February 2, 2004 Daily Camera by Lisa Marshall

Not exactly the kinds of things most consumers want to gnaw on or swallow down each morning with their multivitamin, but many alternative medicine devotees do just that.

Advertisement Steamboat According to local nutritionists and naturopathic doctors, an array of popular dietary supplements contain ingredients obtained from cow brains, glands, ligaments, bones and other organs. Children chew bits of cow pituitary glands to boost stunted growth; Stressed adults suck adrenal glands for energy.

And the results, practitioners say, are impressive.

"I had one child who was under-developed. I put him on pituitary, and he grew six inches in a few months," says Dr. JoHannah Reilly, a Boulder naturopath who took pituitary supplements herself to remedy a glandular problem that stunted her tooth growth.

"The results were profound," she says.

But soon, due to sweeping new federal regulations aimed at quelling fears about mad cow disease, many such products will be harder to find, if available at all. And some speculate those left on the shelves will come under increased scrutiny from consumers questioning just how safe their dietary supplements are.

Last week, in the wake of the discovery of the first case of a U.S. cow with the fatal brain-wasting disease, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration imposed new rules - effective immediately - banning a wide range of bovine-derived material from FDA-regulated human food, dietary supplements, and cosmetics. The list covers anything derived from cow brain, skull, eyes, and spinal cord of cattle 30 months or older, and a portion of the small intestine and tonsils from all cattle. It also applies to products being imported from other countries.

The number of immediately effected products is small - fewer than half of 1 percent of dietary supplements contain animal glands or organs, according to industry trade groups - and none will be pulled from the shelves immediately, say FDA officials.

"We are looking at every conceivable way that this kind of material can make its way into consumption by humans or animals," says FDA spokesman Brad Stone. "That is why the ban is there. It is not because there is concern that large amounts of this product are in the marketplace."

But those who use them and prescribe them say the products will be missed.

Industry officials haven't yet

pinned down exactly which products will fall victims to the ban, but so-called glandulars, are expected to be the first, particularly if they contain brain matter. The supplements often contain ground, dried, or powdered parts of cow glands, which are said to mimic the function of a human gland that may be producing too much or too little hormone. For instance a person

with a thyroid deficiency might take a thyroid glandular; someone with an understimulated pituitary might take pituitary.

Reilly says they work best if sucked on, rather than just swallowed, because then they are absorbed through the tongue and interact with the brain more quickly. She's been prescribing them to patients for decades.

"I'm going to miss them a lot," she says. "But I have already backed off of prescribing them a lot because of the whole mad cow scare."

USDA officials announced in late December that the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow Disease, had been discovered in a Washington state Holstein. It is believed that humans can contract a fatal human variant of the brain wasting disease when they consume meat infected with it.

Consumer advocates point out that glandulars are often made from the very parts most likely to be infected with the agent that causes the disease, the brain and spinal materials discarded at the slaughterhouse because they are not fit for human consumption.

"That is a really a concern," says Dr. Michael Greger, a physician and mad cow expert with the Organic Consumers Association. "You can walk into a mainstream health food store and find, bottled on the shelf, the potentially riskiest parts of the cow. And you are swallowing it."

Local supplement vendors differ in their opinions on the impact of the ban.

Mary Mulry, senior director of research development and standards for Wild Oats in Boulder, says the store carries few such products and the consumer impact will be minimal. But Holly Hunter, vitamin manager at Vitamin Cottage in Boulder, says she sells "tons" of glandulars, usually to customers who have been sent to her by a chiropractor or doctor.

If their particular glandular disappears, "We are going to have some very angry people."

Dr. Phillip W. Harvey, chief science officer with the National Nutritional Foods Association, an industry trade group, says he is not certain exactly which glandulars will be disappearing from the shelves for good yet.

Some companies may switch to pig, chicken or fish derivatives instead.

But he believes many companies may get out of the business of bovine-derived supplements altogether due to the emerging "stigma."

Helen Dorhman, a certified nutritionist with Pharmaca integrated pharmacy in Boulder, predicts the Mad Cow scare will have an even broader impact on the supplement industry. She points out that gelatin capsules are made from ground up cow bones and hooves, the popular supplement Chondroitin is made from cow trachea, and many other supplements contain various animal parts.

She believes people may start asking more questions, and seeking out vegetarian or herbal alternatives for all their supplements.

"This is a big deal, especially in a town like Boulder," she says. "People are already very concerned about the food they eat. Now the people who take these products are going to be wondering if they are safe to take."

Contact Lisa Marshall at (303) 473-1357 or marshalll@dailycamera.com.