Whom Do You Trust (Supplements)

And now, the latest scandals in herbal supplements: I've been taking various herbal supplements over the years. And sometimes I've wondered if they were doing me any good. I would read up on them before I took them (of course), and I would be amused by the conflicting data about their usefulness. But I never thought that maybe they weren't doing any good because what I thought I was taking wasn't even in the pills!

Walmart, Target, and GNC have been accused by New York State’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of selling "scam herbal supplements. 

In fact, according to Schneiderman's investigation, "best-selling supplements not only didn’t work, but were potentially dangerous, with four out of five of the products not even listing any herbs in their ingredients–instead, the supplements contained fillers including powdered rice, houseplants and asparagus. Fraudulent products include echinacea, ginseng, St. John’s wort, garlic, ginkgo biloba and saw palmetto."

....These drugs are not subject to the F.D.A.’s approval because of a loophole in a 1994 federal law (spearheaded by Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch who received funding from supplement makers), fraudulent products can easily reach consumers without accountability or oversight.

Right...So why should we trust politicians who say vaccinations are good and necessary for our children, or companies that sell supposedly health-promoting products, or the government, which is supposed to be protecting us from frauds and scams like this? Yep, I certainly do understand the frustrations and doubts of the anti-vaxxers, even though I don't agree with them for a single minute.