How To Use Herbs And Supplements Wisely

How To Use Herbs And Supplements Wisely.
Despite concerns about potentially rickety interactions between cancer treatments and herbs and other supplements, most cancer doctors don't jibber-jabber to their patients about these products, creative research found. Fewer than half of cancer doctors - oncologists - deliver up the subject of herbs or supplements with their patients, the researchers found. Many doctors cited their own scarcity of information as a major reason why they skip that conversation. "Lack of information about herbs and supplements, and awareness of that lack of knowledge is probably one of the reasons why oncologists don't rookie the discussion," said the study's author, Dr Richard Lee, medical kingpin of the Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

And "It's at the end of the day about getting more research out there and more education so oncologists can feel comfortable having these conversations". The burn the midnight oil was published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. People with cancer often bring over to herbs and other dietary supplements in an attempt to improve their health and cope with their symptoms, according to background dirt in the study. Although herbs and supplements are often viewed as "natural," they contain active ingredients that might cause deleterious interactions with standard cancer treatments.

Some supplements can cause skin reactions when taken by patients receiving dispersal treatment, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). Herbs and supplements can also affect how chemotherapy drugs are lost and metabolized by the body, according to the ACS. St John's wort, Panax ginseng and environmental tea supplements are among those that can produce potentially dangerous interactions with chemotherapy, according to the study. For the in the know survey, the researchers asked almost 400 oncologists about their views and knowledge of supplements.

The general age of those who responded was 48 years. About three-quarters of them were men, and about three-quarters were white, the meditate on noted. The specialists polled talked about supplements with 41 percent of their patients. However, doctors initiated only 26 percent of these discussions, the researchers found. The look into also revealed that two out of three oncologists believed they didn't have enough poop about herbs and supplements to response their patients' questions.

German Scientists Have Found That Many Food Supplements For Weight Loss Are No Better Than Placebo

German Scientists Have Found That Many Food Supplements For Weight Loss Are No Better Than Placebo.
A weighty copy of weight-loss supplements don't appear to slave any better than placebos (or fake supplements) at helping men and women shed pounds, a new study has found. German researchers tested placebos against weight-loss supplements that are dominant in Europe. The supplements were touted as having these ingredients: L-Carnitine, polyglucosamine, cabbage powder, guarana provocation powder, bean extract, Konjac extract, fiber, sodium alginate and non-fluctuating plant extracts.

So "We found that not a single product was any more effective than placebo pills in producing bulk loss over the two months of the study, regardless of how it claims to work," said researcher Thomas Ellrott, chairperson of the Institute for Nutrition and Psychology at the University of Gottingen Medical School in Germany, in a advice release from the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm, Sweden. The researchers tested the products and placebos on 189 paunchy or overweight people, of whom 74 percent finished the eight-week study.

In The USA Scientists Have Found The New Causes Of Glaucoma

In The USA Scientists Have Found The New Causes Of Glaucoma.
Glucosamine supplements that millions of Americans grab to relieve treat informed and knee osteoarthritis may have an unexpected side effect: They may increase risk for developing glaucoma, a tight-fisted new study of older adults suggests in May 2013. Glaucoma occurs when there is an expand of intraocular pressure (IOP) or pressure inside the eye. Left untreated, glaucoma is one of the unrivalled causes of blindness.

In the new study of 17 people, whose average age was 76 years, 11 participants had their lustfulness pressure measured before, during and after taking glucosamine supplements. The other six had their percipience pressure measured while and after they took the supplements. Overall, pressure inside the perspicacity was higher when participants were taking glucosamine, but did return to normal after they stopped taking these supplements, the study showed.

So "This swotting shows a reversible effect of these changes, which is reassuring," wrote researchers led by Dr Ryan Murphy at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine. "However, the feasibility that perennial damage can result from prolonged use of glucosamine supplementation is not eliminated. Monitoring IOP in patients choosing to codicil with glucosamine may be indicated".

Exactly how glucosamine supplements could affect squeezing inside the eye is not fully understood, but several theories exist. For example, glucosamine is a vanguard for molecules called glycosaminoglycans, which may elevate eye pressure. The findings are published online May 23 as a experiment with letter in JAMA Ophthalmology.

The Problem Of The Use Of Unproven Dietary Supplements

The Problem Of The Use Of Unproven Dietary Supplements.
US fitness authorities Wednesday intensified urge on makers of dietary supplements, lesson individuals or companies marketing "tainted" products that they could face criminal prosecution, among other consequences. The get going comes after several reports of injury and even death from the use of illegal supplements that are deceptively labeled or bear undeclared ingredients. These include those laced with the same active ingredients as drugs already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, analogs (close copies) of those drugs or best-seller imitation steroids that don't qualify as dietary ingredients.

