Amicus Letter to the Second Circuit Court

Looking back at the Vitamin Volstead Act, DSHEA, Codex, the AER Bill, and MPLs By James J. Gormley, Gormley NPI Consulting, CFH President and Senior Policy Advisor This post first appeared on Nutraceuticals World, reposted with permission Retailers, consumers, and natural products industry stakeholders have a history of generally—although not exclusively—uniting for what they considered the common good against regulation…

Happy New Year to all of our supporters, friends, allies and readers. Now that the wrapping paper is gone and noisemakers are stowed, we wanted to send this very brief note looking back at (and forward to) a few issues relating to natural products, health and the environment. First, there is general uncertainty as to whether the anti-over-regulatory winds in…

Is Vitamin D the Panacea that has Eluded Big Pharma?  By LINDA BONVIE and BILL BONVIE “We don’t need to develop a new drug. We already have it.” That’s how the lead author of a new study of one of our most essential nutrients has summed up his team’s surprising new findings about what it can do for people suffering…

What is a dietary supplement? Advances in technology and new ingredient discoveries have prompted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to rethink what constitutes a supplement. During a recent public meeting with industry representatives titled “Exploring the Scope of Dietary Supplement Ingredients,” the FDA tried to better define what makes up a dietary supplement. The answer and its implications for…

Capitol Wellness Expo Exhibits, Speakers, Networking February 7, 2013 10:00a to 5:30p, Cannon House Office Building, Rooms 121 and 122. Free Admission. All are welcome. Please take a moment to forward this flyer to your Representative and Senators. Ask them to send someone from their offices, and to post the flyer. Click here to find contact information for your Representative…

Our right to access safe, healthy supplements and functional foods is under threat again. Massachusetts has introduced bills that would restrict the sale of weight loss and muscle-building supplements to children under the age of 18. Massachusetts’ actions would unlawfully deter consumers away from nutritional supplements, causing confusion and harming retail sales. The bills are similar to one passed last…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, October 30, 2015 Big Names; Big Mistakes Consumers Misled by Supplement Bashing by Gert Schuitemaker, PhD (1) and Bo Jonsson, MD, PhD (2) (OMNS, Oct 30, 2015) Big names: the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), arguably the most prestigious medical journal in the world. Plus, the New York Times. On October 14th,…

At a time when millions of Americans rely on dietary supplements to support their health and wellness, Congress should be focused on policies that protect consumer access, choice and innovation. Unfortunately, Sen. Dick Durbin’s reintroduction of the Dietary Supplement Listing Act misses the mark. Why this bill is wrong for consumers While the bill is promoted as a commonsense measure…

YOU Are the Truth Champions By James J. Gormley Facts. Truth. What is it about versions of these words that have had shifting uses and meanings throughout the millennia? They have been morphed into tools of propaganda, instruments of oppression and even edicts from kings or despots—who say what they decide is the truth. Many of us who are believers…

Courtesy of our allies at Alliance for Natural Health This time it’s been slipped into a defense bill. Major Action Alert – Send Your Letter Now! We suspected it would only be a matter of time before Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) launched his next broadside against supplements. Once again, Durbin and his allies, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), are pouncing…

Is a New Drug Strategy Really What We Need to Prevent Alzheimer’s?  By LINDA BONVIE and BILL BONVIE So what’s up with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? An agency that has been derelict in its duties of protecting the public for quite some time now appears to have gone completely off the rails (as have other regulatory entities) since…

A bill requiring dietary supplement manufacturers to list their products with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prior to market entry has re-surfaced yet again. Just three months after Sen. Dick Durbin introduced the 2026 version of his Dietary Supplement Listing Act, Rep. Maxine Dexter, MD has reintroduced the same bill earlier this month. Concerns about the legislation Over the…

Newly introduced legislation would allow Americans to aside funds to cover the purchase of dietary supplements, treating them as qualified medical expenses. The Dietary Supplement Access Act would allow citizens to use up to $500 annually that they contribute to Health Saving Accounts (HSA) or Flexible Savings Accounts (FSA) on the purchase of vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, and amino acids…

By James J. Gormley Courtesy of the SupplySide Community On April 24th, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent warning letters to 10 companies cautioning them, in the strictest possible terms, that their DMAA (1,3 Dimethylamylamine)-containing products may be considered new dietary ingredients for which notifications have not been submitted and, so, would be adulterated products in violation of…

By James J. Gormley It is personally disappointing for me that Consumer Reports, the flagship of the respected marketplace-empowerment organization, Consumers Union, has once again seen fit to arm the American consumer with detrimental misinformation regarding safe, beneficial food supplements. In the alarmist piece which appears in the September 2012 issue, the anti-supplement subtitle reads: “Don’t assume they’re safe because…