Jane Black

Technically, Congress doesn't.

did pass a big supplement law in 1994.

It's called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.

But it is so lax that experts in this field don't even consider supplements to be regulated, almost at all.

Okay, so a supplement maker cannot say their pill diagnoses, prevents, cures, treats, or mitigates a disease like Alzheimer's.

But they can say it helps improve your memory, which is a pretty subtle distinction.

And sure, the supplement makers are supposed to have something to back up their claims.

And there are a bunch of studies out there that say these things work.

But you have to look at how good those studies are and who's funding them.

There's a lot of conflict of interest there.

There is nothing in the regulation that requires supplement makers to prove their product does what it says it does.

Yeah, we have finally stumbled on an actual rule here.

I'm excited.

If your supplement includes a totally brand new ingredient, that is one of the few times the company has to notify the FDA and show them their safety studies.

Now, they don't have to prove that it's safe.

This is supplement regulation, so that would be a wicked high standard.

The law just requires that a supplement will, quote, reasonably be expected to be safe.

It all started with a young man from Wisconsin.

And the details come from this really great article in Wired.

We pulled it up in the studio with Melanie, and apparently this guy's mom was always looking out for things that could help her.