Deep in the Heart of Texas

CRN rode into Austin, TX on the back of a horse… literally, conference chairman Bill Van Dyke, president of B&D Nutritional Ingredients, rode into the seminar ballroom at the Hyatt Lost Pines Report on a big horse. It was quite an entrance and quite a conference.

Numerous top-notch speakers shared informative presentations on the topics that natural products industry members are dealing with day in and day out. Regulation, marketing and wellness dominated the dais, each spoke to the highly active areas of the industry that affect its perception, reputation and longevity.

CRN Chairman Mark LeDoux, who is also founder/CEO/chairman of Natural Alternatives International (NAI), kicked things off with an address that urged members and others to “take responsibility” and stay involved with all the issues facing the industry. He relayed some numbers on CRN’s NAD program (100^th case challenges to date), saying with these types of self-regulation “our credibility goes up through the stratosphere.” Also no his list were updates on policy leadership, such as the work CRN does with congressional members and staffers, as well as PAC (political action committee) support for congressional candidates of both parties. LeDoux reported the Life...Supplemented campaign, which was a repeated highlight throughout the conference, has proven so successful it is entering an unexpected fourth year, after placing 4,700 media stories in the past three years. The final bit of good news was the launch of CRN-I, the international presence of the association which reflects the growing global influence of its work here in the United States.

CRN president Steve mister echoed the enthusiasm of Le Doux, but cautioned lest any insiders think the industry is now “regulated” and there is no need for further legislation, there is still work to be done. “Our critics will not give up, and neither will we,” he said, noting among his worries, there are still too many rogue companies, and the industry cannot sustain growth in a buyer beware climate. “New customers will leave in droves if the industry fails on its promise.” His advice was for the industry to build more defensible science, a mantra echoed by many of the conference’s other speakers.

FDA co-chief Joshua Sharfstein told conference attendees the agency’s guidance on new dietary ingredient (NDI) notifications is in process, but would not give an indication of how soon industry can expect it. He assured the agency has no designs to alter DSHEA and will seek industry feedback on the guidance before moving forward. He also updated the GMP picture, reporting about one-third of inspections conducted to date have found serious problems, which ranged from documentation failures to identity testing.

FTC’s Michelle Rusk walked through some recent advertising claims cases such as the recent POM debacle, promising the crowd the agency has not shifted from its long-held substantiation standard: “competent and reliable scientific evidence.” She said the changes are all to do with the agency’s becoming more transparent about its orders in claims cases. C. Lee Peeler, of the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau, updated the crowd on the CRN-NAD self-regulatory program, reporting 56 percent of consumers do not find dietary supplement claims trustworthy; and longtime industry attorney John Villafranco provided his insider look at recent landmark natural products cases, adding the bar has been raised at the FTC’s Bureau for Consumer Protection, especially with known supplement skeptic David Vladeck now at the helm.

Legislation can affect the industry in ways other than direct regulation, and one such potential doozie is healthcare reform. The public’s migration towards health and wellness—as opposed to pure reactionary healthcare—is a big part of why the natural products industry has experienced growth during a recession. “Nobody’s going to lower healthcare costs, just maybe slow it down,” remarked Michael Samuelsson, president and CEO of the Health & Wellness Institute and one of the conferences most engaging speakers. After beating cancer—he continued his beloved mountain climbing through it all—Samuelsson said he learned it’s not the beginning or the end, but it is “all about the dash” in between. Elaborating on this concept, he said we need to “squeeze everything you can out [life],” and argued when it comes to healthcare, there needs to be a shift from survive to thrive. Stating there seems to be no real urgency to change the healthcare paradigm, he suggested the question is not how to improve healthcare, but why don’t we care more than it seems we do (collectively).

Nutritionist and author David Grotto, who started and runs Nutrition Housecall,  chipped away at the popular nutritionist notion all nutrition should come from food alone. While this is an ideal sentiment, he admitted most people need something beyond simple food, citing numerous known  nutrient shortfalls common in the public, including vitamin D, calcium, omega-3s and folic acid. He reported the Dietitians in Integrative and Funcitonal Medicine (DIFM) is devising criteria for registered dietitians (RDs) who want to recommend dietary supplements to their clients.

As far as practitioners, Grotto said his experience with the medical community has taught him physicians understand dietary supplements can play a helpful role in health, but they are afraid to recommend patients take them due to concerns about claims, supporting research and quality control issues. He noted lack of continuing education credits for supplement education is a major factor in their learning more about the industry and its products.

The good news is some in the provider sector are tuning in to the healthy message. JoEllen Wynne, R.N., associate director of education for the Academy of Nurse Practitioners Foundation, reported most nurse practitioners (NPs), which are a rapidly growing group, are recommending certain dietary supplement: 84 percent prescribe vitamin and mineral supplements, and 65 percent prescribe herbal remedies. About10 percent of these NPs prescribe such products regularly.

Evangeline Lausier, M.D., clinical director of Duke Integrative Medicine, told the audience doctors and their patients are not on the same wavelength when it comes to nutrition and natural health. She said mainstream doctors are trained skeptics. On how to break through to these healthcare providers, she matter-of-factly warned, “If you can’t come up with the evidence [for your products], you won’t go far with conventional medicine [providers].”

The three-day conference was not all updates, issues and data. Every evening offered ample networking opportunity for veterans of the conference as well as newbies. The Texas flavor drove the food and entertainment—have you ever seen armadillo races?—and CRN presented one Apple Award each night, as former FDA supplement division director Bill Frankos, Virgo Publishing’s Jon Benninger and NAI’s chief science officer John Wise, Ph.D., joined the ranks of heralded supplement industry champions as 2010 award recipients.