Herbal supplements - be careful..!
Posted 07-02-2009 at 01:12 PM by gage
Herbal supplements have grown into a $19-billion-a-year industry used by 60 million Americans. If you're one of them, how can you find out if your supplement works, or if it's safe?
Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, the FDA treats supplements as food. Unlike prescription and over-the-counter drugs, they can make it to market without proving purity, composition, effectiveness, or even safety. And they can stay there until the FDA proves them unsafe after reviewing complaints filed by doctors and consumers.
Although 10 years after the supplement act was enacted, the FDA said it planned to adopt new policies on monitoring product and ingredient safety, it has not yet done so.
The National Institutes of Health is doing dozens of studies on supplements from magnesium to mistletoe to look at whether they really work. Supplements with proven value include ginger for nausea, saw palmetto for enlarged prostates, and St. John's wort for mild depression. But they share the shelves with products that have doubtful or unproven benefits. For example, studies report breast and penis enlargers fall in the worthless category.
Other supplements show mixed results. Case in point: echinacea, the best-selling herb used to ward off colds. A blinded, placebo-controlled 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that echinacea was of no value in preventing or treating colds. Studies of garlic, taken to lower cholesterol, have also had varied outcomes.
One reason is lack of standardization. A study may use different parts of an herb, or even different species, and that may affect outcomes. Some supplements may not offer the same herb or nutrient used in the study. The concentration of an herb in a supplement can vary, too, and a product may not even provide enough to make a difference. In a recent lab report that checked supplements of the antioxidant coenzyme Q10, one product didn't contain a drop of the substance.
Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, the FDA treats supplements as food. Unlike prescription and over-the-counter drugs, they can make it to market without proving purity, composition, effectiveness, or even safety. And they can stay there until the FDA proves them unsafe after reviewing complaints filed by doctors and consumers.
Although 10 years after the supplement act was enacted, the FDA said it planned to adopt new policies on monitoring product and ingredient safety, it has not yet done so.
The National Institutes of Health is doing dozens of studies on supplements from magnesium to mistletoe to look at whether they really work. Supplements with proven value include ginger for nausea, saw palmetto for enlarged prostates, and St. John's wort for mild depression. But they share the shelves with products that have doubtful or unproven benefits. For example, studies report breast and penis enlargers fall in the worthless category.
Other supplements show mixed results. Case in point: echinacea, the best-selling herb used to ward off colds. A blinded, placebo-controlled 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that echinacea was of no value in preventing or treating colds. Studies of garlic, taken to lower cholesterol, have also had varied outcomes.
One reason is lack of standardization. A study may use different parts of an herb, or even different species, and that may affect outcomes. Some supplements may not offer the same herb or nutrient used in the study. The concentration of an herb in a supplement can vary, too, and a product may not even provide enough to make a difference. In a recent lab report that checked supplements of the antioxidant coenzyme Q10, one product didn't contain a drop of the substance.
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