In support of nutritional supplements

I have a problem with this campaign we are seeing recently of news stories that supplements harm the liver, are a waste of money, and so on, using the results of meta-studies that are pretty much no more rigorous than the studies sometimes used to support false claims.

It is not hard to pick out specific ingredients that do specific types of harm and eliminate them, making a generalized ban on all supplements unneeded.

Obviously controls are needed to assure manufacturing quality and to be sure pills contain what the label says they contain and nothing else.  The campaign should be limited to that.  The effort seems to be to put nutritional supplements under a very similar regulatory structure as now applies to prescription drugs.  I think this would be serious overkill.  Individuals who feel they want to buy nutritional insurance for things like folate and B12 and D3 should be able to do so, provided labels provide information as to maximum doses.  The convenience of packaging such supplements into a single pill should not be interfered with.

I am suspicious of popular press items that issues these warnings based on little science (so called "meta-studies" where the studies reviewed are selected seemingly to get the desired result) just as I am suspicious of claims appearing in the popular press touting this or that chemical. I am also suspicious of the fundamental regulatory mindset that ends up reducing freedom and increasing medical costs.