Dietary supplement companies are pushing to expand the types of ingredients they can use in their products. The Food and Drug Administration is holding a meeting Friday to discuss the issue. The changes sought by the industry could open the door to more supplements containing peptides, probiotics and other trendy wellness ingredients. Companies want the FDA to broaden its definition of a dietary ingredient to substances that aren't found in foods. The meeting follows vows from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to "end the war at FDA" on dietary supplements and other popular wellness products.
At-home tests of the gut's microbiome are trending, but doctors say the technology is getting ahead of medical knowledge. In many cases, there is no proven way to treat the imbalances that the tests claim to find. The companies and medical researchers say they hold great promise to one day personalize the treatment of complex gut-brain diseases. But much more clinical research and regulation is needed. The gut microbiome is complex and poorly understood. Growing evidence links changes in the gut to diseases like diabetes, liver disease, obesity and inflammatory bowel disease, but it's often unclear whether those changes cause, or result from, illness.
