Why Aren't Vitamins Approved By the FDA?

Why aren't vitamins approved by the FDA?  A question I hear often from those wary to take anything that is not approved by the government agency.

In 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), allows dietary supplement/vitamin manufacturers sole responsibility for the accuracy of their labels/claims and the safety of their product.  This is because dietary supplements are under the jurisdiction of food and do not need to be approved by the FDA. They do not need FDA approval or regulation in order to put their products into the market. However, FDA does have the jurisdiction to remove supplements and vitamins that are unsafe only after they have entered the market. Their responsibilities include monitoring safety and product information, which allows them to check up on supplements.

According to the Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' national poisoning and exposure database, the number of deaths or poison from ingesting vitamin supplements is at or near zero every year!! Considering HALF of adult Americans are taking vitamin supplements this is an incredible safety record. 

Millions of Americans and me included, have been taking vitamins successfully for decades.  My family has directly benefited from using nutritional supplements for a variety of health issues including cholesterol management, pain resulting from back and joints, menstrual issues, and allergies.  Our medicine cabinet holds a bottle of Motrin that has been there for months!  We have to replace it yearly to get a fresh bottle!  

On the other hand, deaths from FDA approved drugs and other medical errors reach numbers of over 200,000 every year!

I would feel very comfortable recommending anyone to look into taking vitamins.  If you take what your body needs, you will feel better and your health will improve in the long run.  

This link will direct you to a questionnaire that will calculate what vitamins you need to  take personally based on your lifestyle. Nutriphysical. 

 

Please leave a reply!  I'd love to hear your thoughts!