A United States Senator this week raised concerns about dietary supplements that claim to protect against dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and urged 15 major companies and retailers to explain why they sell dubious supplements.
The senator, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, sent a letter this week to Amazon, Walmart, GNC and a dozen other top retailers and companies asking what, if anything, they are doing to prevent the sale of fraudulent and potentially dangerous supplements. In her letter to Amazon, for example, Senator McCaskill referred to one herbal supplement sold on the company’s website called “Brain Armor.”
The product claims to provide protection against Alzheimer’s, dementia, stroke, memory loss and cognitive decline. “Greatly improve your odds of avoiding Alzheimer’s, memory loss, etc.,” the makers of the product claimed on Amazon.com. Senator McCaskill said “Brain Armor” and other supplements that make outrageous claims were preying on some of the country’s most vulnerable people.
“People looking online for cures or treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are at their most desperate — and it’s clear from what we’ve found that many of these products prey on that desperation,” said Senator McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Special Committee on Aging. “Right now, it’s like the wild west when it comes to the production, marketing, distribution and sale of these products. I want to figure out why that is and what we can do to better protect America’s seniors.”
Under a federal law, companies are allowed to make general claims about what their supplements can do for health, but they are not allowed to say that their products can cure or treat specific diseases.
The Food and Drug Administration has targeted individual companies that violate this regulation. But critics say that the law is vague, and they argue that the F.D.A. has had limited success in cracking down on what has become a widespread practice.
Several top officials at the F.D.A. – including the current director of the agency’s dietary supplement division – have been former employees of the largest supplement industry trade group, prompting consumer advocates to raise concerns that the agency may be hampered by conflicts of interest.
The law that regulates dietary supplements, known as the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, or Dshea, was enacted in 1994 and sponsored in part by Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, a state where many large supplement companies are headquartered. Senator Hatch has strong financial ties to the supplement industry and has repeatedly intervened on its behalf to block new legislation aimed at reforming the law.
In the past year, however, several lawmakers and law enforcement authorities have begun to apply pressure on retailers selling questionable supplements.
In February, the New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, accused Walmart, GNC, Target and Walgreens of selling mislabeled and contaminated herbal products. The investigation prompted a group of 14 state attorneys general to ask Congress to investigate the herbal supplement industry.
In April, three Democratic senators – including Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois – demanded that the F.D.A. take action against another group of supplements sold at Vitamin Shoppe and other retailers that contained BMPEA, a synthetic, amphetamine-like stimulant that medical experts say is dangerous. The F.D.A. eventually issued warning letters to eight companies.
Senator McCaskill has been aggressive in drawing attention to problems in the supplement industry. Last year, as head of the Senate subcommittee on consumer protection, she held a hearing on weight loss supplements and scolded Dr. Mehmet Oz – who testified at the hearing – for promoting “diet scams” on his daytime television show.
On Wednesday, Senator McCaskill shifted her attention to products aimed at seniors and those concerned about age-related cognitive decline. In her letter to the 15 companies and retailers, she asked them to explain their marketing of dietary supplements and their policies on the removal of products “determined to be adulterated, improperly labeled or fraudulently marketed.”
Among the companies that received letters from Senator McCaskill were Walgreens, Target, CVS, Kroger, QVC, Safeway, eBay, the Home Shopping Network, Vitamin Shoppe, Google and Yahoo.
In her letter to Amazon, Senator McCaskill specifically mentioned the company’s sale of “Brain Armor” but added there were others like it. She pointed to additional products sold on Amazon that promise to improve memory and concentration and “ease other forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease.”
Senator McCaskill also sent a detailed letter to the F.D.A. demanding that the agency provide evidence of any enforcement actions it had taken in the last five years against companies making illegal claims about their supplements.
“While we understand that the F.D.A. undertakes periodic reviews and targeted investigations of dietary supplements currently on the market,” Senator McCaskill said, “concerns have been raised that the F.D.A.’s current regulatory authorities lack a systematic approach to preventing adulterated, mislabeled and fraudulent products from entering the market.”