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

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3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his lively debut, health and medical journalist Hurley takes aim at the $21 billion supplement industry and its potentially injurious "natural" products. He critiques its strong-arming of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act through Congress—a law that rendered the FDA virtually powerless to regulate these remedies—and observes the FDA's "coziness" with the industry it regulates. From snake oil and shark cartilage to ephedra, Hurley consistently animates patches of dry legal and medical material with harrowing case studies. Sue Gilliatt, for example, burned off her nose when she used the Native American herbal remedy bloodroot to treat her skin cancer in 2001. When Dorothy Wilson's doctor prescribed L-tryptophan for her insomnia in 1988, the over-the-counter amino acid triggered a mysterious disease that left her painfully incapacitated by nerve damage. Although Hurley presents scanty evidence regarding vitamin C's inability to prevent colds, his claim about the criminal backgrounds of several supplement manufacturers is alarming. Hurley wraps up with a refreshingly tough-love conclusion: the bamboozled have to accept some of the blame themselves for wanting a quick-fix promise of good health without having to do the work of a salubrious lifestyle. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist

*Starred Review* Hurley maintains that the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 is one of the worst laws on the books. Shielding vitamins and herbal concoctions from FDA testing, it requires only that no curative claims be made for such "dietary supplements." In the prologue, Hurley shows that curative claims are made, anyway, and the users of an herbal salve were able to sue when the stuff ate their flesh. Subsequent chapters cite cases that also show that per-dosage amounts of dietary-supplement ingredients are often improperly listed; that greater than standard recommended daily amounts of most vitamins wreak havoc in the body; and that natural doesn't mean safe or effective. He notes the high proportion of convicted felons in the supplement industry, sketching the careers of several of the most egregious, including best-selling self-help health author Kevin Trudeau. He points to research that nullifies common knowledge about the effectiveness of virtually all dietary supplements; food, not pills, is the optimal and probably the only means of properly ingesting vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and so forth. He puts all such substantive information in the context of plenty of absorbing and moving stories of death, deceit, and political chicanery. Truly a good book that is good for you. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (December 26, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0767920422
  • ISBN-13: 978-0767920421
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #656,141 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Hurley
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Average Customer Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Extreme Cases do not call for extreeme regulation , August 18, 2008
Sensationalism sells books. It sold "Natural Cures" on TV direct media campaigns, and it sold this book - at least to me. Both are at extreme opposite end of the subject and both are misleading. Take your supplements. Do your research, don't over do it, just as you should not over do OTC meds and prescription meds.
I've been taking supplements for most of my life and exercising. At age 51 I look younger, feel better, work longer, and enjoy life so much more than those that have not followed this path. I would suggest that you continue to take basic supplements, avoid any Muscle and Body Building magazine recommendations (if you are stupid enough not to know that the results are from Steroids and not fat burners and whey, then uh, well you should read more). Be careful with herbs, but know that there are herbs that predate the pharmacy industry and are proven safe, effective and we know how they work. Look at Lunesta vs. Valerian for example. Do your research be smart, buy vitamins from a reputable store and a reputable company.
BMX Extreme sports are dangerous, but I still ride a bike. I have lifted for 35 years, but have never touched steroids. A few people died from taking ephedrine based supplements, it's speed people! Don't exceed the dose and don't take it if you think it's going to melt your beer gut away by itself! Pick up a "Pill Book" or another medical book and become informed about everything before you put anything in your body. Look up the top 10 prescribed pills and be amazed at comments like "not sure how they work", "they may increase X production, but also they may limit Y production" We just know they work.
Vitamins are safe, many herbs are safe. If you are trying to regulate a mood with herbs, be careful. Sensationalism sells books, be it Barack Husein Barry Obama or Vitamins.
It's true it's a business. There is a profit motive duh! So buyer always beware and don't take everything on the aisle, just as you wouldn't take everything on the cold formula aisle.
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41 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Rife with errors, poorly researched, January 16, 2007
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Biased and Innacurate, November 27, 2008
By J. Engle (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Hurley writes well but his book is misleading and full of innacuracies. In the book and an essay authored by Hurley in the January 16th, 2007 edition of the New York Times, the author claims that:

The database of The American Association of Poison Control Centers has recorded 1.6 million reports of `adverse reactions' to supplement products (vitamins, minerals, essential oils, herbal products, homeopathic products, etc.) from 1983 to 2005.

