Sarah Gonzalez

And that's like a giant government exclamation point.

Yeah, but it didn't matter to anyone.

Every time the FDA and Congress has tried to make supplement rules, the thing that got in the way was you.

That story starts in Kent, Washington.

There was some alternative medicine clinic, and the proprietor there was accused of illegally injecting patients with these high-dose concoctions of vitamins and minerals that the FDA repeatedly told them were unsafe.

They got people to write thousands of letters to President George H.W.

Bush, to Congress and the FDA saying, like, please, please, please, please, please do not touch our supplements.

They even got health food stores to join in on the revolt.

They got Mel Gibson to do an ad.

In the ad, you see a SWAT team kicking open the door of their SWAT van.

They rush toward, I guess, Mel Gibson's mansion in full SWAT gear.

They're scaling the side of the building.

They get inside, night vision goggles through the living room, guns drawn, and then they spot Mel Gibson.

Freeze!

On the screen, it says, protect your right to use vitamins.

Call Congress now.

Vitamin C, you know, like in oranges.

Congress gets an earful and Congress gets the message.

Supplements are kind of untouchable in the U.S.

In fact, the law gave supplement makers more freedom, including something they'd always wanted, the legal right to claim on their labels that supplements were actually improving your health.