WEBVTT - Why doesn't the FDA regulate herbal supplements?

0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840
<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.640
<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know

0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:12.520
<v Speaker 1>from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to the podcast.

0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.200
<v Speaker 1>That's Chuck. I'm Josh. This is the Stuff you should Know,

0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:19.200
<v Speaker 1>coming to you live from Studio one, a deep within

0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.440
<v Speaker 1>the bowels of How Stuff Works corporate headquarters in Atlanta,

0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.759
<v Speaker 1>Georgia's gross. Yeah, I like to do that once in

0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.520
<v Speaker 1>a right, Nice, Chuck. My father spent the better part

0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.479
<v Speaker 1>of the late nineties is kind of um well. He

0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.080
<v Speaker 1>took a lot of pills. Okay, they were all herbal.

0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.440
<v Speaker 1>They were all herbal supplements, mind you. But he would

0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.559
<v Speaker 1>take like um uppers in the morning, like herbal uppers. Interesting.

0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.880
<v Speaker 1>And then he'd take like herbal downers like two oh

0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:47.680
<v Speaker 1>twos or four or four as I can't remember what

0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.519
<v Speaker 1>they're called um in the evening, you know, to relax.

0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.640
<v Speaker 1>And I call him the herbal Elvis and uh and

0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:57.720
<v Speaker 1>I kid you not. He did this like he up

0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.240
<v Speaker 1>and down and up and down, and finally he kick

0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:01.920
<v Speaker 1>the habit. I guess, I don't know if he takes

0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:03.640
<v Speaker 1>I know he takes a lot of vitamins and stuff

0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:06.600
<v Speaker 1>but I think it's it's healthier. Um. And plus now

0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.720
<v Speaker 1>he's retired, he has less reason to wake up in

0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:10.640
<v Speaker 1>the morning as long as he didn't pass away on

0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.920
<v Speaker 1>the toilet, you know, he hasn't. He hasn't, and thank god.

0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:16.880
<v Speaker 1>But the thing is that it kind of points out

0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:22.240
<v Speaker 1>like herbs can really pack a punch, you know. UM.

0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:28.399
<v Speaker 1>Like take mahuiang for example, um mahuang, better known in

0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.840
<v Speaker 1>this country as a fedra or a phedron, which is

0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:36.000
<v Speaker 1>actually the alkaloid, the isolated alkaloid of mahuang, which actually

0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:42.040
<v Speaker 1>in Chinese means bitter yellow, mahuyang bitter yellow at points.

0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.760
<v Speaker 1>It's to the the color of this little evergreen shrub

0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.480
<v Speaker 1>in the horrible taste of its leaves. Um mahwang has

0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:54.880
<v Speaker 1>a terrible taste, bitter yellow taste. UM. So you know,

0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.480
<v Speaker 1>the Chinese have been using the shrub for like five

0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.880
<v Speaker 1>thousand years, right, and they're not really having a lot

0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.800
<v Speaker 1>of trouble with it. Um. It comes to the United

0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.240
<v Speaker 1>States and the nineties, and all of a sudden, between

0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:10.600
<v Speaker 1>like the early nineties and two thousand three, there's like

0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:14.160
<v Speaker 1>sixteen thousand cases of death and injury reported to the

0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:18.160
<v Speaker 1>Federal government. Right, you've got truckers and college students popping

0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.639
<v Speaker 1>white crosses. It's uh. They're also a key ingredient in

0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.880
<v Speaker 1>so I mean, what happens what happened, right? I mean

0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.680
<v Speaker 1>the Chinese will happen to stuff for five thousand years,

0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:34.240
<v Speaker 1>it comes to the US and within a decade, sixteen

0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.880
<v Speaker 1>thousand people dropped like flies. I'll tell you what happens.

0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:40.720
<v Speaker 1>Americans love to get high. It's as simple as that.

