“Chinese Source” Not the Issue with Nutritional Ingredients
 
“There are thousands of ways to ensure a product is safe, pure and potent,” explains Dr. Michael Murray, naturopathic physician and author of dozens of books on natural health product and issues. He adds, “Negative generalizations about ‘Chinese ingredients’ in nutritional products are worse than ignorant, they are factually irresponsible as they may cause people to abandon products and therapies that have given them very real health support and improvement.”
 
Dr. Murray was responding to recent media sensationalizing of concerns about Chinese-sourced ingredients as they are used in some supplements and herbal products.
 
“North American manufacturers of supplements and herbal products are not the uncontrolled, irresponsible gang the media and the pharmaceutical industry make them out to be. They meet extremely stringent quality control standards. It doesn’t matter if raw materials come from Boise, Idaho or Shanghai; every ingredient in a natural health product made by a reputable North American manufacturer is tested for hundreds of characteristics and qualities, as well as being screened for any and all possible contaminants. Quality control is a HUGE part of the manufacturing process. The source of ingredients is NOT an issue when the raw materials undergo such thorough testing.”
 
A Maclean’s Magazine article says “critics raise troubling questions” - well isn’t that what critics do? Manufacturers of natural health products have answers to these “troubling questions”. The answers include detailed scientific test results on all raw materials, ingredients and finished goods. “Certificates of Analysis” contain data on a product’s levels of natural compounds and its absence of contaminants. Medical and scientific experts use quality control test results and other methods to ensure the quality, purity and efficacy of supplements and herbals. Statistically, natural health products are hundreds of times safer than prescription and over-the-counter medications. Do you know where their raw materials come from?
 
Dr. Murray concludes, “It is not regulation and enforcement that create safe effective natural health products. It is the integrity and dedication of the people in the natural health industry who have invested in the research and science necessary to completely validate well-trusted traditional remedies. There are hundreds of trusted supplement manufacturers in North America. By choosing their products every consumer can find safe, natural, evidence-based health support.”