Supplements might not be what they say

[Deb]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morn ... mm&hpid=z3

A warning to herbal supplement users: Those store-brand ginkgo biloba tablets you bought may contain mustard, wheat, radish and other substances decidedly non-herbal in nature, but they’re not likely to contain any actual ginkgo biloba.

That’s according to an investigation by the New York State attorney general’s office into store-brand supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Wal-Mart. All four have received cease and desist letters demanding that they stop selling a number of their dietary supplements, few of which were found to contain the herbs shown on their labels and many of which included potential allergens not identified in the ingredients list.

“Contamination, substitution and falsely labeling herbal products constitute deceptive business practices and, more, importantly, present considerable health risks for consumers,” said the letters, first reported today by the New York Times.

[nerdhume]

that is scary. I wish they had checked some of the other brands. I buy some of my supplements at Walmart, but not the store brand. I don't trust herbal products at all.

[Polly]

Hi Deb,

Thanks for posting this warning. This is exactly why I have never been a big supporter of dietary supplements (which include herbal products, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and enzymes). The FDA does not ever routinely evaluate these preparations (name-brand or store-brand), so there is absolutely no quality control that we can rely on. (Maybe other countries do so, but not the U.S.). Good for NY state for performing its own investigation! Anyone can put out this kind of product and the purity and safety never have to be proven.

The studies I have seen have showed that, even if the prep contained the promised ingredient, the amount could range from negligible to multiple times what is claimed on the label.

Polly

[tex]

And that's exactly why I always maintain that "less is more" especially when initially trying to recover from MC. Unless we are treating a known (or extremely likely) deficiency, the less supplements we take, the more likely we are to recover in as short a time as possible. On this board, our combined experiences show that those who take the most supplements typically take the longest time to recover (if they are actually able to recover), and the amount of delay, and the number of setbacks seem to be proportion to the number of supplements used.

Over the years, a surprising number of members who were recovering nicely have suffered a complete relapse, and had to start over, after adopting a supplemental program that someone convinced them to try, in order to "enhance/improve their healing".

Thanks for the link, Deb.

Tex