0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.120
<v Speaker 1>Abuse exactly. It's abuse. It's a lack of understands, the

0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.360
<v Speaker 1>lack of respect um to the Chinese. What what we

0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.560
<v Speaker 1>consider herbs they consider drugs, and what we consider herbs

0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.280
<v Speaker 1>we don't really fear. We find them all natural, we don't.

0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.640
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's not regulated by the FDA, so how

0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.560
<v Speaker 1>could it be harmful? That's one of the interesting things

0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:03.720
<v Speaker 1>that I think you pointed out was if something is

0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:08.000
<v Speaker 1>the more heavily something is regulated, the more people will

0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:10.960
<v Speaker 1>fear less something is regulated, the more they think it's

0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.840
<v Speaker 1>just fine. Exactly. Like think about how you perceive tile

0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.600
<v Speaker 1>and all, and then how you perceive taile and all three.

0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.400
<v Speaker 1>That's stuff with codeine, which is pretty much like eight

0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:22.880
<v Speaker 1>milligrams of taile and all think something like that, really

0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.079
<v Speaker 1>not that big of a difference. If you've ever taken them,

0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.560
<v Speaker 1>the difference isn't significant. But yet ones like under lock

0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.800
<v Speaker 1>and key behind you know, the pharmacists counter, and the

0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:34.920
<v Speaker 1>other ones is right out where God and everybody can

0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.840
<v Speaker 1>shoplift it exactly. So, I mean you perceive them as

0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.840
<v Speaker 1>different because they're regulated, because the government's like whoa, whoa,

0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:43.520
<v Speaker 1>whoa pal. You just need to kind of back off that.

0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.840
<v Speaker 1>With herbs, there's no regulation whatsoever. They don't even sell

0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:48.839
<v Speaker 1>them in the same place as the taile and all,

0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.280
<v Speaker 1>so they seem even less significant as far as the

0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.720
<v Speaker 1>health risks go. But that's not true. There's plenty of

0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:59.040
<v Speaker 1>herbs out there that are just crazy potent um like detera.

0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.360
<v Speaker 1>You know, you know what an angel's trumpet is? Uh No,

0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:04.520
<v Speaker 1>I don't. It's not an article. Don't boither looking for it.

0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.400
<v Speaker 1>You can find an angeal angels trumpet plant in um

0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.560
<v Speaker 1>just about any southern backyard. They have like these long

0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:15.680
<v Speaker 1>trumpet shaped flowers, hence the name um. And if you

0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.800
<v Speaker 1>eat one of those flowers within an hour, you will

0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.119
<v Speaker 1>be baying at the moon and beating up the cops

0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.400
<v Speaker 1>who come to arrescue. It will drive you nuts. And

0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.840
<v Speaker 1>this is just an ornamental plant in US, no one

0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:32.280
<v Speaker 1>has any clue about it. Sounds like, yeah, I've never

0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.719
<v Speaker 1>I've never had the gall to actually eat one because

0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.080
<v Speaker 1>I don't like eating grass, which is apparently another side effect.

0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:39.520
<v Speaker 1>I think you might have licked a toad or two

0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.680
<v Speaker 1>in your data. Well. Actually, I've seen warnings to gardeners

0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.120
<v Speaker 1>saying if you have an Angel's trumpet plant and you're

0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.560
<v Speaker 1>messing with it, especially the flowers, like do not rub

0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:49.919
<v Speaker 1>your eyes, wash your hand, it will send you on

0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.679
<v Speaker 1>a wild ride. It's interesting. That's just one of many

0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.560
<v Speaker 1>um monkshood. It's one of the most potent chemical compounds,

0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.920
<v Speaker 1>naturally occurring compounds known to man. Can kill you, oh

0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.159
<v Speaker 1>very easily, stop your stop your heart and lung function,

0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.599
<v Speaker 1>just from handling it. Yeah. So, I mean there's a

0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.520
<v Speaker 1>lot of potent herbs out there because they grow from

0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.000
<v Speaker 1>the ground. Right. Because we have been wean we've been

0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:16.680
<v Speaker 1>at the forefront of modern medicine, we kind of disregard herbs.