Homeopathic products are NOT dietary supplements and are not covered by DSHEA. It was soon realized that Hurley had counted all "exposure calls" as adverse reaction calls. Exposure calls are non-administrative, non-information calls; the caller was concerned about an exposure to a substance. Typically only about 10 percent of these result in adverse reactions (requiring medical attention). He was inflating the number of adverse reaction calls BY A FACTOR OF TEN. When confronted with the truth the NYT had to print a retraction on Feb. 6, 2007. Unfortunately the inflated number remains in the book, and people like to quote it as proof how "dangerous" supplements are.

Hurley devotes an entire chapter to the supposed dangers of Tryptophan. When the FDA banned Tryptophan in 1989 it was because of problems caused by a single tainted batch made by one Japanese company. Up to that point Tryptophan had been one of the most popular supplements sold in the US. It is very useful for treatment of insomnia, depression, and obesity. It is also inexpensive since it occurs naturally and can't be patented. For decades Tryptophan has been included in baby formula--If there were any problems with Tryptophan itself we would have known about them many years ago. Hurley makes a weak attempt to convince us that Tryptophan is intrinsically harmful. He hints vaguely at a conspiracy to suppress research proving the inherent dangers of this amino acid. The result: Recently, in the face of overwhelming evidence of Tryptophan's safety, the FDA finally allowed it back on the US market!

In pursuing his agenda of trashing dietary supplements, Hurley includes in his book many exaggerations and some outright lies. Reader Beware!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful
I spent a lot of money on vitamins and minerals before I red this book. It was an eye opener for me. Read more
Published 12 months ago by A. Weinberger

1.0 out of 5 stars do your own research!!!!
Before condamning vitamins et supplements you should do your own research instead to read and digest a book without researching yourself. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Danielle Walker

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for supplement users
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... Read more
Published 14 months ago by law book

5.0 out of 5 stars Very startling portrayal of a deceptive industry
This book begins with the story of a woman whose nose was eaten off when she used a bloodroot paste sold by Kevin Trudeau's former company. Read more
Published 16 months ago by D. Rail

4.0 out of 5 stars Important Book with reservations
This is an important book and quite thoroughly debunks much that I have long considered bogus or at least clearly not proven. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Smitty88

5.0 out of 5 stars Dan Hurley prescribes a dose of common sense.
Are you aware that currently no government agency is responsible for testing dietary supplements to assure their purity and potency? Read more
Published on July 26, 2007 by Paul Tognetti

5.0 out of 5 stars May Your Medicine Be Your Food, and Your Food Be Your Medicine
After reading this vastly detailed account of the multi-million dollar Vitamin Supplement Industry, and the horrific tragedies many people have experienced through the belief that... Read more
Published on July 14, 2007 by Amel

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat helpful but seriously incomplete.
Mr. Hurley covers many key issues concerning the real and present dangers of an unregulated industry that the public is increasingly turning to because of frustration with the... Read more
Published on July 13, 2007 by J. Pollock

1.0 out of 5 stars Fear & Yellow Journalism
For those of us that have used vitamin & mineral supplements - along with excercise & a balanced diet - the ideas in this book ring untrue. Read more
Published on July 9, 2007 by Antonio Parisi

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone Who Takes Vitamins Should Read This Book
This is an important book. We read about melamine in pet food from China killing our pets, and we assume our own government regulates American products to prevent such tragedies... Read more
Published on June 10, 2007 by Harriet Hall

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