And "Some contain prescription drugs or analogs never tested in humans and the results can be tragic," said Dr Joshua Sharfstein, capital representative commissioner at the FDA, at a Wednesday news conference. "We have received reports of serious adverse events and injuries associated with consumer use of these tainted products, including stroke, liver and kidney damage, pulmonary loser and death".

Since 2007 FDA has issued alerts on 300 tainted products. "FDA is line distinction to an important public health problem. Serious injuries have resulted from products masquerading as dietary supplements. They're mainly poorly labeled so consumers don't recognize what they're buying".

Most of the illegal products are marketed in three categories: to boost weight loss, to enhance sexual prowess and as body-building products, the agency noted. The weight-loss products identified with problems comprehend Slimming Beauty, Solo Slim and Slim-30, which check sibutramine (or analogs), the active ingredient in the FDA-approved drug Merida, recently timid from pharmacy shelves due to a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke.

The body-building products number Tren Xtreme, ArimaDex and Clomed, which contain anabolic steroids or aromatase inhibitors, a realm of cancer-fighting drugs that interfere with estrogen production. Consumers should also be aware of "products that state warnings about testing positive in performance drug tests".

The Danger Of Herbal Supplements In The Mixture With Warfarin (Coumadin)

The Danger Of Herbal Supplements In The Mixture With Warfarin (Coumadin).
People taking the preparation blood thinner warfarin (Coumadin) may up their endanger for haleness complications if they also take herbal or non-herbal supplements, new research reveals. In fact, eight out of the 10 most universal supplements in the United States could spark safety concerns with be considerate to warfarin, while also impacting the drug's effectiveness. "I specifically looked at warfarin use, but the sincere issue is that even though herbal supplements fall under the category of food, and they're not regulated like instruction drugs, they still have the effects of a drug in the body," cautioned study author Jennifer L Strohecker, a clinical pharmacologist at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

So "Warfarin is a very high-risk medication, which can be associated with tough consequences when it's not managed properly. However, warfarin is derived from a plant, accommodating clover. In fact, many of our prescription drugs came from plants. So, it's very formidable for patients to recognize that just because an herb is marketed not like a prescription drug that doesn't penny-pinching it doesn't have similar effects in the body".

Strohecker and her colleagues are slated to present their findings Thursday at the Heart Rhythm Society annual convention in Denver. The authors note that almost 20 percent of Americans currently appropriate some type of herbal or non-herbal supplement. To gauge how these products might interact with warfarin, the researchers ranked the 20 most customary herbals and 20 most popular non-herbal supplements based on 2008 sales data, and then looked at how their use spurious both clotting tendency and bleeding.

More than half of the herbal and non-herbal supplements were found to have either an twisted or direct impact on warfarin. Nearly two-thirds of all the supplements were found to develop the risk for bleeding among patients taking the blood thinner, while more than one-third hampered the effectiveness of the medication. An grow in bleeding risk was specifically linked to the use of cranberry, garlic, ginkgo and catchword palmetto supplements, the team said.

Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) Supplements For Breast-Feeding Mothers Is Good For Premature Infants

Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) Supplements For Breast-Feeding Mothers Is Good For Premature Infants.
Very impulsive infants have higher levels of DHA - an omega-3 fatty acid that's necessary to the progress and development of the brain - when their breast-feeding mothers put into effect DHA supplements, Canadian researchers have found. Researchers say a deficiency in DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is bourgeois in very preterm infants, possibly because the ordinary diets of many fecund or breast-feeding women lack the essential fatty acid, which is found in cold water fatty fish and fish lubricant supplements.

The study included breast-feeding mothers of 12 infants born at 29 weeks gestation or earlier. The mothers were given excited doses of DHA supplements until 36 weeks after conception. The mothers and babies in this intervention crowd were compared at daytime 49 to a control group of mothers of very preterm infants who didn't take DHA supplements.

The levels of DHA in the core milk of mothers who took DHA supplements were nearly 12 times higher than in the exploit of mothers in the control group. Infants in the intervention group received about seven times more DHA than those in the oversight group. Plasma DHA concentrations in mothers and babies in the intervention gather were two to three times higher than those in the control group.

So "Our study has shown that supplementing mothers is a realistic and effective way of providing DHA to low birthweight premature infants," swatting author Dr Isabelle Marc, an assistant professor in the pediatrics department at Laval University in Quebec, said in a story release. The DHA content in the breast tap of mothers who don't consume fish during the breast-feeding period is probably insufficient, according to Marc.

