Michael McGuffin is president of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA). He has been active in the herbal industry since 1975, having owned and managed both retail and manufacturing businesses in this field. Michael is also the managing editor of Botanical Safety Handbook (1997) and of Herbs of Commerce, 2nd edition (2000). He has written and presented on numerous topics related to the regulation of dietary supplements. He serves on the boards of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia and United Plant Savers, and as a member of the Advisory Board of the USC School of Pharmacy Regulatory Science Master's Degree Program. He has maintained active involvement with regulatory agencies, and served on FDA's Food Advisory Committee Working Group on Good Manufacturing Practices for Dietary Supplements (1998-99), FDA's Food Advisory Committee's Dietary Supplements Subcommittee (2003-5), and California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Analysis Food Warning Workgroup (2008-2010).
You can always spot Michael at a trade show. He’s usually the one wearing a fabulous hat.
Health E-Insights: If you could improve one area of the herbal products business, what would that be?
Mr. McGuffin: Most U.S. citizens would not believe that marketers of dietary supplements are not allowed to tell them that an herbal product can successfully treat, prevent or cure any disease even if it is true and completely substantiated. And disease is pretty broadly defined, so that minor or self-limiting conditions like colds or a simple rash are diseases, and claims about many age-related conditions (saw palmetto for prostate enlargement; red yeast rice for high cholesterol) are also un-allowed “drug claims.” So if you are passing out wishes, I would improve the herbal products business, for consumers and marketers, by allowing these products to make any claim that is truthful, non-misleading and substantiated.
Health E-Insights: What has been the biggest accomplishment in your position?
Mr. McGuffin: It is a rare experience to suggest that a particular law be passed and then actually see that law make its way through the legislative process. But I have had that experience in my position as AHPA’s president, as it was AHPA that first proposed the serious adverse event report (SAER) law for dietary supplements. And don’t forget, many of the other organizations were opposed to this when we first suggested it in 2003. We were able to overcome this opposition though, and the trade associations spoke with a single unified voice in support of this law when it was passed in 2006. That this was a significant accomplishment in terms of removing a key criticism of this industry and showing that the product category is remarkably safe is now broadly recognized.
Health E-Insights: Where did your wearing of hats start?
Mr. McGuffin: A sunburned head. To me and others with my genetic predisposition to balding, a hat is a disease-prevention medical device and ought to be subject to a tax deduction. But of course if hat companies made any skin cancer reduction claims FDA would treat those as illegal. Just see my response in the first question...and even though dermatologists commonly advise the use of a hat, such claims could be written to be truthful, non-misleading and well substantiated.
Health E-Insights: Someone just handed you $100,000. How do you plan to spend it?
Mr. McGuffin: Create urban vegetable and fruit gardens in Los Angeles. But $100,000 won’t go very far. Don’t you know someone else?
Health E-Insights: What book or piece of writing has had the biggest impact on you?
Mr. McGuffin: Alan Watts’ essay, Murder in the Kitchen. In this work Watts recognizes the “weird arrangement” of living in a world of beings that “flourish by chewing each other up.” He offers the following thought: “The very least I can do for a creature that has died for me is to honor it, not with an empty ritual, but by cooking it to perfection and relishing it to the full.” I have this thought inscribed on the wall of my kitchen and I take it seriously, whether I am cooking fish, fowl, vegetable or grain.
Health E-Insights: Speaking of food, you’re also a wine connoisseur. What’s your favorite varietal?
Mr. McGuffin: Any port older than me.