0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:19.680
<v Speaker 1>That's another one that was an interesting one, wasn't Yeah,

0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:24.200
<v Speaker 1>that's the hallucinogenic uh. And I think you mentioned Jamestown

0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.560
<v Speaker 1>in your article. Yeah, detachment of the Jamestown Colony militia

0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.479
<v Speaker 1>ate a bunch of that, and it's salad. Uh, and

0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:36.120
<v Speaker 1>we just went crazy. We're just basically tripping for several days.

0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:38.799
<v Speaker 1>I think the guy who described it said they turned

0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.400
<v Speaker 1>to natural fools upon it for several days. So all

0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:45.039
<v Speaker 1>but that was quite a shock to them. Yeah, but yeah,

0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:46.680
<v Speaker 1>they didn't get a lot of work done those days.

0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:49.719
<v Speaker 1>But Okay, so I think we've established the argument that

0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.800
<v Speaker 1>herbs are potent very much. And the problem is as

0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:57.880
<v Speaker 1>Americans don't have a an ingrained respect for their potency

0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.200
<v Speaker 1>as do some of the older cultures. Right and beyond

0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.080
<v Speaker 1>that Americans, Uh, in the in the nineteen nineties and

0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:10.839
<v Speaker 1>uh into the two thousands, uh, traditional Chinese medicine became

0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.800
<v Speaker 1>more and more popular. So not only are these herbs

0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.119
<v Speaker 1>packing a punch and not regulated, but people really started

0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:20.280
<v Speaker 1>getting into it. Yeah, and and uh, what's the one St.

0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.960
<v Speaker 1>John's wort? You know, people think that these are just

0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.039
<v Speaker 1>cure alls. Well, and and it's not that they're not.

0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.560
<v Speaker 1>It's not that they don't have properties. This isn't like

0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.719
<v Speaker 1>snake oil that we're talking about. Um, it's that since

0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:36.680
<v Speaker 1>they're not regulated since they're not really looked into. Uh,

0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.000
<v Speaker 1>you have to effectively self medicate or listen to some

0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:41.960
<v Speaker 1>jerk at the health food store who may or may

0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.520
<v Speaker 1>not have any idea what he or she's talking about. Right, Um,

0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:49.160
<v Speaker 1>so it can be kind of dangerous. The problem is

0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:55.040
<v Speaker 1>is because of you know, the the arrogance of Western

0:06:55.120 --> 0:07:00.160
<v Speaker 1>medicine that it's the only true, viable and effective medicine. UM.

0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.919
<v Speaker 1>People pick up on that. So when people started taking herbs,

0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.400
<v Speaker 1>just average Joe's patients will call them um when they

0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.720
<v Speaker 1>started taking herbs. A two thousand three survey found that

0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:13.280
<v Speaker 1>seventy of people who take herbs don't tell their doctors

0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:15.360
<v Speaker 1>about them, right, because they're afraid they're going to be

0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:17.280
<v Speaker 1>told to not take them anymore. Right, which is a

0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:19.920
<v Speaker 1>which is a good fear, because you know, doctors don't

0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.360
<v Speaker 1>understand herbs anymore than the guy at the health food

0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:26.120
<v Speaker 1>store doesn't probably last. Um. So you've got that problem

0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.240
<v Speaker 1>and as a result, this thing called complimentary and alternative

0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:31.960
<v Speaker 1>medicine came about. It was basically saying, look, people are

0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.840
<v Speaker 1>running around taking herbs. We need to incorporate these other

0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:40.440
<v Speaker 1>medicines into western modern medicine. And see what we can do.

