FDA, Council on Family Health Begin Supplement Education Campaign for Women

FDA, Council on Family Health Begin Supplement Education Campaign for Women

WASHINGTON--The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Washington-based Council on Family Health (CFH), a nonprofit focused on educating consumers on health care issues, recently launched a campaign to educate women of child-bearing age about the safe use of dietary supplements and medicines. The campaign includes advising women to tell their doctors which supplements and medications they are taking and promoting the benefits of prenatal vitamins, folic acid and iron.

The program is focusing on women who are thinking about having children, who are pregnant or who are nursing. Part of the campaign includes a CFH tip sheet warning women that medicines and dietary supplements can be passed from the mother to a child, either through the placenta or breast milk. Because the recommended daily dose is not the same for a child as it is for an adult, CFH (www.cfhinfo.org) suggests women should be more aware of what they are taking or plan to take. Most importantly, the organization suggested that women who are thinking about becoming or who are already pregnant should discuss any medicines and supplements they are taking or plan to take with a health care professional.

This is not the first time CFH has partnered with FDA. Previously, the nonprofit and government agency collaborated on a drug interactions education campaign, a pamphlet about children's dosages and a tampering awareness campaign. CFH went to FDA to support this latest campaign, and the agency is lending its name to the program (but not funding). CFH is headed by Arthur Hull Hayes Jr., M.D., former FDA commissioner (1981-83).