In an op-ed piece for Yahoo! News, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) highlighted the growing focus on disease prevention and public health by those shaping the health care reform effort in Congress. As important as it is to open up access to health care to all Americans, Harkin argued transforming the current "sick care system" is a must.

"As the lead Senator in drafting the Prevention and Public Health section of the bill, I view this legislation as our opportunity to recreate America as a genuine wellness society—a society that is focused on prevention, good nutrition, fitness, and public health," he said.

What's a health care argument without statistics? Harkin's numbers paint an embarrassing picture of American health, with huge expenditures on "health care" but little result on our actual health. Far outpacing other countries, we spend 16.5 percent of our GDP, but still rank only 37th on WHO's health care list. Per capita, we spend as much as Europe, but we are much less healthy.

Harkin lays out the facts on health care, noting the five diseases—heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer, diabetes and obesity—that account for 75 percent of U.S. health care spending all preventable or reversible with improved nutrition, physical activity and lifestyle choices.

"We also have to realize that wellness and prevention must be truly comprehensive," he said. "It encompasses workplace wellness programs, community-wide wellness programs, building bike paths and walking trails, getting junk food out of our schools, making school breakfasts and lunches more nutritious, increasing the amount of physical activity our children get, and so much more."

The good news, according to Harkin, is Republicans and Democrats understand the importance of infusing American health with wellness and prevention. Obama is on board, as are those who opposed similar efforts about 15 years ago. Harkins prediction: "We are going to extend health insurance to every American. And we are going to give our citizens access to a 21st century health care system – one that is focused on helping us to live healthy, active, happy lives."

I hope he is right. And I hope the natural products industry is ready to play a big role in this transformation.

One of the benefits of working remotely from Northern Virginia is being able to attend industry-related events in nearby Washington D.C.

Yesterday, your trade associations, CRN and NPA, held a Dietary Supplement Caucus briefing for Congressional members, their staff and the public. The meeting was intended to elaborate on healthy lifestyle choices for Americans, such as a healthy diet, responsible use of dietary supplements and regular exercise.

While experts from CRN and NPA were available for comments and questions, the briefing's featured speaker was William Cooper, M.D., medical director of cardiovascular surgery at Wellstar-Kennestone Hospital and assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Emory University School of Medicine. Lively and engaging, Dr. Cooper detailed how health tragedies in his own family and challenges from patients helped to tune him into dietary supplements and s healthy diet. He particularly praised the benefits of fiber and omega-3s, saying they've helped his patient's cholesterol levels, as well as his own.

"When you look at the totality of evidence on these supplements, these are beneficial," he said. Health planning for individuals should be a priority, he argued, adding the problems with our nation's health care system can be solved by "doing the simple things" like eating right and exercising.

The banquet room in the Rayburn Building was packed with audience members eager to ask Dr. Cooper about some wellness and dietary specifics. On why many primary care physicians dismiss dietary supplements, Cooper responded doctors need to talk openly and honestly about supplements, such as when they congregate in the cafeteria at the hospital. He said typical medical school curriculum bypasses nutrition and herbal medicine, so it will take willingness for existing doctors to learn about this area of health. "It will take time and requires a culture change," he admitted. On the other hand, he suggested patients challenge their physicians about supplements, as most changes come from consensus.

On health care reform, he replied dietary supplements and wellness can't be avoided. "things will change," he promised, noting we, as a country, need to get out of our pill-popping culture and target younger generations and education.

As expected there were questions on how consumers can afford supplements and how find quality brands to trust. Cooper said affordability is tough, as it is hard enough for heart patients, for example, to afford the acute care medicines they really need. He said providers and officials and industry just need to be more innovative and creative. CRN's Steve Mister noted several industry attempts in Congress to get legislation passed that would allow for supplements to be purchased with food stamps or under tax-free flex-spending accounts; these efforts have thus far not come to fruition, but Mister pledged continuing effort.

On quality, Cooper suggested consumers approach dietary supplement purchasing as they would car purchasing, Do your homework and ask questions. Mister added many new regulations under DSHEA, such as adverse event reporting and GMP inspections, will help consumer confidence in the safety and quality of supplements.

The briefing was well-received and well-attended. The associations said they planned to host a similar event later in the year. Stay tuned for more progress on Capitol Hill.

I don't have to tell those who deal in DHEA about the pressure and attention being paid to the supplement ingredient by those who area against DSHEA. However, the greater threat seems to be those who believe it should fall under the Anabolic Steroid Control Act as a controlled substance, such as andro was recently deemed. This includes members of the pro and world-class sporting world.

