Health & Nutrition Blogs
Health Blog: Are Health Speech Limits Good?Why dietary supplement makers can’t tell you about positive research
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Health Blog: What You Don’t Know About Supplements ... and WhyAre limits on free speech about supplements good for your health?
Here’s a question: Is someone selling a dietary supplement allowed to describe the positive results of a legitimate clinical study about their product? If you said, “Yes,” you would be wrong. Does this serve the public health?
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Health Blog: Does Dose Size Matter with Dietary Supplements?Yes, dose sizes can be beneficial or detrimentalWe’re a pill-loving society. And we’ve come to expect one tablet, capsule, gel-tab, etc. to equal one dose. So entrenched is this belief we are led to think it true when it’s not. Go ask Alice – was it one pill that made her larger in Wonderland or a portion of cake? But, as Paracelsus warned, “the right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy.”
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Health Blog: Antibacterial IngredientsAre they causing more harm than good?Germs are bad. And they should be feared. At least that’s how watching a recent TV ad for Lysol antibacterial cleaner made me feel – evil, creeping germs crawling everywhere. The truth, however, is our health may not require an all-out offensive against germs.
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Health Blog: Is Product Branding Helping You or Hiding Something?Branding plays to your unconsciousWe live in a name-brand society. Whether it’s the water we drink, the food we eat or the drugs we take, ads assail us from every direction. And they work – often unconsciously. Otherwise, why would millions be spent on holiday shopping campaigns and 30-second Super Bowl spots? |
Women's Health Blog: Vitamin V – This One's for the LadiesProbiotics: Vitamins for the vaginaLike good fats and bad fats, not all bacteria are harmful. Beneficial bacteria live in/on us and do useful things like produce vitamins (biotin, vitamin K), suppress harmful organisms, and help to train and balance our immune systems.
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Health Blog: The Risk/Reward Balance Between Drugs and SupplementsWhat happens when drugs hinder dietary supplements?Worthwhile objectives are often at odds with each other. For instance, demonstrating the safety and efficacy of medical products is beneficial. So is spurring their innovation, but what happens when one hinders the other?
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Health Blog: Is the FDA Biased Against Supplements?Ruling on Ovos’ Vivimind could be the litmus test on FDA biasIn 2002, a company formerly called Neurochem (now called Bellus Health) filed an investigational new drug application (IND) with the FDA to study a substance found in some species of kelp, called homotaurine, for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Homotaurine, a substance found in kelp, was given the generic drug designation “tramiprosate.” Bellus then conducted clinical trials through Phase III, providing significant evidence along the way for its safety in humans.
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Health Blog: How Supplements Could Become IllegalIf forms of vitamin B6 are drugs, what’s next, fish oil?Could the situation get worse for dietary supplements? In fact, it could. I haven’t previously mentioned it, but there is an “exception” clause in DSHEA (the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act) that could allow the FDA a means to circumvent the “prior market clause” (the clause that prohibits the marketing of “articles” as dietary supplements if they have gained recognition in the marketkplace as new drugs by being approved or even studied as new drugs).
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Health Blog: Think You Will Always Be Able To Buy Vitamin B6 Supplements? Part 2Pharmaceutical companies could keep you from buying vitamin B6 in your storeCheck out the story of Medicure’s MC-1 & Pyridoxal 5’-Phosphate (P5P). Vitamin B6 is naturally found in humans. But in 2007, another fledgling drug-development company, Medicure, filed a citizen’s petition with the FDA claiming that pyridoxal 5’-phophate (P5P) was an unapproved new drug being sold illegally as a dietary supplement. The filing was undoubtedly motivated by the rulings from Pharmanex and Biostratum. As mentioned in my previous blog, P5P is considered the active form of vitamin B6. It is also found in some animal-source proteins. Other dietary forms of vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxamine & pyridoxal) are converted to P5P in the body.
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Health Blog: Will You Always Be Able To Buy Vitamin B6 Supplements?How vitamin B6 could be taken off the shelves of your health food storeHave you heard the story about Biostratum’s Pyridorin & Pyridoxamine? Vitamin B6 has traditionally been thought to consist of three similar compounds, or vitamers: pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine. Pyridoxine is found predominantly in vegetable foods, while pyridoxal and pyridoxamine are found in foods of animal origin. All three of these vitamers are converted to the active form of vitamin B6 in the body, pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (P5P). P5P is an essential cofactor for many critical biochemical reactions in the body including macronutrient metabolism, neurotransmitter synthesis, and hemoglobin production.
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Health Blog: Your Red-Yeast Rice Supplement Could Become a Prescription DrugHow red-yeast rice could become a prescription drugThis is the story on Merck’s Mevacor (lovastatin) & Pharmanex’s Cholestin In case you’ve never heard of it, red-yeast rice is a dietary staple in some Asian countries. It’s been being used since China’s Tang dynasty in 800 A.D. Back then it was seen as a mild aid for indigestion, diarrhea and blood circulation. In modern times, it has been shown to reduce cholesterol.
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Health Blog: Your Dietary Supplements Might Become Prescription DrugsWhen does a supplement become a drug ... and much more expensive?The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the law Congress enacted in 1994, established the scope of the term “dietary supplement” as something that includes one or more “dietary ingredients.” It defined what a supplement is and what it is not.
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Health Blog: Dietary Supplements' Risks vs RewardsDietary Supplements: Risk vs RewardUp until about a century ago the practice of medicine was a mixture of tradition, spirituality, hearsay and legend. Useful substances were discovered via trial and error or by means orthogonal to current drug discovery methods. Items found in the natural environment were prepared and administered in a way that was thought to promote health. Safety was evaluated over time. For a specific condition, an effective remedy may exist, or it may not.
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Health Blog: The Ongoing War Between Pharmaceuticals & SupplementsHow do we calculate risk vs reward when it comes to dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals?Risk abounds, especially when it comes to our health. Yet we often ignore it or speak about it with an unflattering tongue. Why? Well, for most, it’s no fun to think about danger. And since risk is danger’s handmaiden, focusing on risk is often perceived as negativity. Or worse – paranoia. Ask Chicken Little.
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