FDA Information

Things you might want to know about over-the-counter medications according to our friends at the FDA

Our purpose here is to show you surfers how to spot legit food and drug products so you can make sound, safe buying decisions.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has oversight of what is safe for human consumption in the food and drug industries.  Sometimes these industries overlap, as in the case of dietary supplements and over-the-counter-drugs, and can actually confuse or even mislead the public—sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.

So the FDA established a system of rules for each industry to avoid confusion and to ensure that products you purchase are indeed what they are advertised to be… within the scope of the FDA along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

For consumers, you don’t have to worry about the dirty details.  All you have to do is read the labels.  If the product is a drug and advertises a drug benefit, i.e., pain relief like miraFlex, it will have a “Drug Facts” label advising you what the product does, daily dosage and certain cautions, among other things.  Having a Drug Facts label is an indicator that the product has passed a series of rigorous FDA mandated tests for purity and stability and that the active ingredient(s) meet certain FDA requirements for safety and effectiveness under those tests.

Supplement packaging is similar except they will carry a “Supplement Facts” label.  This label is similar in appearance to the Drug Facts label but is light years apart in allowable claims.  We call them structure/function claims.  Supplement labels are permitted to contain dietary benefits for the product that suggests it improves the function or structure of the human body, i.e., “glucosamine helps build strong joints.”  What it may not say is that “glucosamine reduces the pain of arthritis.”  Heard that one before?  In that case, in the eyes of the FDA, the product crosses the line of being a mere supplement into becoming a drug by virtue of the expressed benefit of treating the disease.

The issue here is safety. The FDA does not require rigorous testing of supplements or their raw materials for purity or pesticides. Whether they should or shouldn’t require testing is debatable—there are costs involved and there are industry watchdogs.  However, your better companies like Longeva will test every batch of raw ingredients for purity and potency.  A link to the FDA is provided at the end here if you care to really get into it.

The purpose here is to help you wade through the fog of unwarranted product claims so you can make better purchasing decisions.  With supplements where there tends to be a lot of abuses, all you really have to remember is that the advertising cannot make claims that the supplement has any effect on any disease or disease process, i.e., improving your eyesight, lowering cholesterol or reducing pain.

Legitimate companies go to a great deal of effort and expense in the process of formulating, filing and labeling products for market.  They’re labeled properly and advertised properly.  If you don’t see a Drug Facts label on a product that claims to ease your arthritis pain, think twice before you fill out that order form.

http://www.fda.gov/cder/offices/OTC/default.htm