While we've seen hints of DHEA blaming in pro cycling, it was only a matter of time before a high-profile, major U.S. sports doping case shined its unforgiving light on DHEA. Enter Manny Ramirez, star slugger for LA Dodgers, who recently failed a Major League Baseball (MLB) drug test. At first, there wasn't much word from Manny's camp, but the San Diego Tribune has reported his defense was originally going to pin the failed test on DHEA. DHEA is banned by most pro sporting bodies, as well as the Olympics, but not MLB. How convenient for Manny. However, before MLB could hear this argument, evidence emerged that Manny received a prescription for a banned woman’s fertility drug. The slugger did not contest this evidence and accepted a 50-game suspension. Nonetheless, DHEA is now a known "loophole" that critics speculate MLB players may utilize, although MLB officials call this "loophole" more hypothetical than practical.

In an article by Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan, Christiane Ayotte of the INRS-Institut in Montreal, which handles MLB drug testing, said her lab can tell the difference between elevated testosterone from DHEA and from banned substances.

He goes on to talk about Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) fight against DHEA being included in the Steroid Control Act, accusing Hatch of favoring his son who worked for a DHEA manufacturer. Passan also mentions Sen. Chuck Grassley's (R-Iowa) failed 2007 attempt to curtail DHEA sales, noting Grassley introduced a bill in Congress March 2009 to make illegal the sale of DHEA to anyone under the age of 18 without a prescription. Not sure how that would stop MLB players from using DHEA, but I suppose Passan is using Grassley's effort to show how dangerous DHEA is—the Senator calls DHEA a drug and said it causes liver damage and, possibly, cancer. Passan concedes, "Though some experts believe such side effects are possible, no long-term studies have been done on DHEA to verify that."

In case any pro athlete hasn't already drilled this into their brains: It is the player's responsibility to know that what they put in their bodies does not result in a failed drug test.

Read here for more detailed information on why DHEA is not a performance-enhancing supplement, but is a NON-anabolic steroid that helps older people with hormone problems associated with aging. I'm not saying baseball shouldn't ban it, but MLB officials said their efforts to do so were thwarted by the players' union, which said players should have access to the same products as does the general public. But, DHEA shouldn't be used a loophole by players, and based on the MLB's lab head, it can't be. There is no reason why this should render DHEA a controlled substance. Using Manny and MLB for this argument is weak.

I know all too well the importance of good bone and joint health. After a sports injury about two years ago, I needed microfracture surgery to repair cartilage in my knee. I've recovered well enough to become an avid cyclist again and to even enjoy my beloved tennis; but I had to give up regular trail running, which was a bummer.

Many people, from athletes to the elderly, face aging bones and inflamed joints, with little solace from  conventional medicine—Vioxx or Celebrex anyone? Increasingly such consumers are turning to natural products to help decrease their chances of bone or joint problems, or to help ease the pain of existing problems in those areas. I, for one, take a regimen of fish oil and glucosamine, and I've also had some success with a special stable creatine product and boswellia. There is a growing list of ingredients being shown to help people manage inflammation, strengthen bone, limit bone density loss, or address healthy cartilage issues.

Product development in these market segments is still hot. For this reason, the latest FREE Natural Products INSIDER Webinar is a must attend for anyone interested I this popular category, which covers forms of arthritis, osteoporosis and other related health conditions. Scheduled for May 14, 2 to 3 pm EDT, this FREE webinar will feature presentations from the Natural Nurse, Ellen Kamhi Ph.D., and Kirsta Faron, senior analyst for Mintel. Tune in to learn about the basic etiology and range of substantiated natural ingredients that may help prevent or ameliorate symptoms of arthritis, in addition to an update on global new product innovation in bone and joint health.

Visit our Webinar section to learn more and to register for this informative, FREE presentation.

When the story first broke that 21 polo horses died of a tainted supplement, flashes of so-called dietary supplement contamination in human sports started crossing my mind. In this case, however, it is proving to be the quality control procedures of a compounding pharmacy, not a QC problem at a French supplement maker, that is to blame for the tragic loss of so many prized horses in one day.

The supplement at the center of the recent deaths of 21 polo horses at the U.S. Polo Chammpionships in Wellington, Fla., was compounded by a local pharmacy to mimic the formula in the French supplement Biodyl, which is not approved for veterinary use in the United States. Ocala, Fla.-based Franck's Pharmacy mixed vitamin B, potassium, magnesium and selenium. The pharmacy admitted one of the ingredients compounded for the Lechuza Caracas Polo team horses was mistakenly an incorrect dose, although they stopped short of naming which ingredient.

