Can You OD On Vitamin Pills?

by Korin Miller posted on Yahoo! Health

Khloe Kardashian posted this photo of her supplement regimen that she’s taken to go with her on a trip to Armenia. “Vitamin party!”, she says. “I don’t have a pillbox because for all the pills I take, the pull box is large and bulky.” But is it too much?

It’s a mantra many of us heard on repeat as kids: “Take your vitamins!” Despite recent research that has questioned the effectiveness of vitamin supplements — and even their safety — Nielsen data has shown that the vitamin supplement industry is still growing.

MyAchingKnees comment:  The effectiveness of supplements is going to largely be determined by the quality of manufacture.  Don't expect your supplements to do wonders for you if you buy them off the shelf at the grocery store or one of those department store sized vitamin stores selling food grade products.    

“Keeping Up with the Kardashians” star Khloe Kardashian seems to be doing her part to keep supplement sales up, posting a new photo on Instagram of all of the vitamins she took on on her current trip to Armenia. It’s hard to tell exactly how many vitamins she’s taking, but it appears to be about 23 a day. That’s right—a day.

Is that even healthy? While 23 vitamins a day is admittedly a little extreme, New York City registered dietitian Jessica Cording tells Yahoo Health that the right supplement intake really depends on a patient’s needs.

“Vitamin supplements are really to address gaps in your diet,” she says. “If you’re eating a balanced diet, you’re probably meeting your basic needs unless you have an underlying deficiency.”

MyAchingKnees comment: I believe we need to buy and eat the best foods we can find - et as low glycemic and as non-GMO as you can, but no matter how hard you work to buy and consume the best  foods, you are still going to have some sort of nutritional deficiency. It's because the foods that are available now are greatly reduced in their nutritional value.

Which supplements do we actually need?

While there are a lot of supplements we don’t really need, Donald Hensrud, MD, medical director of the Mayo Clinic’s Healthy Living Program, tells Yahoo Health there are a few most people should consider.

Vitamin D

The first is vitamin D, which studies have shown can improve bone health, as well as muscle and immune function. “It’s been estimated that 20-50 percent of the U.S. population may have low vitamin D levels,” he says. “Now that people are aware of the relationship between sun exposure and skin cancer, they’re staying out of the sun more. That’s one of the sources of vitamin D.” He recommends that people look for a vitamin D3 supplement, aiming to take 1,000 units a day.

Calcium

The second supplement Hensrud recommends is calcium, which is widely known to help bone health. However, he notes that too much calcium has been linked with heart disease, so it’s best to stick with the recommended daily allowance (1,000 mg a day for most adults).

Probiotics

Cording suggests that people also consider taking a probiotic supplement. “So much of our health relies on the health of our gastrointestinal tract,” she says. “Keeping that in working order is important.”

And yes, it’s possible to take too many supplements!

While some supplements can be beneficial to your health, both Cording and Hensrud warn that it’s possible to take too many vitamins — and the fallout of that overdose depends on what kind of vitamins you take. Many water-soluble vitamins like C and B will just move through your body when taken in excess. “With many supplements, you’re pretty much paying for expensive urine,” says Cording.

There are a few water-soluble vitamins to be wary of, though. Hensrud points out that ingesting too much vitamin B6 can cause nerve problems and overdosing on niacin may lead to liver damage or even liver failure.

Large doses of fat-soluble vitamins like A, E, D, and K will store in your body fat and can cause problems ranging from gastrointestinal distress to more serious issues. Two clinical studies conducted in the mid-1990s on the effects of beta-carotene and vitamin A supplements on smokers were halted after participants showed an increased risk of lung cancer, heart disease, and death.

While some vitamin supplements can enhance your overall health, both experts say it’s most important to get your recommended vitamins and minerals from a diet heavy in fruits and vegetables. “A plant-based diet with a variety of foods from different sources goes a long way toward reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease, and other health issues,” says Hensrud.

