Customer Reviews

Natural Causes: Death, Lies and Politics in America's Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry

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This book should be a must read for anyone interested in alternative health. Before reading this book I thought that the herbal and vitamin industry was full of health minded individuals that wanted to help people avoid using prescription drugs. This book shows that the herbal and vitamin industry is as much about profit as any other business including the pharmaceutical industry. The author clearly points out that herb, vitamins, and supplements are almost totaly unregulated, that the ingredients labels on them are a joke, and anyone interested in using them should be sure to educate themselves about what they are using, how it was manufactured, and who is selling the product.

As a scientist I found this book quite disappointing and found several instances where the author misinterprets the scientific literature. Here is one example of this distortion. There have been about 40 reasonably designed studies conducted on St Johns Wort for depression. In sum, the science has clearly demonstrated that SJW is efficacious. However there a few trials that have failed to find a beneficial effect...and for understandable reasons that have now been clarified, i.e. source, dose, number of subjects, etc. The author uses one of these federally funded studies to demean the value of saint johns wort and concludes that it does not work. That is simply irresponsible and untrue. This is analogous to testing 40 automobiles for their ability to get a person to work on time. In a few of the tests the person does not make it to work on time because either the car breaks down, there is too much traffic, the person leaves late or there is not enough gas in the tank. However, the vast majority of people make it to work on time. Using this authors logic, the conclusion would be that cars dont work for getting people to point B on time.

It appears that the author did a fair amount of research on this book and therefore knows that SJW is efficacious when used appropriately. The question then becomes why distort the truth, which I do not have an answer for.

As the book points out bloodroot is indeed caustic and I have used it myself. However it is not a dietary supplement. The person who used burnt off her nose by using bloodroot is one extreme example. After poking around on the internet the US justice system found her claim to be unfounded, yet the author of this book takes her word as gospel.

I spent a lot of money on vitamins and minerals before I red this book. It was an eye opener for me. Not so much that one shouldn't take any supplements, but to seriously look at their effectiveness and possible side effects. Easy to read and lots of information about the supplement industry that you might not know.

Natural Causes reads like a suspense novel, but it's all true . . . and scary. If you use vitamins or herbal supplements, or care about somebody who does, by all means buy this book. It will save you money in the long run, and maybe your health.

Whatever Mr. Hurley's agenda might be, he is free to have is own point of view and to write about it. The essential problem with this book is that its central thesis is undercut by the incredibly poor job of fact checking by Mr. Hurley and his editors. Let's take two very fundamental mistakes that could have been corrected with even the most basic fact checking.

For one, the author couldn't even get the name of the CEO of Natrol, who he claims to have interviewed, correct. The name of Natrol's founder and Chairman of the Board is Elliott Balbert. Mr. Hurley repeatedly refers to him as Mitchell Balbert. Did anyone bother to do any fact checking? This mistake could have been "discovered" if anyone associated with the publication of this book had simply gone to Natrol's web page and verified the name of the company's Chairman of the Board. [...]

Let's take another, even more fundamental error given the subject matter of this publication. Mr. Hurley discusses the plight of a woman who claims that her nose fell off because of a product she put on it to treat what she thought was skin cancer. Suspend reality and set aside whatever questions you have about someone who claims to be a nurse self-treating her skin cancer in the manner described by Mr. Hurley. The real problem is that any topical product such as the one described in this section of Mr. Hurley's book is not a dietary supplement, and cannot be legally sold as one in the United States. By law such products are drugs. If either Mr. Hurley or his editors had bothered to look at the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, they could have avoided this fundamental mistake.

If the author could make these kinds of basic mistakes and his editors could not bother to undertake the effort to fact check such basic assertions like these, what level of confidence should anyone have in Mr. Hurley's "facts"?

In the interests of full disclosure, I am an attorney specializing in food in drug law. Many of my clients are in the dietary supplement/natural products industry.

First of all, I'm ambivalent regarding the use of natural supplements. I have relatives/friends who use them and swear by them, and friends/relatives who have had adverse reactions. So I was eager to read this book, but after doing so I am just as confused as ever.