0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:42.400
<v Speaker 1>It's probably a good idea. It was a great idea

0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.640
<v Speaker 1>because traditional medicines generally are best at curing chronic diseases,

0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.440
<v Speaker 1>are handling chronic diseases, whereas western modern medicine is best

0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.360
<v Speaker 1>at acute diseases or acute you know, uh, conditions. So

0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:59.720
<v Speaker 1>my rule of thumb has always been rheumatoid arthreadis traditional medicine, right,

0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:03.320
<v Speaker 1>shot in the leg? You want to go with the

0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.920
<v Speaker 1>western medicine? Yeah, so gunshot wounded, Western medicine a good rule.

0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.240
<v Speaker 1>Rheumatoid arth threats, Yeah, do you want to go with

0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.400
<v Speaker 1>the traditional mission. So there was a movement to incorporate

0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:17.160
<v Speaker 1>these two. Uh. And the problem is is again, doctors

0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.360
<v Speaker 1>don't know any more about herbs than you or I,

0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.680
<v Speaker 1>and doctors can get sued a lot more easily if

0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.320
<v Speaker 1>they say take this herb and the person dies. If

0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.240
<v Speaker 1>we say that, we're just like, oh man, sorry I

0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.000
<v Speaker 1>didn't do that. Doctors like, okay, well there goes my practice.

0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.560
<v Speaker 1>Um So, of course doctors aren't going to recommend the stuff.

0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.200
<v Speaker 1>So c am cam never took off at all. And

0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:45.480
<v Speaker 1>um so, why why wouldn't the FDA regulate herbs? Well? Uh,

0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.600
<v Speaker 1>I think the research you found or you posited was

0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.560
<v Speaker 1>that urban ingredients, UM and supplements don't have to be

0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:57.000
<v Speaker 1>classified as drugs their dietary supplements. No, that's exactly right,

0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.880
<v Speaker 1>and this came about through the Dietary Supplement Health and

0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:04.080
<v Speaker 1>Education Act, which was issued in which is right. When

0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:06.240
<v Speaker 1>this stuff is really gearing up, there are a lot

0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.160
<v Speaker 1>of questions like should the FDA get involved in the

0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:13.359
<v Speaker 1>government said no, not only that, we're gonna put herbs

0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:18.120
<v Speaker 1>squarely out of the FDA's jurisdiction. See with UM any

0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.080
<v Speaker 1>kind of pharmaceutical, even even in over over the counter

0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.560
<v Speaker 1>drug Are we talking about approval here? Yeah, where you

0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.800
<v Speaker 1>and I would have to basically test these compounds testimon

0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.400
<v Speaker 1>rats and then you know, possibly other primates and then

0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.680
<v Speaker 1>moved human trials. It costs millions of dollars, and not

0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.199
<v Speaker 1>necessarily to the pharmaceutical companies. They get a lot of

0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.520
<v Speaker 1>their research done for free by universities. But it does

0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.280
<v Speaker 1>somebody's putting in millions. If not, you know, tens of

0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.400
<v Speaker 1>millions of dollars and an average of eight and a

0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.600
<v Speaker 1>half years to get it to the FDA for approval.

0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:54.079
<v Speaker 1>And the FDA either says no or they say yes,

0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:58.640
<v Speaker 1>and then they decreate as a controlled substance like a pharmaceutical,

0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.480
<v Speaker 1>prescribed pharmacy or over the counter. Right right. I thought

0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:05.400
<v Speaker 1>it was interesting that you you the fact that only

0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.560
<v Speaker 1>point one percent of compounds first tested received FDA approval.

0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.840
<v Speaker 1>That is way way low. Yeah, and I mean completely

0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:15.600
<v Speaker 1>I have to go back to the drawing board. But

0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:18.240
<v Speaker 1>you have to prove step by step that this is

0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.360
<v Speaker 1>not harmful to humans before the FDA approves it. What

0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:25.680
<v Speaker 1>the Dietary Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, the d

0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.400
<v Speaker 1>s h g A basically says, is not anymore, not

0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.200
<v Speaker 1>with herbal, not with herbal supplements. Yeah, these shoes. On

0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.000
<v Speaker 1>the other foot, the FDA has to prove that these

