Safety of Herbal Dietary Supplements | Arthritis Information
Questioning The Safety And Effectiveness Of Herbal Dietary Supplements
Millions of people are taking herbs and other plant-based dietary supplements to improve their health, but they have precious little information on the actual effectiveness or potential ill effects of these products. That's the topic of an article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly news magazine.
C&EN Senior Editor Celia Henry Arnaud suggests that consumers are taking a gamble when it comes to the safety and effectiveness of hundreds of pills and potions cluttering store shelves. Such products include black cohosh and red clover, used by menopausal women to reduce hot flashes, and kava, which is used to treat anxiety and insomnia. Scientists are concerned that some supplements may contain high levels of toxic metals, such as lead and mercury, or pesticides. There's also the possibility that the plant itself might be toxic or that a supplement can cause harm by reacting with conventional drugs.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration, which regulates supplements as foods rather than drugs, recently took a step toward improving the situation by requiring all supplement manufacturers to test their products for contaminants. But scientists still know little about the ingredients in many supplements and what effect they might have on the body. Ongoing research is providing new information that will help address these concerns in the future, including the long-term safety of these products for consumers, the article indicates.
Article:
"Supplementing Knowledge"
This article from Chemical and Engineering news? Say it ain't soSomewhere in my "electronic library" I have a very interesting article on supplements and alternatives, homeopathics etc. I think that the bottom line of the article is that people take supplements and alternatives for diseases and sicknesses that the body will take care of with or with-out the supplements and very possibly the supplements may actually work against our own immune response. So, since people took the supplement and/or alternatives and the body actually did what it always does, slay the dragons, people give the credit to the supplements or alternatives. Since the 80s I took supplements and homeopathics. I took immune booster since the 80s. I preached to every one the benifits. I recently met an old friend that I hadn't seen for 15 years. I told him about my RA and explained that it was an immune disease. He looked at me and said, "Have you ever considered that all those pills you took actually caused the disease?" I told him, "Yes, many times I have thought that very same thing."
LEV
Copyright ArthritisInsight.com