Interested in trying new supplements to fill gaps in your diet? Consult your doctor first to make sure there aren’t any potential interactions with any medication you may be taking.

MyAchingKnees comment: By all means, consult your Doctor. I'm sure he has a huge background in nutritional medicine and is not beholding to any prescription medications companies (sarcasim font).



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Is Your Pharmacy Selling Snake Oil?

The title above is the original title by an article by Amy Rushlow a contributing writer on Yahoo! Health. She leads with - "Controversial supplements with unproven health claims are often stocked just outside the pharmacy windows. But that doesn’t mean your pharmacist recommends them."

How true. It really is a buyer beware world. The smart consumer does the research and spends their money wisely. The cheapest supplements are just that. Often, clinical trials are conducted in-house. The word "certified" is nice, but certified by whom, the company's CEO? Ultimately, the proof will be in the pudding.....the supplements will have effects if they are effective. You stop getting sick so much. You feel better. Maybe your blood pressure drops. Your AIC levels go down a bit. Maybe your cholesterol levels drop somewhat. This type of individual, results oriented proof is what going to separate the snake oil and the supplements that are actually effective. And it's pretty much going to be true that the supplements are not going to the best for quality, purity and efficacy unless they are made using a pharmaceutical grade manufacturing process.

Is Your Pharmacy Selling Snake Oil?

At a large pharmacy chain, one shelf features products that have been tested in clinical trials, shown to be effective, and approved for sale by the FDA. The other shelf, right below the first, promotes products that are, as obesity specialist Yoni Freedhoff, MD, puts it, “At best, yet-to-be-proven hope — and at worst, useless hogwash.”

Could you tell which is which?

OK, it’s pretty obvious when we phrase it that way.  But when you’re browsing the rows upon rows of boxes in the health aisles of your local pharmacy, the differences between evidence-based drugs and poorly researched supplements aren’t always so clear.

As Freedhoff argues in a recent post on his website, selling trendy, unproven, herbal or so-called “natural” remedies only a few feet away from the pharmacy counter gives them an air of credibility that may not be deserved. “People see pharmacies as both business and service, where their service is to provide healthy products to their customers,” Freedhoff tells Yahoo Health. Pharmacists are regularly reported to be among the most trusted health professionals, he adds. As a result, many people assume that the “natural” products available for purchase in the pharmacy section meet the approval of the pharmacist.

Most often, that assumption would be incorrect. “The pharmacists I know are mortified by the [non-evidence-based] products their pharmacies sell,” Freedhoff says, referring specifically to supplements and devices such as raspberry ketones pills and ionic technology bracelets, which have little to no research to support the benefits they advertise.

“Most of the stuff out there is a total waste of money at best, and can be outright dangerous at worst,” says weight-loss expert Charlie Seltzer, MD. “Supplements are confusing as it is, and most people, even really smart ones, do not have the knowledge to look at a package and know whether the claims are based on real science or just marketing hype,” Seltzer tells Yahoo Health.

Many hot natural products, such as the green coffee bean extract pills that are suddenly in every grocery checkout line, simply don’t have much research conducted on them. So we often don’t know the side effects these products could cause or how they react with other drugs.

That’s in stark contrast to the rigorous research that prescription and over-the-counter medications must undergo. In the U.S., pharmaceutical companies must show proof that medications are safe and effective before they can legally hit the market. But supplements don’t. Instead, the government relies on consumers to report serious adverse effects that may be due to supplement use, and only then reviews the product’s safety. (For more on the distinction between drugs and supplements, the FDA website offers a helpful FAQ page.)

To make smart decisions about the dizzying array of options on pharmacy shelves, experts offer these tips:

Don’t assume that something is safe just because it claims to be natural. “Plenty of ‘natural’ mushrooms grow in my front yard that I wouldn’t want to eat,” Freedhoff quips. 

Know that not all doctors and pharmacists are supplement experts. “Much of what we learned in medical school about supplements was incorrect anyway regarding efficacy and safety,” Seltzer says.

