Pharmaceutical Industries And Companies: Nutraceuticals

As early as the Middle Ages before there was such things as pharmaceutical industries, people have touted the health benefits of eating an apple-- "an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Apples are "ripe" with nutrients that include fiber, phytochemicals and phytonutrients, and antioxidants. Apples are replete with the vitamins, minerals and trace elements that the body needs to function optimally, and often substituted for with medications and drugs from pharmaceutical industries and pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical industries may have to take note.

Apples are just one on a growing list of functional foods that have been added to an even longer list of foods, supplements, and other substances known as "nutraceuticals." Coined by Stephen DeFelice, M.D. in 1989, the word nutraceutical is derived from the words nutrition and pharmaceutical. DeFelice, founder and chairperson of the Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, defines the term as "any substance that is a food or a part of a food and provides medical or health benefits" that includes aiding in the "prevention and treatment of disease" on par with the medications of the pharmaceutical industries.

Although medical experts, pharmaceutical industries, individual pharmaceutical companies, and medical treatment have suggested that a healthy lifestyle including a "healthy diet and exercise” are a necessity for a long life, more and more emphasis is being placed on diet. The emphasis on health and diet by the pharmaceutical industries is a departure from treating just the symptoms of a person's poor health.

Pharmaceutical industries have faced a bombardment of criticism as a result of selling a growing list of medications as "miracle cures” such as Vioxx, Celebrex and Bextra that have had the very opposite effect of what pharmaceutical industries touted and consumers expected. However, there may be coterminous innovations between the pharmaceutical industries and those lauding the more holistic approach of some dietary supplements.

Pharmaceutical industries may begin stringently testing the anecdotal evidence of popular supplements that include the benefits of lycopene, beta -carotene, and even aloe. Lycopene, substance found in tomatoes, beta-carotene, a substance found in red, orange and yellow pigmented fruits and vegetables, and even aloe, a product of the aloe vera plant, with health benefits ranging from the treating of constipation to sebhorrheic dermatitis and even diabetes, a disease that eludes treatment from medications offered by the pharmaceutical industries.

Experts and research by pharmaceutical industries suggest that consumer demand for nutraceuticals will grow steadily at 6 percent over the next several years. Representatives from the pharmaceutical industries like “Solae, Cargill, DSM Nutritional Products, ADM Natural Health and Nutrition and BASF" have expressed interest in the $11.7 billion nutraceutical industry because of consumer demand.

Currently, in the United States, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has stepped up its efforts to "scrutinize dietary supplement marketing practices" by dietary supplement and pharmaceutical industries. The FDA's supervision of the pharmaceutical industries is conducted through the Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling and Dietary Supplements, which has not been quick to outrightly accept the claimed benefits of some dietary supplements. In fact, the FDA and FTC have "no regulatory definition" assigned to dietary supplements offered by pharmaceutical industries, despite the terms frequent use in marketing supplements.

The FDA has cited many pharmaceutical industries distributing some dietary supplements deemed to be violating the standards and regulations set forth by the FDA, usually for making scientifically unsubstantiated claims of a products ability to "diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of diseases.” One can assume or at least hope that the FDA and pharmaceutical industries may take a more scientific approach to examining what mothers have known for millennia, that eating your fruits and vegetables will help you grow up "big and strong."



Sources:
World Nutraceuticals in 2010. Piribo. 2007. Piribo Limited. 15 Mar. 2007.
http://www.piribo.com/publications/dietary/world_n utraceuticals.html
Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Jan. 2006. 7 Mar. 2007. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/onplds.html
Nutraceutical Information. American Nutraceutical Association. 7 Mar. 2007. 7 Mar. 2007. http://www.ana-jana.org/nut_info_details.cfm?NutIn foID=4
Nutraceutical News/ Homepage News. American Nutraceutical Association. Mar. 2007. 7 Mar. 2007. http://www.ana-jana.org/index.cfm?cfid=347409& cftoken=33827673
Beta-Carotene. American Nutraceutical Association. 9 Mar. 2007. 9 Mar. 2007. http://www.ana-jana.org/herbs.cfm
Lycopene. American Nutraceutical Association. 9 Mar. 2007. 9 Mar. 2007. http://www.ana-jana.org/herbs.cfm
Aloe Vera. American Nutraceutical Association. 9 Mar. 2007. 9 Mar. 2007. http://www.ana-jana.org/herbs.cfm
“Apple.” Wikipedia. 9 Mar. 2007. 9 Mar. 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple#Health_benefits
Cancer Studies. Apples Prevent. 2005-2007. New York Apple Association. 9 Mar. 2007. http://www.applesprevent.com/cancerstudies.htm