Apparently, use of compounding pharmacies to produce formulas similar to drugs or supplements not approved for use in the U.S. is a common practice, but experts have noted it is illegal for a pharmacy to make an exact replica of such unapproved formulas. Biodyl has been used for many years in Europe and South America, and the Venezuela-based Lechuza team often administered the product to its horses to address muscle fatigue and exhaustion before matches.

Despite the admission by Franck's Pharmacy, U.S. officials investigating the deaths would not confirm this reported cause of death, as their work on the case in not yet completed.

As a longtime cycling fan, I cringe at every doping scandal. Blood doping has been rampant in cycling for a longtime, and numerous scandals have overshadowed some of the greatest races of the past decade or two. The heralded Lance Armstrong has continued to remain free from doping proof, with two very divided sides on his true innocence. Yet after so many dramatic wins in the wake of his successful battle with cancer, Lance is an American hero. Despite his recent comeback attempt, Lance was out of cycling for a while, and Americans clamored for a replacement.

The leading candidate was Tyler Hamilton, a tough rider who was Lance's teammate and on-course supporter in the Tour de France. Similar to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) for cancer research (LIVESTRONG), Hamilton even created the Tyler Hamilton Foundation to help fight multiple sclerosis (MS). He was a gifted rider. He foughtthrough injuries. His toughness seemed to boost his stock as the next great American cyclist. He was a natural Lance 2.0, but he turned into the equivalent of, say, Lance "Vista".

Hamilton was dogged by reported blood doping failures, most notably in the 2004 Olympics, where he won the gold medal for individual time trial. The testing lab fouled up the second sample, so the first sample's failure could not be verified. Many feel he got away with a cheapened gold medal. They got more ammo in other races, where testing indicated he was attempting to manipulate his hematocrit levels, most likely by receiving blood transfusions or doping with erythropoietin (EPO).

He was suspended for two years in 2005 after the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after tests showed probable foreign blood in his own. He appealed the decision and came back with the infamous Chimera defense, in which his lawyers claimed Hamilton had a twin that died in the womb and was the source of the foreign EPO found. Hamilton later backed away from this defense.

His suspension was to end in late 2006, but that same year his name was linked along with many other cyclists to a Spanish doctor known to administer EPO to cyclists. He denied this connection, but media outlets across Europe published Hamilton's supposed doping diary.

His teammates and many in cycling always saw Hamilton as a stand-up guy, but the evidence was pretty overwhelming, although Hamilton never admitted to doping. Until now.

Recently, Hamilton tested positive for DHEA, which he admitted to taking in a dietary supplement touted for depression. He said he needed such a remedy after his mother died and he divorced his wife, both in a short period of time and while he was going through all the doping scandals. Upon admitting he knew the product contained a banned substance, he said he would retire from pro cycling, only having ridden a few races since the lifting of his two-year ban.

The irony is while a banned substance in pro cycling, DHEA is not an anabolic steroid, nor is it a performance-enhancing substance. This is an oft-mistaken stance by governing entities on a steroid hunt. So Hamilton finally admitted to doping, but with the most harmless substance of all that he was accused of taking. However, this is the end of a cobblestone road for this one-time Lance replacement. Meanwhile, Lance is poised for a comeback, should he outrace the dogged pursuit to label him a drug cheat (24 random drug tests and counting in the past six months.)

For all the criticism the dietary supplement industry has endured over the science behind the purported benefits of various natural products, it seems conventional medicine is not much better. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently highlighted a JAMA study report the reveals only 11 percent of the 2,700 recommendations approved by cardiologists are backed by quality scientific research. In fact, most such recommendations rely largely on non-randomized studies or expert opinion. The WSJ article noted aspirin and statins are among the recommendations with the highest quality study support. One reason for the lack of consensus on many recommendations is the pharmaceutical industry control over clinical trials, especially the large research studies. Does all this sound familiar?

One point made is about Obama's new Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) program, which is intended to study healthcare treatment options head-to-head and determine which are the most effective, including cost analysis. Nutritional and herbal supplements have done well in research on heart disease prevention, which is the more manageable side of heart disease—especially costs—so the dietary supplement industry should be part of this CER project. Ignoring their value and contribution to heart health would definitely be nearsighted, particularly in light of the lack of evidence behind many conventional cardio care recommendations.