"Unapproved pharmaceutical ingredients" the secret to many vitamin supplements

Research from the California Department of Food and Agriculture has shown that many vitamin and herbal supplements carry a payload of undeclared, and unapproved, drugs.

No wonder that magnesium make me feel so cheerful.

Via Science Alert:

A new analysis of 10 years of FDA records reveals that from 2007 to 2016, almost 750 dietary supplements were found to be contaminated with secret doses of totally unregulated drugs, including prescription medicines, banned and unapproved chemicals, and designer steroids.

Over 20 percent of these offending products contained more than one unapproved drug ingredient, and numerous contained a cocktail of clandestine chemicals – in two cases, as many as six unlisted ingredients.

For a US$35 billion industry patronised by about half of American adults, it's possible this data could be just the tip of the iceberg, too.

'The drug ingredients in these dietary supplements have the potential to cause serious adverse health effects owing to accidental misuse, overuse, or interaction with other medications, underlying health conditions, or other pharmaceuticals within the supplement,' researchers from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Sacramento, explain in their paper.

Given that supplement use is associated with some 23, 000 ER visits and 2,000 hospitalisations in the US each year, it's clear we're looking at a big problem here, but what's even more shocking than the brazen selling of these illicit additives is how tame and toothless the FDA's official actions were.