The big medical news this week is the action by the State of New York’s Attorney General’s office to shut down the sales of store-branded products of certain nutritional supplements. The Attorney General’s actions resulted from testing that, allegedly, shows the supplements either did not contain claimed active ingredients or were tainted with impurities ranging from garlic to houseplants.
Supporters, such as herbal trade and educational organizations, quickly decried the AG’s action because of potential faults with the testing methods.
Even David Kroll, writing for Forbes, says that pulling these products from the shelves may be premature. Kroll has been a vocal critic of the dietary supplement industry. And, he has the credentials: For 20 years he ran laboratories for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and American Cancer Society.
Kroll says that DNA testing may be inappropriate for some of these supplements because the industry trend has been to purify the products down to active ingredients, at which point DNA is no longer present, usually having been removed by organic solvents, such as alcohol.
Therefore, testing for specific active ingredients would be expected to give much more accurate results than testing for plant DNA.
Certainly this story is not finished, because everyone who is economically affected is going to want satisfaction.
What is the effect for pet owners?
“Consider the source.”
For years we have been telling you that glucosamine and chondroitin supplements to improve our pets’ joint health need to come from a trusted source.
That one source was and is Nutramax Laboratories. They are the only manufacturer of glucosamine and chondroitin products who sends their product to an independent, outside laboratory to affirm that what Nutramax says is in the bottle is actually in there.
Dasuquin. Cosequin. You can trust Nutramax Laboratories.