Before you take a controversial new herbal product, Seltzer recommends, talk with a health professional who specializes in the condition that you are trying to treat. He or she will have the expertise to let you know if the compound in question could possibly help your problem, and can offer alternate or additional solutions.


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Surprising New Supplement Trend Emerges

Good article on supplement trends by Americans, by Dr. K.J. McLaughlin, and posted on the International Forecaster

According to a new research report by Ipsos Public Affairs, a market research company, Americans are taking nutritional supplements in numbers that are surprising, given the previous estimates. The Council for Responsible Nutrition looked at the data from five years of market research following the results gleaned from online surveys.

The analysts found that Americans were using nutritional supplements with greater frequency than previously estimated through the National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys.

This new research is quite interesting because not only does it tell us what Americans are taking, but it also provides an important demographic profile for this specific group of people.

The issue here, when it comes to comparing the results to past studies, is that this new information is very accurate, as it considered those folks who use supplements regularly, occasionally, or seasonally throughout each year; previous government data only provided supplement use in people who had taken them in the last 30 days.

As of the year 2011, approximately 65%–70% of respondents indicated that they had taken nutritional supplements over the last five years. The number of people reporting regular supplement use came in at 48%–53%. What is interesting in this case is that within this group of “regular users,” individual nutrient use increased, while the use of multivitamins gradually diminished over the five-year period. This trend indicated that most people were taking nutrients for specific reasons and were shifting their usage in a more concentrated effort.

The main rationale that regular users of nutritional supplements gave for their continued usage over the study period was to improve their overall health and wellness or to compensate for nutrient gaps in their diets.

The study also indicated that those people who used nutritional supplements on a regular basis were much more likely to be involved in a regular exercise program, consume a normal, healthy type of diet, maintain a normal weight, get enough sleep every night, and arrange check-ups with their physician.

According to the study’s co-author, Judy Blatman, “What the data tells us is that dietary supplement usage is a mainstream practice, and, contrary to some assertions, supplement users do not use these products as a license to slack off on eating right or exercising, but instead are health conscious individuals trying to do all the right things to be healthy.”

This study also continues to indicate that people in the U.S. are taking nutritional supplements as part of their own personalized health and wellness strategy. There is a definite intent among this group of people to maintain a healthy status, and they view the use of supplemental nutrients as one strategy to accomplish this task.

This new evidence is quite revealing, given the reports following the release of research data that implied that taking nutritional supplements was a waste of time and money simply because the particular research methods used in that study did not show that supplements could prevent death from chronic disease.

It’s obviously clear from this new report that most people are not taking nutritional supplements for that reason!

MyAchingKnees.com comment:  I believe quality supplements are part of the overall strategy to have optimal health, along with eating right and minimizing bad food, living a physical life and avoiding toxins.   After nine years, I know that supplements are a key cornerstone of my health not to mention living pain free from previous joint issues.  Even though taking supplements is relatively cheap and not invasive compared to prescription drugs and surgery, it always amazing me about people who are sick, or complaining about their aches, pains and weight gain who will spend $50-$75 each week for a restaurant meal, but won't spend $50 a month on quality supplements ensuring they are providing their bodies with the necessary nutrients in the right doses for optimal health.



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Big Brother FDA

Message from Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky regarding Senate Bill, S. 3187, titled the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) User Fee Re-authorization Bill:  

Imagine gun toting agents from the Food and Drug Administration storming onto your property because you choose to sell raw milk. Think this can’t happen? Think again. FDA agents have been barging in to farms and natural food stores to crack down on individuals whose only crime is believing they know better than the government what was good for their health. 

Last week, I (Sen Rand Paul) offered an amendment to the Food and Drug re-authorization Bill. My amendment would curb the FDA’s abuse of power and overreach. It would disarm the FDA, terminate FDA raids on Amish farmers and natural food stores, and put an end to their censorship of dietary supplements. Watch Rand Paul on the video below. I believe his efforts are in the best interests of Americans who favor choice and self responsibility for their health and life styles. 







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