John Oliver of Last Week Tonight (formerly of The Daily Show) provides a thoughtful, informative, and very funny report on the recent grilling of Dr. Mehmet Oz by Senator Claire McCaskill ansd the shameful success of the supplement industry lobbying Congress (especially Senators Orrin Hatch and Tom Harkin) to prevent sensible publich health regulations for dietary supplements. Bravo John!
John nailed it!
I was surprised when two of the senators asked the witnesses if they felt the FDA could be or should be doing more to regulate the supplement industry – it seemed only the FTC was willing to answer but pretty much side-lined the question. Bummer, it could have opened up discussions regarding DSHEA, although I realize much of the hearing was not only about weight loss product claims, rather the advertising problems.
I’m still questioning however, why a senator would think Oz should be in any position to create a list (to eventually be placed in a health database) of reputable supplement companies.