News

UNPA Honors Holistic Primary Care’s Integrity in Journalism

By Erik Goldman

The United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA), one of the supplement industry’s most influential trade associations, recently honored Holistic Primary Care with the Integrity in Journalism award. UNPA founder and president Loren Israelsen surprised HPC’s editor/co-founder Erik Goldman with the award during the organization’s annual members meeting at the 2022 Natural Products ExpoWest in Anaheim, CA. […]

NAC Supplements Face Ban Unless FDA Reverses Course

By Erik Goldman

Americans could lose access to N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) supplements in 2022, unless the nutrition and dietary supplements industries can prove to the Food and Drug Administration that this glutathione precursor was in widespread use as a supplement or food ingredient prior to the mid-1990s. Last year, the FDA made clear that it views NAC as […]

Naturopathic Medicine Moves Toward Healthcare’s Center Stage

By Erik Goldman

The healthcare systems in the United States are in dire need of what naturopathic medicine has to offer, and the profession is ready to move from the margins onto center stage. That’s the message of a new mission statement issued jointly by the Institute for Natural Medicince (INM), the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), […]

FDA Nixes NAC in Dietary Supplements

By Janet Gulland, Contributing Writer

A spate of warning letters issued by the Food and Drug Administration offers a clear indication that the agency wants to limit the availability of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) in dietary supplement products. NAC, a precursor to the key antioxidant glutathione, is widely recommended by functional medicine and naturopathic practitioners. It is a common component in […]

It “Should Be Like Masks” Resolution Urges Congress to Recognize Value of Vitamin D

By Erik Goldman

Vitamin D “should be like masks. Everybody should know about it. The government agencies should be pushing it that way,” says Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-WI). Grothman, representing Wisconsin’s 6th congressional district, wants to see vitamin D become part of the nation’s COVID control efforts. Last month, he introduced a resolution urging the federal agencies to […]

California Grants NDs Permission To Give COVID Vaccines

By Erik Goldman

The California Department of Public Health recently authorized licensed naturopathic doctors to become COVID vaccine providers, permitting them to participate in the state’s vaccination efforts if they so choose. Under the California’s Business and Professions Code, naturopaths may give the COVID vaccines provided they are licensed in the state, and they are doing so at […]

Biden COVID Plan Overlooks Vitamin D, Nutrition

By Erik Goldman

Search the Biden administration’s new National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness for the term “Vitamin D” and you will come up with nothing. Vitamin C? Nothing. Zinc? Nope, nothing. The word “nutrition” does appear thrice, but only in the context of malnutrition, and the need to bolster the government’s food aid programs. […]

The Brain-Gut-Microbiota Axis: A Primer for Clinicians

By Erik Goldman

The brain-gut-microbiota axis provides a bidirectional route of communication between the gut microbes and the brain. The axis involves the vagus nerve, short-chain fatty acids, tryptophan, cytokines and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. New evidence suggests that gut microbes are involved in neural development and function, both peripherally in the enteric nervous system and centrally in the […]

New Biden COVID Task Force A Mixed Bag for Holistic Medicine

By Erik Goldman

The Biden-Harris administration’s new COVID-19 Advisory Board promises to bring a strong public health perspective to the nation’s pandemic response and a welcome shift away from the haphazard, willfully anti-scientific policies of the Trump administration. But it could be a thorn in the paw for the dietary supplement industry and for some practitioners of natural […]