Attack on Dietary Supplement Industry by FDA Temporarily Suspended

Just one year ago the FDA and Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) launched a coordinated and vicious attack against the dietary supplement industry. Their goal was to remove a majority of dietary supplement products from the market while wiping out two decades of product innovation, and decimating American jobs in a thriving industry. If they reached that goal, the health damage done to you, the consumer, would be incalculable.

At that time I outlined the scope of this major threat in three articles:
Senator Durbin and the FDA Viciously Attack Dietary Supplements,
The FDA’s Scheme to Reclassify Nutrients as Drugs, and
FDA Propaganda Attempts to Destroy the Dietary Supplement Industry.

Many of you took action along with millions of other Americans.

Ironically, their attack managed to do something that hasn’t happened since the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act was passed in 1994. It mobilized the entire supplement industry to act on the same page to defeat this threat. While the battle is far from over, the FDA has temporarily backed down, realizing they were facing massive consumer objection and a barrage of lawsuits from supplement companies. I don’t think they will mount another attack until after the election and most likely only if Obama wins.

However, we must still be vigilant, as explained by Scott Tips at the National Health Federation (a preferred source for keeping up to date on reliable health freedom information).

It is weird that so many Democrats in Congress literally hate dietary supplements, which is explained by their agenda to exert iron clad public health control over all your health options. On the other hand, Republicans love Big Pharma, which gives dietary supplements the short end of the stick when push comes to shove. Thus, the FDA is almost always problematic for the supplement industry no matter who is in power. Since one-third of our nation’s dietary supplement production occurs in Morman-dominated Utah we might hope that Romney would be more supportive of the supplement industry, but he has no track record or policy statements on the topic. Romney is getting money from supplement companies in substantial amounts.

Durbin has continued to attempt to undermine supplements at every opportunity, as recently explained in this article by leading health freedom attorney Jonathan Emord. Luckily, the senator isn’t having much luck. From the perspective of the dietary supplement industry and your access to safe and effective nutrients at doses that can actually help your health, he is public enemy number one.

I conclude this update on this important topic by saying that for now the supplement industry has a little bit of breathing room. I will keep all of you informed if something should occur that warrants your attention.

Byron J. Richards