{"id":3739,"date":"2010-07-23T05:38:53","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T03:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=3739"},"modified":"2015-02-15T09:29:39","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T14:29:39","slug":"cen-supplementing-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/cen-supplementing-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"C&EN: Supplementing Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I surf\u00a0around the medical blogosphere, I can’t help but notice\u00a0the\u00a0hostility that various\u00a0MD’s\u00a0express towards\u00a0supplements.\u00a0 I understand where they’re coming from – there are\u00a0a lot of sensational claims being made on very shaky evidence.\u00a0 They’re concerned about safety – not to mention the\u00a0prospect of\u00a0seeing people with eminently treatable ailments and conditions abandon needed medical care in\u00a0favor of “natural” miracle cures.\u00a0 Nonetheless. I don’t agree with their\u00a0solution – the repeal of DSHEA.\u00a0As I’ve noted before, I treasure my right to choose, and feel better enforcement of the existing regs and GMPs is the\u00a0answer – not insisting supps meet the same criteria as prescription drugs (as if that’s<\/em> a solution… cases like Avandia<\/a> and Vioxx<\/a> argue otherwise).<\/p>\n

Thus, I was encouraged to see a much more even-handed\u00a0attitude\u00a0expressed by\u00a0a different set of\u00a0docs (Ph.D.s)\u00a0over at Chemical & Engineering News <\/a>(published by the American Chemical Society<\/a>).\u00a0 Rather than seeing gaps in the data and shrieking DANGEROUS!!! the authors of this\u00a0article take a much more cautious – and (I feel) responsible – approach:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople take heavy metals out of context,\u201d says Ikhlas A. Khan, a professor of pharmacognosy at the University of Mississippi who studies botanical dietary supplements. \u201cThe plants are grown outside. They\u2019re going to contain trace amounts of heavy metals.\u201d<\/p>\n

…Researchers who study botanical supplements are less concerned about contamination than they are about the botanicals themselves and their intrinsic toxicity. Contamination, they believe, can be adequately addressed by the Good Manufacturing Practices that all supplement manufacturers must now follow. But \u201cright now, we do not even understand the chemical composition\u201d of botanicals, Khan says. \u201cInherent variability blurs the composition.\u201d<\/p>\n

An important step toward understanding possible toxicity, as well as efficacy and mechanism of action, is standardization of the contents of supplements. \u201cAll botanical dietary supplements should be standardized,\u201d UIC\u2019s van Breemen argues.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No flames or\u00a0rocks being thrown here, which is refreshing.\u00a0 And a very reasonable concern is raised:<\/p>\n

At the forefront of botanical supplement research, he adds, is the potentially dangerous effect that botanical supplements might have on drug metabolism. Taking a botanical supplement every day could induce or inhibit the activity of liver enzymes that are involved in the metabolism of certain medications, van Breemen notes. \u201cThe half-life of a pharmaceutical might change,\u201d he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a completely legit issue, and one that anyone taking prescription drugs should consider before taking an “all-natural” herbal concoction. Drug interactions are quite possible, and several have already been identified.<\/p>\n

As the editorial portrays, information about the safety and efficacy of many herbal supps is incomplete.\u00a0 Thus, it’s important not to be lulled into a false sense of security by the words “natural,” “herbal,” “ancient,” or similar terms – none of which provide any guarantees of wholesomeness. This doesn’t mean the opposite –\u00a0that herbal supps are unsafe to take – but it does mean that users should\u00a0do some research up front, and not rely on\u00a0ad claims or soft-focus adjectives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I surf\u00a0around the medical blogosphere, I can’t help but notice\u00a0the\u00a0hostility that various\u00a0MD’s\u00a0express towards\u00a0supplements.\u00a0 I understand where they’re coming from – there are\u00a0a lot of sensational claims being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,14,27,28],"tags":[514,851],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3739"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9140,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739\/revisions\/9140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}