The author seems to make good points but then there are obvious errors such as this one on page 43 of the hardback edition which concerns an analysis of Adelle Davis' book 'Let's Get Well':

"When he analyzed the 170 references in Chapter 5...he found 112 did not relate whatsoever to the assertions Davis used to back them up...another 50 were taken out of context...only 30 accurately confirmed Davis's writing".

112 + 50 + 30= 192 citations, not 170. A small example, but you have to wonder about an author's criticism that another author's work is inaccurate when their OWN work has inaccuracies.

His good points? The supplement industry is unregulated and in the business for profit, and there have been injuries and deaths from these products.

A real distraction in the book is that he seems so biased and one-sided in his approach to this subject. Injuries and deaths have been caused by FDA-approved medications, too. With the exception of Vitamin D, and fish oil he doesn't seem to think any vitamins/supplements work. Yet, my son's therapist recommended melatonin to help him go to sleep at night, his pediatrician said fine, and it's worked like a charm for him. The author accepts assertions that supplements don't work or are harmful from anyone who says so, just as the other side accepts the opposite. I by no means believe that the FDA is impartial in their studies just as other studies are also biased depending on who funds them and their agenda.

In reading other reviews of this book by individuals who swear by supplements/vitamins, I couldn't back up their claims either. I googled Sue Gilliatt as suggested and the only "verification" of her "fraud" against Alpha Omega Labs I could find was on the Alpha Omega Labs Website which, naturally, I'm hesitant to believe. I did find a court document asking Greg Caton, founder of Alpha Omega Labs be dismissed from the lawsuit, but again hardly evidence of her "fraud".

And according to wikipedia, Greg Caton was a wanted international fugitive in early 2009. FDA conspiracy or con-artist?

You really almost have to make up your mind based on personal experience taking the products, which according to the author, and for all I know, could be dangerous.

So, final analysis. This book does at least present a different side of the story and I found it interesting, but the author seemed just as biased in presenting his side of the story as do the detractors in presenting theirs. I look forward to SOMEONE authoring a book not funded/written by anyone with a vested interest or prejudice against the supplement industry.

Back in the 1950s I was discolored by a drug that contained silver. The condition is called argyria. In 1995 when I learned that silver was being sold as a "dietary supplement", I asked salesmen for the evidence that led them to believe that it offered benefits and that it was safe and wouldn't discolor people. They didn't have any. One threatened me and admitted that there is no such evidence. I tried desperately to warn the public of the danger of ingesting silver and posted a web page for that purpose. Salesmen laughed and said I was comparing apples to oranges. Unfortunately, as I and all the scientists who were familiar with silver and argyria predicted, there are now many cases of argyria caused by silver supplements, one of which Dan mentions in his book. Many of the argyric people who speak to me tell me that they feel so stupid because they believed the salesmen who told them that their supplements were non-toxic. They believed them till they turned gray. If anything, Dan's book is much too easy on the supplement industry. I just hope lots of people read it. If so, it may save many lives. My greatest fear is that there is something like cigarettes out there and that by the time we find out it will be too late for a lot of human beings.

I am a pharmacist by qualification and publish technical books for the pharmaceutical and herbal medicine industry. So am neutral to both sides. Having made my position clear, I would like to offer my two cents worth.

Herbal medicines should be classified as medicines - calling them supplements is the first mistake, that frequently leads to regulatory quagmire (e.g. DSHEA vs FDA spat).

No testing standards exist that are required by law to be followed, like we have the Pharmacopoeias of various countries for pharmaceuticals. The onus is on the government agencies to protect the people rather than depend on manufacturers to self-regulate.

This book, though biased to some extent, does raise questions about the honesty of intent by some herbal medicine manufacturers. I feel it is time for some introspection within the industry to propose, advocate and support the creation of testing standards which can form the basis of any GMP/GCP for herbal medicinal products.

Lastly, I would like to extend compliments to the herbal medicine manufacturers to have come this far by way of quality of products now available in the market. They should not feel rejected by criticism but take what is good from such criticism and build on it. Pharmaceutical industry also should support this industry that should call itself 'Complementary Medicine' rather than alternative.