0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:38.400
<v Speaker 1>herbs are harmful before they can get them taken off

0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:42.240
<v Speaker 1>the shelves. And basically they have to prove that the

0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.680
<v Speaker 1>herb poses a a significant health risk or an imminent

0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.400
<v Speaker 1>public health risk, public safety risk. Yeah. And I bet

0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.360
<v Speaker 1>that FDA only gets involved if there are you know

0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:56.920
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of cases where this happens. Yeah, yeah, I mean,

0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:01.280
<v Speaker 1>like think about right exactly. Um So, and it's a

0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.800
<v Speaker 1>really long process. It's a really involved process, and the

0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:09.840
<v Speaker 1>FDA like most other federal agencies, is perennially understaffed and underfunded,

0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.880
<v Speaker 1>so it can be very difficult to get something taken

0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:14.880
<v Speaker 1>off the market, even if it is, you know, hurting

0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:17.360
<v Speaker 1>people in the meantime, it stays on the market until

0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:20.760
<v Speaker 1>they can you know, draw that line exactly. So, um,

0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.920
<v Speaker 1>there there are some limitations to it to what a

0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:30.360
<v Speaker 1>dietary supplement. Herbal manufacturers can say. One thing they can't

0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:35.560
<v Speaker 1>do is they can't say that their, um, their products treat, cure,

0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.120
<v Speaker 1>or mitigate a disease right now. This is how they

0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.880
<v Speaker 1>market themselves. Correct. Yes, yeah, So for example, uh, somebody

0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:46.679
<v Speaker 1>who who manufactures an herbal supplement with passion flower, Uh,

0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:50.520
<v Speaker 1>they can't say that the product treats anxiety. Instead, they

0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.040
<v Speaker 1>can say something like it quiets an anxious mind, right,

0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.400
<v Speaker 1>which to me sounds a lot like the old nineteenth

0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:01.800
<v Speaker 1>century tonic commercials Tonic every times like Heroin. It quiets

0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.520
<v Speaker 1>the anxious mind kind of thing. You know. It sounds

0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.920
<v Speaker 1>a lot like that, and it gets the same point

0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:13.240
<v Speaker 1>across as well. You're basically saying anxious anxiety, same thing quiets,

0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.800
<v Speaker 1>cures whatever. Um. There's also one other thing that that

0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:20.240
<v Speaker 1>you you can't use ingredients that are already banned. UM.

0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:24.000
<v Speaker 1>In April two thousand and seven, a Chinese product called

0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.360
<v Speaker 1>sang Jong Zoo tong Tan I believe that's what it's called.

0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.800
<v Speaker 1>Probably just butchered it um. It was taken off the

0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.679
<v Speaker 1>market in the US because it contained human placenta. So

0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.560
<v Speaker 1>the FDA does have some teeth her there. But for

0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:39.960
<v Speaker 1>the most part, if you and I want to go

0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:44.440
<v Speaker 1>somewhere and you know, manufacture it, we can sell them

0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:47.160
<v Speaker 1>to our hearts content, kill a bunch of people, make

0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.360
<v Speaker 1>a lot of money, and then get out before the

0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.240
<v Speaker 1>FDA can ever say, bood kick back on the beach somewhere.

0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.800
<v Speaker 1>Let's go do it with life. Yeah. So, if you

0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.720
<v Speaker 1>want to find out more about herbal supplements, the FDA,

0:12:57.880 --> 0:12:59.880
<v Speaker 1>all sorts of other stuff, just go check it all out.

0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.400
<v Speaker 1>Use our handy search bar at how stuff works dot com.

0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:09.319
<v Speaker 1>It's a cornu copia of information pharmacopia for more on

0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.920
<v Speaker 1>this and thousands of other topics. Because it how stuff

0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.200
<v Speaker 1>works dot com, let us know what should be Send

0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:20.520
<v Speaker 1>an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.

0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.199
<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:24.679
<v Speaker 1>It's ready are you