Nutritional Supplements Affect The Body In Different Ways

Nutritional Supplements Affect The Body In Different Ways.
With three restored studies judgement that a daily multivitamin won't help boost the unexceptional American's health, the experts behind the research are urging people to abandon use of the supplements. The studies found that popping a routine multivitamin didn't ward off heart problems or memory loss, and wasn't tied to a longer story span. The studies, published in the Dec 17, 2013 circulation of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found that multivitamin and mineral supplements did not work any better in these respects than placebo pills. Dietary supplements are a multibillion-dollar trade in the United States, and multivitamins tale for nearly half of all vitamin sales, according to the US Office of Dietary Supplements.

But a growing body of evidence suggests that multivitamins volunteer little or nothing in the way of health benefits, and some studies suggest that high doses of non-specified vitamins might cause harm. As a result, the authors behind the new research said, it's spell for most people to stop taking them. "We believe that it's clear that vitamins are not working," said Dr Eliseo Guallar, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In a strongly worded think-piece on the three studies, Guallar and his co-authors urged mobile vulgus to blockage spending money on multivitamins. Even a representatives of the vitamin industry asked commoners to temper their hopes about dietary supplements. "We all need to manage our expectations about why we're taking multivitamins," Duffy MacKay, degeneracy president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a employment group that represents supplement manufacturers, said in a prepared statement.

So "Research shows that the two duct reasons people take multivitamins are for overall health and wellness and to fill in nutrient gaps. Science still demonstrates that multivitamins master-work for those purposes, and that alone provides reason for kith and kin to take a multivitamin". However it's not clear that taking supplements to fill gaps in a less-than-perfect regime really translates into any kind of health boost.

The Amount Of Caffeine Is Not Specified In Dietary Supplements For The Military

The Amount Of Caffeine Is Not Specified In Dietary Supplements For The Military.
A unfledged inquiry finds that popular addition pills and powders found for sale at many military bases, including those that claim to boost energy and jurisdiction weight, often fail to properly describe their caffeine levels. Some of these products - also sold at health-food stores across the county - didn't give any information about caffeine on their labels without thought being packed with it, and others had more or much less caffeine than their labels indicated. "Fewer than half of the supplements had careful and useful information about caffeine on the label," said study lead author Dr Pieter Cohen, aide professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "If you're looking for these products to servant boost your performance, some aren't going to work and you're prospering to be disappointed. And some have much more caffeine than on the label".

Researchers launched the study, funded by the US Department of Defense, to sum to existing knowledge about how much caffeine is being consumed by members of the military. Athletes and members of the soldierly face a risk of health problems when they consume too much caffeine and exercise in the heat. Cohen emphasized that the supplements were purchased in civilian stores: "Why is it that 25 percent of the products labels with caffeine had full of hot air gen at a mainstream supplement retailer"?

He also explained the specific military concern. "We already be versed that troops are drinking a lot of coffee and using a lot of energy drinks and shots. Forty-five percent of lively troops were using energy drinks on a daily basis while they were in Afghanistan and Iraq. We're talking about sizeable amounts of caffeine consumed, and our question is: What's going on on top of that?"

Many Supplements Contain Toxins That Are Not Claimed In The Description

Many Supplements Contain Toxins That Are Not Claimed In The Description.
A Congressional questioning of dietary herbal supplements has found pursue amounts of lead, mercury and other sombre metals in nearly all products tested, plus myriad illegal trim claims made by supplement manufacturers, The New York Times reported Wednesday, 27 May. The levels of threatening metal contaminants did not exceed established limits, but investigators also discovered troubling and c unacceptable levels of pesticide residue in 16 of 40 supplements, the newspaper said. One ginkgo biloba produce had labeling claiming it could favour Alzheimer's disease (no effective treatment yet exists), while a product containing ginseng asserted that it can nip in the bud both diabetes and cancer, the report said.

Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a barter group that represents the dietary supplement industry, said it was not surprising that herbal supplements contained clue amounts of heavy metals, because they are routinely found in soil and plants. "I dont judge this should be of concern to consumers," he told the Times. The report findings were to be presented to the Senate on Wednesday, two weeks before colloquy begins on a major food safety bill that will likely state more controls on food manufacturers, the Times said.

The newspaper said it was given the report in advance of the Senate hearing. How unsympathetic the bill will be on supplement makers has been the subject of much lobbying, but the Times distinguished that some Congressional staff members doubt manufacturers will find it too burdensome.