[MedicalConspiracies] VITAMIN AND NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENT SAFETYALERT!

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VITAMIN AND NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENT SAFETY ALERT!

 

Recent Tests Reveal Shockingly High Incidence of

LABELS THAT LIE!The facts are frightening, but undeniable, as recently revealed and documented by ConsumerLab, the leading source for independent test results of vitamins, nutritional supplements and herbal health products: 1 out of every 4 supplements or nutrition products tested by ConsumerLab does not contain what is on the label, may be contaminated, or does not properly release its ingredients! Here are some alarming examples from ConsumerLab's latest test-report findings: The ginkgo biloba supplement with a recommended daily dosage that contained 30 times more lead than the state of California permits without a warning label. That's more lead than the average person is exposed to in an entire week!

 

The popular children's vitamin with dangerously high levels of vitamin A-enough to weaken a growing child's bones.

Chondroitin products that may not relieve your joint pain because testing showed they contain much less chondroitin than advertised. In fact, one product contained no chondroitin at all!

Green tea may or may not help prevent cancer. But what was discovered about 3 of the 4 green tea supplements tested is enough to convince you to stop taking them forever.

Consumers buy echinacea to fight colds and the flu. But 4 popular brands contained up to 75% less phenols-the key bioactive ingredient-than their labels claim. Isolated examples? If only they were. In fact, tests further revealed the following highly dangerous contaminants among "health" supplements analyzed, some of them from major brand names: Lead, Mercury, Arsenic,Toxic Metals, Pesticides and Fumigants ... and moreWe contacted Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com and a noted researcher, writer and expert on consumer health care issues, to find out what he has learned about government oversight of the supplement industry after years of intensive study. (note from me - Consumerlab.com looks pretty interesting. It's worth a look-see. http://www.consumerlab.com/)Here's the statement he sent us: A National Scandal:Why Consumer Protection Must Be a Do-it-Yourself Project When It Comes to Vitamins and Dietary Supplements By Tod Cooperman, MDIt was when I was studying to become a medical doctor that I first came to understand what a huge problem Americans face because vitamins, herbs and other dietary supplements are not regularly tested or regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-or any other government organization, for that matter. In contrast to prescription drugs, which must successfully pass an extensive checklist of requirements to the satisfaction of the FDA before they can be released, and are then subject to close monitoring to ensure public safety, the regulation of supplements is virtually nonexistent.

Although supplement labels are supposed to state exactly what's in the package, no government agency routinely checks for compliance.

Manufacturers are permitted to make general, government-approved statements about ways their products may help or maintain normal body functioning, but they are not required to back the statements with research or provide information about proper uses, adverse effects or risks.

Supplements are not required to be manufactured under specific standardized conditions. In 1994, the FDA was given the authorization to issue regulations on how supplements should be made. But for 13 years it delayed and delayed, and only recently, in 2007, did it finally publish a set of rules.Unfortunately, these rules have a lot of weaknesses. Their main focus is on manufacturers' record keeping, but-amazingly-they include no basic standards for purity or how to test for ingredients.Still worse, the is that the FDA hasn't allocated the resources needed to see that the regulations are properly enforced.PROBLEM: Supplements that contain too little, poor quality or even none of the active ingredient they claim to contain-even those advertised as "high potency."For example, in ConsumerLab's tests a whopping 73% of the supplements that claimed to contain chondroitin failed to receive an "Approved" rating. In fact, scarcely any chondroitin (only 1%-8%) of the claimed amount was found in three products, and none at all could be detected in a fourth product. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case; the same problem exists with other supplements besides chondroitin.PROBLEM: Dangerously incorrect dosage levels.This danger typically involves too much of an active ingredient, as in the children's multivitamin that tests revealed to contain a huge 216% of the labeled amount of vitamin A-a toxic level. Too much vitamin A can cause abnormalities in the liver, central nervous system, bone and skin, and even modestly excessive doses can cause birth defects in pregnant women.PROBLEM: Misleading or insufficient ingredient information.A concern more common in products claiming to be special "formulas,blends," or "complexes," because those descriptions can be used to hide the real facts. Example: The label that indicated each dosage of the pills inside contained 1,000 mg of a "pyruvate formula," when, in fact, the pills were only about 600 mg pyruvate.PROBLEM: Misleading or unsupported health claims.Dishonest or deceptive claims cheat you financially and medically. Most commonly, this involves labels that make unsupported claims about treating or preventing a disease or health problem-like the supplements and skin gels claiming the ability to cause weight-loss of more than 20 pounds.PROBLEM: Contamination.Possible contaminants include pesticides, microorganisms, heavy metals, manufacturing by-products and even plants harvested accidentally, all of which can pose serious risks of a toxic or carcinogenic nature. For example, 3 out of the 13 ginkgo biloba products tested by ConsumerLab were found to have lead contamination; one of them had a recommended daily dosage that contained 30 times more lead than the state of California permits without a warning label-more lead than the average person is exposed to in an entire week!PROBLEM: Pills and tablets that fail to release their ingredients properly.Pills that don't disintegrate properly can't be absorbed by the body, so even if the ingredients are of good quality and in the right amounts, you're not getting what you paid for. ConsumerLab found one multivitamin for women, manufactured by a leading brand, that required more than an hour to break apart properly-twice as long as the time period established as the acceptable limit by the U.S. Pharmacopoeia (USP).PROBLEM: Special dangers posed by herbal supplements.With only a few exceptions, herbal remedies are largely unregulated and not required to meet standards of safety and purity. Furthermore, unlike most manufactured supplements and drugs, herbal products are by nature complex mixtures of chemicals, so it is difficult to find standardized sources. For example, of the 10 St. John's wort products submitted for testing by ConsumerLab only 3 received a passing score. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~To to this group, send email to: MedicalConspiracies- (AT) googl (DOT) com