the WSJ reported today that the FDA sent out warnings to several alternative therapy manufacturers who produce products claiming to treat or cure cancer…

The agency action came in warning letters to 23 companies and two individuals selling 127 herbal, fungal and animal-based health products. Many of the enterprises are home-based and trade only over the Internet. The substances are a varied lot: shark cartilage, turmeric extract, flaxseed oil, dried mushrooms, herbal teas and irritating skin salves made from bloodroot.

FDA says this has been done to protect the safety of the public, because there is little evidence behind the claims of the product….

The campaign is the latest effort in the agency’s systematic targeting of products that are being sold to treat or prevent illness but have not weathered the elaborate proofs of safety and effectiveness required of licensed pharmaceuticals. The FDA views a Web site’s claim of what an herbal product may cure or prevent as a “drug label” — a highly regulated description that must be backed by scientific evidence.

The FDA link appears to show that small manufacturers were targeted.

I am not sure why these manufacturers made medical claims regarding their supplements because this is not the first time the FDA cracked down on the misrepresentation of vitamin/herbal/tincture/etc... Its going to be a LONG time till evidence is produced to support even the established modalities like Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, North American/European Herbal Medicine, Chinese/Japanese/Indian Acupuncture, etc…

I would personally like to see a standardization of knowledge at apothecaries/vitamin shops…. say, a pharmacist equivalent of vitamins, herbs and homeopathy. I encountered several patients in a 2 year period, while rotating though hospitals as a medical student, who lacked knowledge of CAM’s limitations notable by their unsuccessful self treatment which cost them a trip to the ER.

Possibly I will write about some of those experiences I’ve had…. One was an intelligent but suicidal patient who unsuccessfully treated herself with St johns Wort.