"Nutraceutical" is a new word used to describe a nutrient that gives a
pharmaceutical effect. What is happening in the nutritional industries is
that some companies, and other entities, are attempting to position
themselves to capture control of the manufacture and distribution of the many
nutritional products that are currently being researched and proving to be
quite effective at "higher than physiological" doses. What this means for the
little guys like me is that I may not be able to sell something like Vitamin
C on the open market once it has been defined as requiring a special license
or, worse, veterinary prescription, as a nutraceutical rather than plain
nutrition.
It's almost like a freedom of speech issue for me. I like the idea that those
who take the time to study nutrition and its applications can take advantage
of it to avoid crippling fatigue in a race, to rebuild bleeding lungs, or to
heal joint lesions. What will happen with bureaucratic control, or special
interest control, is that all the knowledge that is developing currently in
the free marketplace will shrivel up as soon as the incentive is lost or the
nutrients become too hard and too expensive to buy.
Nutramax, for example, is one of the very first companies in the world to
patent a nutrient mix. The next step is to get special dispensation from the
government to make claims--claims that could easily be made for a
dozen--hell, hundreds-- of other nutrient mixes.
I can think of at least a dozen individual nutrients that the AERC should ban
if they're already banning MSM and DMG--including several vitamins and
minerals.
It just makes me uneasy to have nutrients called drugs, just as it makes me
uneasy to have what they do with Thoroughbreds on the racetrack called
"exercise".
ti