Re-thinking the dietary supplement laws and regulations 14 years after the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act implementation

Abstract

In 1994, after intensive lobbying by the supplement industry, US federal legislation passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, and essentially removed so-called 'dietary supplements' from the US Food and Drug Administration control. Some companies are marketing herbal medications in the USA as dietary supplements. Even some dietary supplement manufacturers produce a 'mimic drug' rather than a 'dietary supplement'. The US Food and Drug Administration is able to do nothing except wait for the next incident to occur before other dietary supplement products have also caused serious effects. In the present article, the author discusses international regulations and laws of dietary supplements, and hopes to see more new laws and regulations to assure people of continued access to high-quality natural healthcare products and dietary supplements.