[hutchibk]

Just to play a little devil's advocate here... I am not in such a hurry to cast such a cynical light over the FDA regarding this. In reading the article, the FDA is doing nothing more than telling the internet sites to stop marketing them as safe (which has not been proven) and to stop making unproven claims to sell them. They are not prohibiting anyone from selling them (unless, perhaps, they have the illegal ingredient in them). They are still available to anyone who seeks them out. Should one wish to seek them out, my opinion is that it would be wise to seek out a naturopathic doctor who is knowledgeable and reputable to prescribe and/or compound, administer, and monitor you, and one who knows how his product is manufactured and where it comes from. My opinion is that the FDA needs to create an arm of the administration to specifically oversee and monitor the supplements, vitamins and herbs that are sold by everyone from very reputable companies/doctors to multitudes of snake oil salesmen. Where and how and with what ingredients are these things being produced? Are they really what they say they are? Take last year's pet food fiasco for example. Ingredients sold to the pet food companies were not really what the Chinese companies said they were, they were either entirely the toxic plastic chemical melamine, or were cut/laced with melamine to extend the supply of the supposed ingredient in order to make more money from it. So, you see, there are greedy agendas on both ends of the spectrum. Most supplement or herb companies do not want you to know their manufacturing standards and processes, which nobody checks on thanks to very powerful supplement industry lobbyists, of which there are hundreds. It is a multi-million dollar, largely un-scrutinized industry. Personally, I would never buy a drug or supplement over the internet, not since a friend's young wife died two years ago from liver toxicity caused by 3 weeks of using chinese herbs she ordered on the internet to treat arthritis in her knee, and it was determined that not all ingredients were natural herbs. Just one girl's opinion.