Botanical and dietary supplements

Crush & Bloom

There’s an old saying that goes: “No one is safe when legislature is in session.” That same sort of reasonable caution would also apply when a trilateral crew of bureaucrats host a meeting to discuss the health benefits of herbs and natural supplements.

Last week, three branches of the National Institutes of Health threw a little party they called, “Mechanistic Studies of Cardiovascular Effects of Botanicals.” And you could almost smell the furious wheels of bureaucracy burning. The trio of branches comprised an “office,” a “center,” and an “institute” – namely the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

According to the FDA, the dietary supplement business has exploded into a $16 billion-a-year industry. And if you’re a government bureaucrat, that large market must look like an untamed wilderness just begging for a federal agency to go in and blaze trails, pave the roads and police the streets.

When garlic’s aim is true

The NIH meeting of international scientists and researchers convened last Thursday to discuss and guide future research on the cardiovascular effects of popular botanicals, including garlic, ginkgo biloba, hawthorn, and phytoestrogens. The botanical that received the most attention was garlic – a supplement revealed to be far more complex than you might imagine. Garlic, it seems, isn’t really all that it can be until you crush it or chew it. That’s when the clove is chemically transformed to become a helpmate to the cardiovascular system.

The moment a clove of garlic is crushed, a sort of “blooming” of chemicals occurs. This release of chemicals triggers the active ingredients that are thought to provide healthy benefits such as protection against bacterial and fungal infections, blood clots, and high blood pressure.

But because garlic has such a complex chemical breakdown, more than 170 clinical trials have not produced an agreement on exactly what makes garlic a heart-healthy dietary supplement. It’s generally accepted that the most likely active ingredient is a chemical called allicin, but allicin is an unstable chemical that may be ineffective when cooked or processed.

That doesn’t mean your daily garlic pills aren’t doing everything the manufacturer says they are. They may well be. But the NIH bigwigs want to have a hand in designing future studies to find out exactly what makes garlic and other botanicals effective supplements. That way, when the specific mysteries of garlic, ginkgo biloba, and soy are revealed, NIH will be in the loop and in a perfect position to help determine guidelines for regulation.

Here come the regulators

And like any bureaucracy worth its salt, the NIH has deep pockets and a long reach. This past July, NIH announced that two of its many branches (The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Office of Dietary Supplements), will establish a research center in Ames, Iowa, to study two popular botanicals: Echinacea (believed to diminish colds and infections) and St. John’s wort (the widely used antidepressant).

This new research center is supported by a grant from NIH for $6 million over the next 5 years. Their mission: to advance the scientific base of knowledge on the effectiveness, safety and biological action of echinacea and St. John’s wort.

Personally, I avoid prognosticating. It doesn’t work in Vegas, it doesn’t work in football (just ask the St. Louis Rams), it doesn’t even work for weather half the time. Nevertheless, I’m willing to bet that this news does not bode well for either echinacea or St. John’s wort.

Believe me, I’m all for the further study of botanical and dietary supplements, but I don’t hold out a great deal of hope that we’ll be getting good reports out of Ames, Iowa, over the next 5 years telling us how St. John’s wort is safer and more effective than any antidepressant pharmaceutical on the market, and how echinacea use can help liberate us from the long range dangers of antibiotics.

Meanwhile, the FDA announced last spring that it plans to issue its first set of guidelines for dietary supplements later this year – a so-called government “framework” for regulating the strength, purity and ingredients in dietary supplements.

Can you hear that scraping noise in the distance? That’s the sound of federal bureaucrats and regulators sharpening their knives.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute