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Some Truths About Supplements

As promised last time, here are my thoughts on supplements and boy, have supplements been maligned lately by the wicked Big Pharma you-know-who's. First of all, the high up mucky-mucks of Big Pharma would like nothing more than to discredit natural healing methods - including the use of supplements - because those of us who use them are becoming quite the threat to the deep pockets of the self-seeking pharmaceutical companies. I have three recent research projects that are supposedly "definitive" for proof that supplements don't work and worse yet, are harmful. You be the judge.

Gingko: 3,069 participants, 75 or older with normal or mild cognitive impairment. Random assignment of 120 mgs of gingko twice daily or placebo. Over a period of time, 277 in the gingko group and 246 in the placebo group were diagnosed with dementia. Summary in the JAMA reported that gingko didn't work. Here's what's wrong with the study:

1) Older people need much more than 240 mgs daily of gingko. They need at least twice as much. The amount of gingko was way too low therefore rendering the project invalid. 2) Not all gingkoes are created equal. The study prescribed an extract of ginkgo while whole leaf works better. Physicians and researchers don't seem to understand that vitamins and other supplements differ greatly in quality and bioavailability and that if a vitamin is cheaply made and poorly absorbed, it's an automatic why bother and doomed to failure. 3) The study wasn't monitored properly: Did the participants all take their gingko as prescribed? After all, it was a memory study! Perhaps most importantly, 4) This single study is in direct contrast to 50 other studies and reports published in both mainstream and alternative publications. But guess which one of the 51 studies got headline news?

Here's the truth and what you can expect good gingko to do for you: It's an antioxidant; it stimulates neurotransmitters in the brain; it keeps blood vessels pliable; it supports healthy circulation with its inhibition of blood clotting effects; it prevents lipid peroxidation and it's good for many things including keeping your brain healthy.

Vitamin C: A study in Cancer Research (2008) warned that high doses of Vitamin C could harm cancer patients by making chemotherapy drugs ineffective. However, nutrition expert, Jack Challam pointed out two main problems to the study: 1) The researchers didn't use the common form of Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid; instead they used an oxidized (already bad) form called dehydroascorbic acid, a compound that is never used as dietary supplement in people. (What tha'?) 2) The mice that they used were given toxic doses of the wrong C to begin with, the dehydroascorbic stuff. So they killed the mice through incompetence, then translated their FUBAR into a snotty and malicious study of vitamin C under the arrogant imprimatur of Big Pharma? A ridiculous and stupid study...

Here's the truth: It's a well known fact that high-dose intravenous vitamin C is frequently and successfully used as alternative and complementary therapy for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Remember the Beta carotene/lung cancer brouhaha a few years ago? The study was flawed. First of all, all the participants were smokers. Secondly, the initial questionnaire asked them to give details from memory of all the supplements they had taken for the last 10 years. (Even I couldn't do that...) Third, the study both skewed statistics and was illogical and the results are: Smokers who took beta-carotene for 4 years were more apt to get lung cancer. First of all, what kind of beta-carotene? Manufactured in a lab or natural? Could make a big difference. Let's also look at this another way: How about the fact that smoking causes lung cancer? Maybe it wasn't the ingestion of beta carotene for 4 years, but the slow and insidious growth of pre-existing lung cancer in the smokers?

Truth: "Numerous epidemiological studies confirm a preventive effect for lung cancer from a balanced, carotenoid, vitamin rich diet." Prof. Hans Bieskalski, Univ. Hohenheim, Germany.

My plan was not to bore you with this research, but to point out that you just can't believe everything you read even if it's on the front page of the New York Times. Question everything, esp. when it has to do with money or when a study is published by a mainstream press about a natural substance which suddenly has become more dangerous than arsenic or less efficacious than a drug from Merck which treats the same problem. Be afraid, be very afraid. The truth is out there, but not as reported by the New York Times or Brian Williams. Most of the info you read about supplements and natural medicine is coming from or is funded by Big Pharma and, as I have pointed out, the studies are often flawed and purposely skewed.

Here are some truths you can count on: Supplements are powerful. And yes, you do need a targeted few despite the proclamations of those who say that if you eat a healthy, organic diet then that's enough. Well, it isn't. The older you get, the more you will need to fill in your aging chinks with good quality mortar. Most supplements won't harm you, no matter how many you swallow because you will just pee them out. Hence, the pejorative term, "expensive urine." To me, the term "expensive urine" is neither pejorative nor disparaging; it's more in the realm of comforting in that I know I am getting what I need and maybe more and why not?

The fat soluble vitamins - E, D and A - and iron, however, should be taken with caution. Poor quality supplements produce poor results. Those unbelievable sales on certain vitamins at Vitamin Cottage? If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. There are no magic bullets; you need to promote a healthy lifestyle first and foremost then use supplements to, well . . supplement. Lastly, be very wary of multi-level marketing companies and the people promoting their products. (For example, sugary Rainforest juices.) They usually don't have your best interest in mind - just their bottom line. My one MLM exception is Young Living Essential Oils - a good product, a good company.

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