If you haven't seen this yet, I'll let the news release from Consumer Reports below speak for itself. All I can say is Yay! that Consumer Reports is willing to take on the supplement industry and shine the light on the dangers of supplement products. You may want to consider purchasing the latest issue for all the facts.
Release Date: 08/02/2012
Consumer Reports Investigates Vitamins and Supplements: Ten Dangers That May Surprise You
Plus, advice for protecting yourself
against hazards associated with vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other
nutritional supplements
YONKERS, NY — In a new report in its September issue and online at www.ConsumerReports.org, Consumer Reports identifies ten hazards that might surprise the large swath of American adults—more than 50 percent—who take vitamins, herbs, or other nutritional supplements.
“Patients sometimes assume that supplements are safe because they are ‘all natural,’ but not all supplements are truly natural. In fact, one of the greatest safety hazards to consumers involves supplements that have been spiked with prescription drugs or toxic metals,” said Jose Luis Mosquera, M.D., medical adviser, Consumer Reports, and an internist who specializes in integrative health and medicine.
Consumer Reports identifies ten hazards distilled from interviews with experts, published research, and its own analysis of reports of serious adverse events submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Here are some of the hazards discussed in the report, plus advice for staying safe:
YONKERS, NY — In a new report in its September issue and online at www.ConsumerReports.org, Consumer Reports identifies ten hazards that might surprise the large swath of American adults—more than 50 percent—who take vitamins, herbs, or other nutritional supplements.
“Patients sometimes assume that supplements are safe because they are ‘all natural,’ but not all supplements are truly natural. In fact, one of the greatest safety hazards to consumers involves supplements that have been spiked with prescription drugs or toxic metals,” said Jose Luis Mosquera, M.D., medical adviser, Consumer Reports, and an internist who specializes in integrative health and medicine.
Consumer Reports identifies ten hazards distilled from interviews with experts, published research, and its own analysis of reports of serious adverse events submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Here are some of the hazards discussed in the report, plus advice for staying safe:
Supplements are not risk-free.
More than 6,300 reports describing an excess of 10,300 serious
outcomes, including 115 deaths and more than 2,100 hospitalizations,
1,000 serious injuries or illnesses, 900 emergency-room visits, and some
4,000 other important medical events, streamed into the FDA from
supplement companies, consumers, health-care providers, and others
between 2007 and mid-April 2012. CR notes that the reports by
themselves don’t prove that supplements caused the problems, but the raw
numbers are cause for concern. Current laws make it difficult for the
FDA to order a problem product off the market. In fact, to date, the FDA
has banned only one ingredient, ephedrine alkaloids.
Protect yourself: Search the FDA’s website at www.fda.gov
for warnings, alerts, or voluntary recalls involving a supplement you
are thinking of taking. If you suspect you’re having a bad reaction to a
supplement, tell your doctor. You can also report your problem to the
FDA at 800-332-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch.
Some supplements are really prescription drugs.
According to Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D, director of the FDA’s Division of
Dietary Supplement Programs, dietary supplements spiked with
prescription drugs are the “largest threat” to consumer safety. Many
recalled products have the same or similar active ingredients as
prescription drugs such as sildenafil (Viagra), tadalafil (Cialis), and
sibutramine (Meridia, a weight-loss drug that was removed from the
market in 2010 because of evidence that it increased the risk of heart
attacks and strokes). Others contained synthetic steroids. “As a
result, adulterated products can cause some of the same side effects and
interactions that a consumer may be trying to avoid by opting for
supplements instead of prescription drugs,” says Dr. Mosquera.
Protect yourself.
Consult your doctor if you are having trouble in the bedroom (it could
indicate an underlying health problem). And try to slim down with diet
and exercise. Build muscle by weight training.
You can overdose on vitamins and minerals.
Unless your health-care provider tells you that you need more than 100
percent of the recommended daily intake of a particular nutrient, you
probably don’t. Megadoses of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K
can cause problems, and even some standard doses may interfere with
certain prescription medicines. “Surprisingly, some people may
experience adverse effects from even normal doses of a vitamin or
mineral supplement, especially patients with digestive issues or those
who take blood thinners,” says Dr. Mosquera.
Protect yourself: Using
information from the labels on the supplements and food you routinely
consume, add up your daily exposure to everything, and then check CR’s
“How much is too much?” table to see if you’re overdoing it.
You can’t depend on warning labels.
For one thing, the FDA doesn’t require them on supplements with one
important exception, iron. In a market basket study of 233 products
purchased online and in the New York City metropolitan area, Consumer
Reports found wide variations and inconsistencies in labeling.
Protect yourself: Make
sure your doctor or pharmacist knows what supplements and prescription
drugs you are taking or thinking of taking. You can also check for
interactions by using Consumer Reports’ “Guide: 100+ Commonly Used
Supplements.” To access the free guide, go to www.ConsumerReports.org/health and click on “Natural Health.”
Heart and cancer protection: not proven.
Omega-3 pills and antioxidants are widely thought to reduce the risk of
heart disease and cancer, respectively, and millions of women take
calcium to protect their bones. But recent evidence casts doubt on
whether those supplements are as safe or effective as assumed. The
report notes that the widely held view that fish-oil pills help prevent
cardiovascular disease hit a snag when a study of 12,500 people with
diabetes or prediabetes and a high risk of heart attack or stroke found
no difference in the death rate from cardiovascular disease or other
outcomes between those given a 1-gram fish-oil pill every day and those
given a placebo. These findings were published in a June 11, 2012,
issue of New England Journal of Medicine online report.
Consumer Reports also notes a recent blow
against calcium supplements by German and Swiss researchers who
followed almost 24,000 adults for an average of 11 years. They found
that regular users of calcium supplements had an 86 percent increased
heart-attack risk compared with those who didn’t use supplements, as
reported in the June 2012 issue of the Journal Heart.
Protect yourself: Lay
off the antioxidant supplements and reduce your cancer risk safely by
quitting smoking, avoiding excessive alcohol, and eating a healthy diet
that includes plenty of fruit, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole
grains.
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