CRN: supplements key to the nation's health

"Dietary supplements are part of a healthy lifestyle and should be included in the dietary guidelines for Americans,"​ she said.

Dickinson believes that supplements need to be actively considered by nutritionists as an intrinsic part of a person's diet and needs rather than as an add-on. To turn this goal into reality, she thinks the CRN should be playing an ever more active role in working with nutritionists so that they have a greater comprehension of supplements.

"There is a broad acceptance of some supplements, such as taking calcium to help combat osteoprosis, and lots of experts recommend taking a daily multi-vitamin, but many nutritionists have less understanding of other supplements,"​ she said.

She felt this lack of clarity and sense of confusion was made worse by a "systematic tendancy to view every piece of research as the most up-to date."​

She added: "We tend to overinterpret individual studies instead of putting them into the context of other studies."​

This is a problem that Dickinson thinks can be resolved by everybody - researchers, the media, industry and consumer groups - taking a more measured approach.

Consumer confidence​

She, however, does not agree, unlike others in the industry, that there has been a drop of consumer confidence in supplements in recent months following negative media reports after the ban on ephedra.

Indeed, she cited the annual poll carried out by IPSOS and the CRN, that seems to show there has been a year-on-year increase in the levels of consumer confidence in supplements.

The results of this year's survey that were released yesterday found more than three quarters of American adults have confidence in the safety, quality and effectiveness of dietary supplements.

Results for 2004 showed 78 percent of consumers were either somewhat confident or very confident in dietary supplements - up slightly from 77 percent in 2003, 75 percent in 2002 and 74 percent in 2001, according to the CRN.

Consumer confidence would seem therefore to be steady, rather than increasing, and the organisation acknowledged that: "As an industry, we need to continue to urge government and private funding for scientific research on the safety and effectiveness of supplements, as well as do a better job of communicating the kinds of things responsible companies do to ensure high quality products."​

The survey also showed a slight decrease in supplement usage at 62 percent, down from 65 percent in 2003, which was balanced out by an increase in regular users: 33 percent in 2004 versus 27 percent in 2003, which includes an increase in those who are taking a variety of supplements, 17 percent in 2004 up from 13 percent in 2003.

Despite her certainty in levels of consumer confidence, Dickinson believes that the industry as a whole needs to improve its delivery of consumer information.

"Most companies do a pretty good job of displaying information on packaging,"​ she said, adding that the problem again comes back to the need to work more closely with health professionals to improve their understanding of supplements.

Legislation​

The State of the Industry speech - made jointly by Annette Dickinson and Byron Johnson, the chairman of the CRN board of directors, - touched on many other aspects of the supplement industry, with a concentrated focus on legislation and the role of DSHEA and the FDA.

Dickinson told NutraIngredientsUSA.com​ that she thought relations between the supplement industry and the FDA had become easier. She is optimistic that the meeting scheduled for November to give industry and consumers the chance to discuss the government body's premarket notification program for new dietary ingredients (NDIs) will be meaningful and will lead to a series of meetings aimed at addressing the definition of certain terms used in DSHEA.

She highlighted the need, for example, to clarify the criteria that determines whether an ingredient is new or not - what level of chemical change this involves and what other changes take place in the process of creating a "new"​ supplement.

Dickinson and Byron also discussed the ban on ephedra - agreeing that something had to be done about the product -, the ban on steroid hormone precursors, the need for adverse event reporting to become mandatory and the forthcoming Good Manufacturing Practice regulations.

During the speech Dickinson also cast an eye over her career - she plans to retire from the CRN​ in the spring after 31 years - and noted that in this time, the supplement industry has grown from $1 billion in sales to be worth $20 billion in the US today, with more than 150 million Americans taking dietary supplements.