Sadly, it's not just GMOs that are an issue when it comes to the Supplements industry and not knowing how many of them contain GMO products. In general, the industry itself is very corrupt even apart from that.
It has been repeatedly documented that many of the medicines given to people wee done through heavy influence of corporations/BIG Businesses pushing things through, with a lack of regulation being what allowed for them to get many things past inspection......and they were able to get their products through by playing on the minds of others they want as customers when saying that government regulation means that they don't want markets to make "healthy products to help the people"...
Many don't have remembrance of how the FDA tried to regulate other things sold by the drug/pharmecutical companies and people felt it was too "restrictive"..demanding for more freedom, especially as it related to "organic" foods/dietary
supplements.........with the creation of the DHSEA act being made to address it. But then the same companies took advantage of the loose laws and began adding herbal elements to the drugs so that they'd not be considered "drugs" but "health supplements"....and much of the material at the local food market in the herbal section is actually drugs that have been repackaged to avoid inspection.
One man who was a prominent basketball player actually died from using ephedra (which alters your nervous system)---all from supplements he got at the market ...and really drugs that were able to slip by due to deregulation. For more,
Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Steve Belcher is one prominent example amongst others (more shared
here and
here and
here/
here,
here,
here and
here ). At least 155 people died from taking medications containing ephedra. In late 2003, the FDA announced that it would ban the sale of all ephedra-containing drugs.
Ephedra can cause heatstroke for two reasons:
- It impairs the body's ability to (lose) heat.
- It makes you hypermetabolic -- that is, it increases the metabolism, which then helps the body to produce more heat internally. As a result, your heart rate goes up and blood pressure elevates, which causes the blood vessels to constrict. It's harder to lose heat through constricted blood vessels.
These two factors can predispose people to heatstroke," stated Barish, a nationally known heatstroke expert. "Other amphetamines, stimulants and some over-the-counter drugs also do this."
In Bechler's case, Barish said that several factors led to his death: he took ephedra, it was a warm day and he was exercising. Given that he was also predisposed to heat exhaustion, that is what put him over the top.
According to Barish, Bechler was the first professional baseball player to die from heatstroke; usually football players are at more risk. "But now all bets are off," warns Barish. "If you're taking a drug like ephedra which predisposes you to heatstroke, then anyone can be at risk."
The Iowa Women's Health Study has recently found that older women who used multivitamins and other supplements are at higher risk of dying than those who didn't. Specifically cited were vitamin B6, folic acid, iron, magnesium, zinc and copper. In addition to possibly doing harm in high doses, the poorly regulated supplements pose two other dangers, as Marion Nestle, a
food and nutrition specialist at New York University, noted. They may contain impurities from the manufacturing process. And they may not have the active ingredient on the label. A person who eats "reasonably well," she added, doesn't need any dietary pill unless a test shows a deficiency.
Read a really powerful book on the subject for a class I had to do for
graduate school, entitled
"Food and Politics" by
Marion Nestle (
who is a renowed professor/one who worked in the government for health). Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (the department she chaired from 1988-2003) and Professor of Sociology at New York University. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California.
Her work is truly a godsend when seeing the ways that a lack of regulation in the name of "free markets" has led to a lot of problems that people still say they want to fight against even as they continue to advocate for a lack of government involvement in the medical world.....
Ver thankful that
Marion Nestle has done a lot of work on the issue (as have many others for decades) and it's not hidden what other companies are doing.