WASHINGTON UPDATE*

Surprise Attack

The FDA has DSHEA squarely in its crosshairs. Is our health freedom next?

November / Decmber 2009

Once again, the enemies of health freedom are quietly convening to discuss plans to dismantle DSHEA. Their latest ploy seems to lie in an attempt to link illegal steroids with natural dietary supplements. It’s a far leap. But by drawing this association our enemies may be creating a new avenue of attack that could take our supplements away forever.

In late September, a Senate subcommittee hearing called “Body Building Products and Hidden Steroids: Enforcement Barriers” laid out distressing new overtures that allude to annihilating DHSEA. During the meeting, the head of the US Anti-Doping Agency expressed in no uncertain terms that he wants DSHEA to be dismantled. Meanwhile, the FDA’s statement conveyed that it lacks the authority to properly handle the alleged issue of steroids in supplements; this is likely a thinly veiled request for more authority over natural products. Further, the FDA called upon the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and other federal agencies to address the issue of purported “hidden steroids” in dietary supplements. Suddenly, DSHEA is now looking down the barrels of at least three big guns.

Protecting What Is Ours

If the DEA and FDA are empowered to re-classify a nutritional ingredient as an illegal steroid drug, it then opens the door for any nutritional ingredient to be re-classified as a drug. Were that to happen, DSHEA would crumble and the nutritional supplements that are now abundant, accessible and affordable would be ripped from our hands. In this scenario, nutritional supplements would instead be placed in the hands of pharmaceutical giants. Local health food stores would close their doors forever, and something as simple as taking a daily multivitamin could be transformed into a healthcare nightmare requiring a doctor’s prescription, health insurance coverage or significant out-of-pocket expense.

DSHEA clearly delineates between synthetic drugs and natural supplements: Drugs require pre-market approval while natural supplements, which are treated as foods, do not. Supplement safeguards, however, remain in place (such as Good Manufacturing Practices and Adverse Event Reporting). Some supplement manufacturers even go one step further to ensure efficacy and safety by sending product batches to independent lab­oratories, which then assay the ingredients to make sure no adulterants are present. An informed consumer need never fear the phantom threat of steroids in supplements.

Dastardly Deeds

Representative Henry Waxman once said, “In time, bad laws always reveal themselves. And one enduring truth about Washington is that no issue is ever settled for good.” A recent Natural Products Insider article suggests that Waxman’s quote may have offered disturbingly accurate foreshadowing about DSHEA. In the article, a past FDA chief counsel reveals that former FDA commissioner David Kessler ordered the FDA not to enforce DSHEA. Other FDA officials have corroborated this story, stating that the FDA did not enforce DSHEA for a decade. The assumption is that by refusing to enforce DSHEA, Commissioner Kessler may have encouraged unscrupulous supplement manufacturers to flourish—giving Congress ample reason to repeal DSHEA at some point in the future. Is that future unfolding right now?

It is up to us to protect DSHEA, just as DSHEA protects our right to take dietary supplements. The recent Senate subcommittee meeting on steroids and dietary supplements could be the beginning of an aggressive push to crush DSHEA. We must make our voices heard immediately to repel this attack before it gains momentum. Contact Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA, fax 202-228-1229), who chaired the meeting, and let him know that you want DSHEA to be protected. Tell Travis Tygart, CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (fax 719-785-2001), to keep his hands off DSHEA. Finally, visit www.nha2009.com—join the Nutritional Health Alliance and use its resources to contact your local elected officials. Let our government know that DSHEA must be preserved!

*This editorial is a public service announcement sponsored by the Nutritional Health Alliance (NHA).