 An editorial was recently published decrying much of the multi-billion dollar marketing of dietary supplements in North America as misleading, deceptive, even predatory. After examining hundreds of sales claims made when supplements are being marketed over the years, the author concluded dishonesty or wild exaggerations are frequent occurrences in the marketing of supplements. My favorite quote was, The marketers of supplements like to use scientific evidence the way a drunk uses a lamp post, more for support than illumination. This is nothing new. Similar editorials have been published in the Journal of the AMA and the New England Journal of Medicine. What made this one special was that it was, to their credit, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. It's like their own journal admitting it. In response, the head of global supplement initiatives at Novis, which actually started out as the livestock feed additives division of Monsanto before branching off into human feed additives, dietary supplements, starts his rebuttal with this counterpoint. In his review entitled, The marketing of dietary supplements in North America, The Emperor is almost naked. The author may be mortified to know the emperor is still dancing in the street dressed or not to the tune of $68 billion. This figure is much higher and is a much more relevant number than cited, indicating a very strong and respectable commerce. That's his first argument that it's highly lucrative? He goes on to say that, hey, they're safer than some pharmaceutical drugs, but how much is that saying, given that prescription drugs kill an estimated 106,000 Americans every year? And that's not errors, not abuse, not overdose. That's just deaths from side effects, ADRs, adverse drug reactions, which would make doctors, me and my fellow colleagues, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. So for the supplement industry to say, hey, at least we're not the fourth leading cause of death, isn't saying much.