Supplement-Maker Who Diluted Products With Other Powders Sentenced To 40 Months In Prison – Consumerist

When you buy a food product or a dietary supplement, you should be confident that the product’s ingredients are listed on the label, and that you’re getting what you paid for. Federal prosecutors say that one dietary supplement wholesaler in New Jersey spent four years selling products diluted with products like maltodextrin or rice flour, increasing profits but defrauding customers. The company’s owner now must forfeit $1 million in profits and has been sentenced to 40 months in prison and one year of supervised release.

The company’s name, Raw Deal Inc., was unintentionally appropriate, with a double meaning referring to trendy “raw” nutrients and a common expression that means a bad deal. It was the company’s customers who got an actual raw deal: they were buying diluted products that didn’t contain the substances that distributors had paid for. During the four years that this scheme operated, the company earned a profit of between $7 and $20 million.

Supplement-Maker Who Diluted Products With Other Powders Sentenced To 40 Months In Prison – Consumerist

Consumer Updates > Mixing Medications and Dietary Supplements Can Endanger Your Health

When you take prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medications, do you take also a vitamin, mineral, or other dietary supplements? Have you considered whether there is any danger in mixing medications and dietary supplements?

There could be, says Robert Mozersky, a medical officer at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “Some dietary supplements may increase the effect of your medication, and other dietary supplements may decrease it,” he says.

Certain dietary supplements can change absorption, metabolism, or excretion of a medication and therefore affect its potency. “You may be getting either too much or too little of a medication you need,” Mozersky warns.

Consequently, combining dietary supplements and medications could have dangerous and even life-threatening effects. For example, drugs for HIV/AIDS, heart disease, depression, treatments for organ transplants, and birth control pills are less effective when taken with St. John’s Wort, an herbal supplement. Depending on the medication involved, the results can be serious.

In addition, warfarin (a prescription blood thinner), ginkgo biloba (an herbal supplement), aspirin and vitamin E (a supplement) can each thin the blood. Taking any of these products together may increase the potential for internal bleeding or stroke.

Consumer Updates > Mixing Medications and Dietary Supplements Can Endanger Your Health