Topic: Consumer group asks FDA to ban GINGKO BILOBA after study links to CANCER

[AndrewSturm]

A study in March by the National Toxicology Program found that the popular dietary supplement gingko biloba caused cancer in lab animals, and, as a result, the Center for Science in the Public Interest is urging the Food and Drug Administration to ban it.

The supplement industry — which includes companies like Bayer, GNC, and Nature’s Way — has long purported that gingko biloba enhances memory and can delay dementia, though scant scientific data backs up such claims.

“The dietary supplement industry is full of snake oil salesmen,” CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson told The Daily News. “It’s frustrating to see so many deceptive claims for dietary supplements.”

The new National Toxicology Program findings present a decidedly negative picture of gingko biloba, the herbal extract from the gingko tree.

“We conclude that gingko biloba extract caused cancers of the thyroid gland in male and female rats and male mice and cancers of the liver in male and female mice,” the study concluded.

Critics of the program’s study said that the doses administered to the laboratory animals were much too high to show whether gingko biloba is unhealthy for humans.

“This says nothing about toxicity in people or what would be a safe dose in people,” Steven Dentali, chief scientific officer for the American Herbal Products Association, told the New York Times. “It’s just a crude tool toxicologists have to determine if something is harmful. If it hurts the animals, maybe it hurts people.”

According to Jacobson, questioning the dosages used in a study is a standard response for industry groups seeking to avoid further regulation.

“The National Toxicology Program is the government’s primary agency for the testing of chemicals,” Jacobson said. “They are the gold standard of testing, not a bunch of amateurs.”

But the FDA appears reluctant to take decisive action gingko biloba.

“While FDA is concerned about the findings of the studies, and will consider the implications it may have for the safety of dietary supplements containing gingko biloba, it is not scientifically valid to conclude with certainty that dietary supplement products containing gingko biloba are unsafe based solely on data from the new NTP study,” FDA Spokesperson Tamara N. Ward wrote to The News. “In the study, rats and mice were fed amounts of gingko biloba extracts (by body weight) that may be considerably greater from those which a consumer would normally ingest from a dietary supplement product containing gingko biloba. In addition, there may be differences in the extract used in these studies in contrast to what is available on the market for gingko biloba dietary supplements.”

The FDA currently bans gingko biloba in food and beverages, but the supplement can be found in staggering number of products— from Bayer One A Day Women’s 50 Plus Advantage to Rockstar energy drink.

“You see gingko listed on energy drink cans, and the implication there is that there must be some kind of health benefit,” Jacobson said. “The public spends billions of dollars each year on worthless products that purport to improve health.”

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is calling on the FDA to give manufacturers who use gingko biloba 30 days to have it removed from their products, but is realistic about the speed at which the federal agency often moves to regulate supplements.

“I would think the FDA would have an easy time now telling companies to remove gingko biloba from their products,” Jacobson said. “Unfortunately, it will likely take years of court appeals before that happens.”


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cancer-fears-lead-group-call-gingko-ban-article-1.1362149


Although not definite, but take caution in taking these "wonder" supplements.

[dweizz]

sama na nila lahat ng drugs na may nakalagay na "NO APPROVED Therapeutic Claim"