Tag: Natural Health Products Directorate

The risks of CAM: How much do we know?

CAM products and treatments are often sold as "all-benefit, no-risk". While we can highlight the lack of evidence for benefit, even harder can be assessing the risks of CAM.

/ January 20, 2011

What’s with the new cough and cold products?

One of my earliest lessons as a pharmacist working in the “real world” was that customers didn’t always act the way I expected. Parents of sick children frequently fell into this category — and the typical vignette went like this for me: Parent has determined that their child is sick, and needs some sort of over-the-counter medicine. Parent asks pharmacist for advice...

/ November 26, 2010

Supplement Regulation: Be Careful What You Wish For

A recurring theme at SBM is the regulation of supplements, and the impact and consequences of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). As one of SBM’s international contributors, I thought it might be helpful to look at how the DSHEA stacks up against the equivalent regulations of its neighbor to the north, Canada. Given the multiple calls for overhauls...

/ August 5, 2010