WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In response to the publication of a review article, "Use of Herbal Products and Potential Interactions in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease," published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the leading trade association representing the dietary supplement industry, issued the following statement:
Statement by Douglas MacKay, N.D., vice president, scientific and regulatory affairs, CRN:
"We question how a peer-reviewed publication would even accept an article such as this, given the fact that the authors make conclusions about 'herbal remedies' based on their own uninformed, inaccurate, and outdated interpretation of the law which covers dietary supplements, including herbal supplements. The article contains sweeping generalizations, often not backed by relevant citations, and copious factual errors, including a reference to products -- some of which are not actually herbal supplements -- that produce adverse effects on the cardiovascular system.
In particular, the article does not acknowledge important changes in the law and regulations governing dietary supplements that make many of the statements in the article irrelevant or flat-out wrong. For example, the Dietary Supplement and Non-Prescription Drug Consumer Protection Act, passed in 2006, requires dietary supplement manufacturers to report any serious adverse events to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This post-market surveillance tool -- in addition to the issuance in 2007 of newly updated Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) for all dietary supplements—greatly strengthened regulations for this industry.
According to CRN, 24 percent of American adults take herbal supplements each year(1) and there is no basis for the authors' conclusio
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