There is such a body of properly conducted research these days to show that dietary supplementation can not only prevent chronic disease but also cure it, as well as delay aging, that only medical Neanderthals or the self-serving would seriously maintain otherwise. So all we have to do is pop a few pills a day and all will be right. Right? Alas, it is not so. Would that it were that simple! As already noted in an earlier article, if your life style is truly an unhealthy one, no amount of supplementation is going to help. Save your money.
Unfortunately the whole business of effective supplementation is a complicated one and you would need a PhD in bio-chemistry to begin to master it. Supplements are a fast-growing multi-billion dollar industry that is largely unregulated. The number of suppliers out there selling rubbish are legion. The evidence shows that over 70% of anything you are likely to buy in a supermarket or health food store is worthless for one reason or another.
Let's take a quick look. In 1999 the LATimes had 30 brands of the herb St. John's Wort, a popular natural anti-depressant, assayed and found that two thirds of them either did not have any or had substantially less than the amount stated on the bottle. In the last year the independent assay unit, Consumer Lab in the US, tested 6 popular supplements - all from major suppliers. Here's what they found: Ginkgo Biloba: used for cognitive enhancement & treatment of depression, of the 30 products tested none of them had adequate or claimed levels of the active ingredient. American & Asian Ginseng: used for increased energy & normalising blood sugar levels, of the 22 products tested only 9 passed muster. The majority either contained heavy metals & other impurities or did not have the amounts claimed on the label. Glucosamine & Chondroitin: used for the formation & repair of cartilage, half of those tested did not have the ingredients claimed & not one of the Chondroitin-only products passed. SAMe: an anti-depressant & anti-arthritic, only half of the 13 brands tested had the amounts claimed. Saw palmetto: for the treatment and prevention of BPH & prostate cancer, only 2 out of the 27 tested had the amount claimed. Vitamin C: major antioxidant & involved in the prevention of most degenerative disease, of the 26 products tested 9 non-USP brands either had unacceptable levels of impurities or heavy metals, while all the USP (US Pharmacopoeia) brands had less than 100% of the amount claimed.
I could go on. Simply put, we are being ripped off Big Time!
Nor are these all fly-by-night operators or disreputable MLM companies (and believe me there are plenty of both out there) but major suppliers with household brand names.
How can this be allowed? Shouldn't governments do something about it? Well, lying on your label is still not allowed most places and there are plenty of laws about that. All the same, as we see, it doesn't stop it happening & to an alarming degree. The supplements industry in the US and Europe is already partially regulated. By and large you cannot make any medical claim for a specific dietary supplement on your label or in your sales literature. You are partially required to say what you put in your product but it doesn't go far enough. Even if followed to the letter, not enough protection is given the consumer and what is left unsaid is really the name of this dirty little game.
In truth, the last thing any of us would want is blanket government regulation of herbs and dietary supplements. Already this has happened in many European countries and the major drug companies, along with the various vested interests in the medical establishment in the US and elsewhere, are making a concerted effort to pass laws which will allow them to control all dietary supplements sold and even what you can say in public about them. This will mean that almost any supplement or herb will be treated as if it were a drug. You will not be able to decide on your own if you want to take any specific supplement in anything like a therapeutic amount. No, you will first have to go to your doctor, who will write you a prescription, which you will then have to take to a pharmacy to fulfil. In theory, if you went out into the fields and gathered some herbs which you then took for whatever ailed you or your friends - you would be breaking the law. If you think think I exaggerate, think again - it's already happened. And just what do you think all this will do to prices? A 300% increase at least, based on current drug prices.
Again, if you think I am overstating it, take a look at the current debate about what the pharmaceutical majors, who were being shamed into selling their medications to Third World countries at a fair rather than obscene profit, and compare that to what they're charging in the developed markets. Also, recall that it was only last year that the major drug companies in Europe, the US & Japan settled with the US government for tens of billions of dollars, after a protracted court case, it having been shown that they had been operating a cartel for over 10 years selling pharmaceutical grade vitamins at grossly inflated prices. And they call it the "Ethical Pharmaceutical" business!
No, handing over control in this way is like trading up from a fair ground swindler to a Robber Baron. Notta good idea. Far better we inform ourselves as best we can and labelling requirements are beefed up. Far better that some of us are cheated by the unscrupulous than our right to choose a natural therapeutic product is abridged or priced beyond our means. Caveat Emptor!
The fact is, we all need to become 'educated consumers' if we are to have any control over our own health and wellbeing. Now more than ever. We cannot all become bio-chemists but we can inform ourselves in lay terms as to the scams and weasel ways of those seeking to part us from our money, whether it is a fast talking salesman, a woo-woo new-ager, or a specialist with a string of professional medical qualifications after their name.
This correspondent has no medical qualification of any kind but has over the past 9 years, while covering the subject of health & nutrition, managed to cast a staunchly consumerist eye over both the alternative and conventional medical fields in so far as they affect the individual's wellbeing. I am actually encouraged in many ways by the overall progress in integrative approaches over the past 20 years but remain outraged by the scams and restrictive practices used by the self-serving that proliferate, and no doubt always will in one guise or another.
To be sure, I had and still have a personal interest in that both my partner and I have a considerable 'habit' when it comes to purchasing supplements. If you don't want to waste your money you need to buy the good stuff and that can mount up, I can tell you. I quickly developed a sense for the bogus and the inflated. The next thing I did was to find out what really worked and in what dosage? I did a survey on what doctors who were in the forefront of the field actually took themselves. Very illuminating. It was then a question of reading the current literature and research on the subject and asking health practitioners, whom I did respect, who their suppliers were and why? Again, very illuminating.
Although there are literally tens of thousands of supplement suppliers offering formulations from the good, the bad, to the atrocious, there are actually only about 2 dozen companies who supply the raw materials that are any good. Find them and you are half way there. Harder, is to select out of the thousands of formulating companies the ones you can trust. It was only after several years of asking people whom I felt really knew and cared that I developed a list of about one dozen companies whom I trusted implicitly, not only to produce the best products, but to stay abreast of the latest research and who charged a fair price. These are not companies whose labels you will normally see in any supermarket or health food shop, for the simple reason that they are usually sold only through the better physicians & health practitioners, who are not easily fooled.
But it is not only outright dishonesty we have to watch out for. There are so many other factors to consider: bio-availability is a major one; correct formulation is another; what constitutes a therapeutic dose is key; high or low grade ingredients; the original source of raw materials; impurities & toxins; fillers & excipients; actual active content; storage & shelf life: the veracity of ancient remedies from the T'ang Emperor (c'mon!), and so on.
These are all major factors in the efficacy of any natural supplement you decide to buy and in columns to come the intention will be to expand on this and tell you exactly what to look out for so that you are not cheated and whatyou do buy is likely to do you some good. To become, in other words, an educated consumer.
" ..... evidence shows that over 70% of any supplement you may buy in a supermarket or health food shop is likely to be worthless. A recent assay of 30 well known brands of Ginkgo Biloba in America showed that not one had the amount claimed on the label."
