The FDA Goes After Supplement Snake Oil

This week's issue of ALZ Forum carried several interesting articles, one of them on an FDA crackdown on the supplement industry.  The FDA is moving against 17 companies it accuses of illegally marketing dietary supplements as dementia treatments.  Some of these made explicit claims to treat AD. 

The article quotes one researcher as saying “There is zero evidence from any reasonably rigorous study that any supplement or dietary aid has any benefit on cognitive function or decline in late life.”  The article references analysis that reviewed many studies looking for evidence that some dietary supplements may help but found nothing.

In some cases, an early study of a supplement with seemingly positive results failed to fulfill its promise in a larger, statistically significant group of test subjects.  When the larger study failed, the supplement companies sometimes marketed the supplement anyway.  Presumably they cited the early results from small groups and didn't tell consumers the supplements failed when more thoroughly tested.   

Consistent with what we said in Beating the Dementia Monster, researchers noted that in the case of a documented deficiency, such as Vitamin B12, supplements may in fact help with dementia caused by vitamin deficiency, but this is not AD.

Phony claims about supplements helping with AD have been around for a long time.  Claims made on internet web sites drive researchers and medical professionals nuts, so maybe this will bring more rigor to supplement company claims.  But the authors of the article weren't that optimistic, since the industry is so large, and the internet is so hard to police for fraud.