JPS Kohli

www.businesshorizons.com

Having worked in medical research for many years, and having earlier worked in pharmaceutical supply and healthcare, I found this book, Natural Causes, informative and alarming. That so many people eschew established medicine to follow natural remedies that are unproven is astounding. Further problems result from their frequent self-prescribed overdoses and interactions from unrestrained consumption of multiple of supplements. But, the real problem this book heralds is the lack of control over the products sold to the American Public. If a person decides to take a certain supplement, the product obtainable by commercial enterprise should be tested for quality and purity. In the absence of testing for efficacy, which incidentally should be undertaken gladly by manufacturers who believe their products are legitimately useful, the minimal acceptable test, should be purity. After all, supplements are regulated as foods and even foods have labeling requirements. Why do people accept capsules full of fillers and worse, miscellaneous unnamed active substances in unspecified amounts?

This book, Natural Causes, is well-researched, well-organized and clearly annotated. It looks in depth at the resistance to regulation of the supplement industry, the absence of scientific studies supporting the use of dietary supplements, and at the ever-growing popularity of such substances. The personal interest stories contribute anecdotal evidence to this journalistic effort and serve their purpose of drawing attention to the potential for harm from widescale use of untested products being sold to the public. It is amazing that the US government has funded the NCCAM and its predecessors for years and found barely a crumb of support for any of the tested products. And even beyond that, as is noted in the case of ephedra, people will buy "copycat" products of unproven substances when the original product is no longer available.

Where is the point where someone's allegiance to a supplement manufacturer, or the myth of efficacy, is greater than personal responsibility to maintain an open mind and healthy body? This book cannot answer that but the author does suggest some actions which can be taken to increase safety for the consumer who does wish to take dietary supplements.

Are you aware that currently no government agency is responsible for testing dietary supplements to assure their purity and potency? Did you know that today over 60% of Americans buy and take one or more herbal or dietary supplements? Would it anger you to learn that you have probably been spending your hard earned money on products that simply don't work? And would you be concerned if you discovered that the American media has expended precious little energy to uncover the truth about these products? "Natural Causes" explodes many of the myths surrounding the multi-billion dollar vitamin and supplements industry. Author Dan Hurley makes a compelling case for tightening the screws on these companies and demanding more regulation and much more accountabilty.

Around the turn of the 20th century the self-treatment movement was experiencing somewhat of a revival in this nation. As Dan Hurley correctly points out the tug-of-war between traditional medicine and natural alternatives seems to be somewhat cyclical. We can all recall images of the "snake oil" salesmen peddling all sorts of elixers and other concoctions from the back of their wagons. These hucksters made all sorts of fabulous claims for their homemade tonics. In response to all of this Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. The act required that medicines containing opiates and certain other drugs must say so on their labels. Later amendments to the act also required that the quantity of each drug be truly stated on the label, and that the drugs meet official standards of identity and purity. Finally, the government had a handle on the industry.

Fast forward now about 90 years. Once again, interest in "natural" medicine and treatments was on the rise. Seems that there was a huge potential market for new "natural" remedies, treatments and supplements. There was a lot of money to be made. Aided by a number of prominent politicians a group of manufacturers led by one Gerry Kesser somehow managed to convince the Congress to pass a piece of legislation called DSHEA in 1994. Passage of the "Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act" would essentially create a whole new category of so-called "natural" products that were simply not subject to regulation of any kind. Over the next dozen years tens of thousands of new products would flood the market making all sorts of wild claims. We have all seen the ads in newspapers and magazines and on television. And despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of these products fail to produce the promised results the American people continue to purchase them in ever increasing numbers. What's more, testing has shown that many of these products are contaminated with dangerous metals such as lead and that the ingredients listed on the label are frequently incorrect. It is somwhat disconcerting to think that large numbers of Americans have turned their backs on traditional medicine and rely on the advice of a clerk at the health food store to treat what ails them. This is a very dangerous situation that has had serious consequences over the years and Hurley presents numerous examples throughout the book.

At the conclusion of "Natural Causes" Dan Hurley proposes a series of 13 steps that would largely correct this situation. This is definitely a conversation that the country needs to have. I found "Natural Causes" to be a real eye-opener. Highly recommended reading!