<div dir="ltr">Forwarding this message, which may be of interest as it raises many of the issues surrounding medicinal plants as part of mainstream medicine.<div>-Patricia</div><div><div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_quote">
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">American Botanical Council</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:publicrelations@herbalgram.org">publicrelations@herbalgram.org</a>></span><br>
Date: Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 2:45 PM<br>Subject: MEMBER ADVISORY: American Botanical Council Sends New York Times Letter to Editor on "Skip the Supplements" Opinion Piece<br>To: <a href="mailto:patricia_deangelis@fws.gov">patricia_deangelis@fws.gov</a><br>
<div class="im"><br></div><div class="im"><div class="im">Click here to view this message as HTML in your browser.<br></div><a href="http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=4A_ja3wtrRYXqS7oW3tjIQ" target="_blank">http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=4A_ja3wtrRYXqS7oW3tjIQ</a><br>
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<br><div class="im">Member Advisory: American Botanical Council Sends New York Times Letter to Editor on "Skip the Supplements" Opinion Piece</div><div class="im">
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(AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 6, 2014) On Monday, Dec. 16, 2013, American Botanical Council (ABC) Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal sent a letter to the editor of The New York Times in response to an opinion article (<a href="http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=TVzYyXyrSB7TaQtpv44hNA" target="_blank">http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=TVzYyXyrSB7TaQtpv44hNA</a>)</div>
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written by Paul A. Offit, MD, and Sarah Erush, PharmD, BCPS. The piece, titled "Skip the Supplements," was published online Dec. 14 and printed on Dec. 15, and is the latest of Dr. Offit's apparent efforts to discredit the general science and clinically documented benefits of numerous herbal and other dietary supplements.<br>
<br>
Dr. Offit recently wrote a book that presents his case against the use of dietary supplements and integrative medicine titled Do You Believe in Magic: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine. It is possible that the relatively high degree of media coverage he received in the past year may be related to his efforts to promote his book, as well as the media's general tendency to publish negative articles. Regardless of potential book sales (the proceeds of which are said to be donated to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he is Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Vaccine Education Center), Dr. Offit appears to be on a sustained campaign against integrative, complementary, and alternative medicine. He is also a leader in educational and media activities in support of childhood immunization and fighting the assertion that childhood autism may be caused by or otherwise associated with vaccination.<br>
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Owing to the Times' policy of not publishing letters to the editor that have been circulated by email or on the Internet, ABC did not release the contents of its letter until it became apparent that the Times was not publishing it. The Times did publish several other letters (<a href="http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=I8zdBmnmkQqiBtKtgiJl0Q" target="_blank">http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=I8zdBmnmkQqiBtKtgiJl0Q</a>) on the issue of dietary supplements and safety, including a letter from Michael McGuffin (<a href="http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=eORHEH63M9O3n58iC2l4AQ" target="_blank">http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=eORHEH63M9O3n58iC2l4AQ</a>), president of the American Herbal Products Association.</div>
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The full text of the ABC letter, and the four references cited in the letter, follows:<br>
<br><font color="#000000">
December 16, 2013<br>
<br>
Letter to the Editor<br>
New York Times<br>
<br>
Re: Paul A. Offit & Sara Erush, Skip the Supplements. New York<br>
Times, Sunday, December 15, 2013 <br>
<br>
To the Editor:<br>
<br>
We appreciate the authors' concerns about the identity, </font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">quality, and safety of some herbal dietary supplements. For
the past three years, as an independent nonprofit research and education organization,
we have led an international consortium of independent laboratories and other
parties investigating the accidental and intentional adulteration of herbal raw
materials and extracts. [1] We have reported on herbal materials that are
adulterated with undisclosed, lower-cost ingredients. Inasmuch as we agree that
such practices are deplorable and require increased regulatory enforcement by the
FDA to help ensure proper identity of raw materials, we disagree with many of
these authors' statements.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000">
<br>
They confound regulatory distinctions among foods, drugs, and supplements
(legally, the latter is a class of foods, not drugs). Further, the authors
consider herbs to be "drugs" because they have "pharmacological
effects." So do coffee and prunes, but they are not regulated as drugs nor
would any reasonable person recommend such. Our recent report on the
top-selling herbal dietary supplements in the US market reveals that many
popular herbal supplements are based on conventional foods or common spices.
[2] These include barley, bilberry, cranberry, cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger,
green tea, and soy, among others. They have been used in human nutrition for
thousands of years. To suggest that such foods or spices, when put into a
gelatin capsule and used for a potential or clinically documented health
benefit, should meet the pre-approval regulatory requirements of synthetically
made pharmaceutical drugs stretches the bounds of reason, and could result in
hundreds of safe ingredients being unavailable in the market.<br>
<br>
The authors also cite an outdated, erroneous statistic that the FDA "estimates
50,000 adverse reactions" are reported each year for dietary supplements,
but that figure is based on a report from 2000 that estimates prescription drug
and vaccine-related adverse event data, not dietary supplement data. [3] In
contrast, FDA officials reported that 3,247 serious adverse events were
associated with supplements in 2012. [4]<br>
<br>
In various instances, the authors uncritically embrace flawed, uncontrolled
studies with negative findings on herb supplement quality while ignoring or
dismissing entire bodies of controlled clinical trials that demonstrate health
benefits of many herbal supplements.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000"> </font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000">Their statement that "doctors ... are on their
own"</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="#000000"></font></p></div><div class="im"><font color="#000000">when it comes to dietary supplements indicates not only an
apparent lack of education about dietary supplements in the physicians' training
curriculum but also an unfamiliarity with scientific literature on clinically
tested dietary supplement products - information that patients expect from
their health professionals. <br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
Mark Blumenthal<br>
Founder & Executive Director<br>
American Botanical Council<br>
Editor-in-Chief, HerbalGram & HerbClip<br>
<br>
References<br>
<br>
1. ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program. American Botanical<br>
Council website. Available at:<br>
</font></div><font color="#000000"><a href="http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=6MTa46kNVWtnfZlVT-N0EQ" target="_blank">http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=6MTa46kNVWtnfZlVT-N0EQ</a> .<br>
</font><div class="im"><font color="#000000"><br>
2. Lindstrom A, Ooyen C, Lynch ME, Blumenthal M. Herb supplement<br>
sales increase 5.5% in 2012. HerbalGram. 2013;99:60-64. Available at:<br>
</font></div><font color="#000000"><a href="http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=0mIxvMgS_q_39GO-tyrm6Q" target="_blank">http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/R?i=0mIxvMgS_q_39GO-tyrm6Q</a> .<br>
</font><div class="im"><font color="#000000"><br>
3. Walker A. The Relation between Voluntary Notification and Material<br>
Risk in Dietary Supplement Safety. US Food and Drug Administration<br>
Commissioned Paper, March 9, 2000.<br>
<br>
4. Fabricant DS. Post-Market Surveillance and Risk Assessment of<br>
Dietary Supplements. Presentation at the International Conference on<br>
the Science of Botanicals, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS.<br>
April, 2013.<br><br></font></div><div class=""><div class="h5"><font color="#000000">
American Botanical Council, 6200 Manor Rd, Austin, TX 78723<br>
Phone: 512-926-4900 | Fax: 512-926-2345 | web: <a href="http://abc.herbalgram.org" target="_blank">abc.herbalgram.org</a></font><br>
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