Updated Herbal Supplement Regulations Needed

With the significant increase of Americans using herbal supplements over the past years, the regulations of these products has become more vital. While new information has been discovered on many of these herbal supplements, their nutrition labels and regulations have not significantly changed since the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) became law in 1994. Over half of our population reportedly consumes herbal supplements on a regular basis (Burton). It is necessary that our nation, and the rest of the world, have up-to-date information on these products and their effects.

According to Dan Burton in the Dietary Supplement Protection Act of 2011, national surveys in 2006 showed that, “232,000,000 adults over the age of 18 alone consumed dietary supplements.” With the drastically increasing number of Americans consuming herbal supplements, the manufacturers and producers of these products have raked in billions of dollars over the past years. The American Botanical Council reported that sales of dietary supplements were, “more than $25 billion in 2010,” and that, “sales of herbal products specifically have increased approximately 2% annually since 2000 to $5.2 billion in 2010” (Radler). With sales like these, one can imagine why industries may be reluctant to have new regulations passed on their products.

As discussed before, the current regulations of herbal supplement are through the DSHEA, which was established by Congress twenty years ago under pressure from the public (Marcus and Grollman). However, the passage of this act undermined The Food and Drug Acts of the 20th century, which provided important protection to the public and allowed dietary supplement industries to be free of the FDA’s careful oversight ...

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...ement Protection Act of 2011. 112th Cong., 1st sess. Cong H.R. 3380. Dan Burton (IN), 04 Nov. 2011. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.

Food and Drug Administration. "Food Labeling: Revision of the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels." Regulations.gov. Regulations.gov, 03 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.

Marcus, Donald M. and Arthur P. Grollman. "Botanical Medicines — The Need for New Regulations." The New England Journal of Medicine 347.25 (2002): n. pag. 19 Dec. 2002. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.

Radler, Diane Rigassio. "Dietary Supplements." Nutrition in Kidney Disease. 2nd ed. N.p.: Humana, 2014. 381-87. Nutrition and Health. Springer Link. © Springer, Part of Springer Science Business Media, 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2014.

Zakaryan, Annet and Irwin G. Martin. "Regulation of Herbal Dietary Supplements: Is there a Better Way?" Drug information journal 46.5 (2012): 532-44. ProQuest. Web. 4 Mar. 2014