there is no need to regulate 99% of them because they DON’T DO ANYTHING! Why regulate placebos?
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