Healthy by Nature radio show this week: Even the birds and bees do it… We’ll talk about Dr. Laurie Steelsmith’s new book, Great Sex Naturally. I guess I needn’t say more about that. Click here to find podcasts, show archives and ways to listen nationwide.

Asthma
A relatively small 2-month study involving patients aged 7-19 years with moderate persistent asthma used oral magnesium supplements. Researched found the supplements reduced bronchial reactivity, diminished allergen-induced skin issues and provided better symptom control. The magnesium dose used was 300 mg/day. LINK.

 Are supplements safe and effective?
The media loves to beat up on dietary supplements. (I expect you are among the savvy millions that just roll their eyes and ignore them. But, in case you need ammunition to use with family or friends, I’m going to address a recent particularly bad example.)  I have many issues with Consumer Report’s (CR) September cover story, but here are brief comments on 5 of the article’s 10 points.

1. According to relatively new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, supplement manufacturers must submit any “Adverse Event Reports” (AER’s) received. Understand that the AER can be anything at all…even if the smell of an old pill spoiled someone’s appetite. If the complaint is a serious one, unfortunately no one verifies that the supplement was more than an innocent bystander–medications or other factors may have been the real cause. The article blares the total number of supplement AER’s in large print. But to give a fair context, we are talking about less than one per manufacturer per year. (Surely, corn flakes cereal gets more than that.) The complaints averaged 105 per month over a 5 year period. Contrast that with AER’s on medications. The FDA received over 40,000 AER’s per month in 2008 and hundreds of thousands die each year from drugs. Yes, there are a small percentage of problem supplements, particularly those made in foreign countries by companies you’ve never heard of and those noted below in #2.

2. The biggest problem by far is a few crooks that spike supplements with drugs. The perpetrators are punished severely, but the FDA could do more. Be especially cautious of products with wild claims for sexual enhancement, weight loss or body building.

3. Of course, you can overdose on vitamins and minerals if you get ridiculous. You can overdose on water and oxygen. Products made by mainstream companies are typically well-balanced and provide instructions to keep you in the safe zone. Government guidelines for dosage are notoriously low, having been set more for preventing deficiency disease than for promoting optimum function. One exception is calcium. It is now being consumed to excess and we have the government to thank for that. (That is a long story for another time.)  What is far scarier to me is the widespread insufficient intake of crucial nutrients like magnesium. LINK

4. Warning labels about potential interactions are helpful, but so is common sense. If you are taking a powerful and critical pharmaceutical medication, ask the pharmacist if your supplements will interfere. But also ask if grapefruit juice or pomegranate juice will do the same because they might and if any of your other medications will. It should be of equal concern that virtually all drugs interfere with nutrients and perhaps you should take even more supplements. One classic example is that statin-type cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce our levels of crucial CoQ10.

5. CR magazine states that supplements are not proven to cure illness. (Technically that is wrong. They are proven to cure deficiency diseases.) CR forgot to mention that there is no practical mechanism for doing what they asked. The only reason drug companies spend millions to do the studies required for FDA approval is that they can patent the chemical and get a return on their investment. Nutrients cannot be patented. Even worse, strict rules prevent the manufacturers from even openly discussing studies done on their products. In spite of a large amount of research, it was decades before the FDA allowed manufacturers to hint that folic acid might prevent a type of birth defect. How many children died while the bureaucrats pondered? Perhaps the answer to respecting nutrients is to call them “drugs” like they did magnesium in this journal article. LINK

I’ll save the other 5 for later. I’m at a scientific conference and don’t want to miss anything. Meanwhile if you want to make a comment on CR’s Facebook Page, here is the LINK.
 
LAST WEEK
 LINK to Archive. I invited pharmacist/author Suzy Cohen to tell us the truth about the negative publicity on supplements. She is expert on the effects of supplements and drugs, as well as their interactions. One of her books is: Drug Muggers.

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My first book : Natural Alternatives to Nexium, Maalox, Tagamet, Prilosec & Other Acid Blockers. Subtitle: What to Use to Relieve Acid Reflux, Heartburn, and Gastric Ailments.

My latest book: Aloe Vera-Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy

The information contained in this newsletter has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The contents are for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice.

Copyright 2012 Martie Whittekin, CCN