Category Archives: Food Supplements

In March, I wrote about how the new Amazon Elements supplements line is promoting traceability, including featuring a QR code on packaging so customers can verify where a products ingredients were sourced, when the supplement was made, and how it was tested. Amazon is a giant, with significant resources, one assumes. Can smaller brands also afford to create ambitious traceability initiatives like this?

The quick answer is yes. It can be done, and it has been done. In fact, as I pointed out in March, Amazon was actually not the first dietary supplement company to roll out a QR-code traceability program; Gaia Herbs, a smaller firm, was actually the first way back in 2010 with its Meet Your Herbs program, complete with QR code. During that time, Gaias founder and CEO Ric Scalzo says, we were not the $50 million company we are today. We were substantially less than that, so that probably put us at a small company (but certainly not a start-up, by any stretch).

For Gaia, says Scalzo, establishing a traceability platform was challenging but doable because the company controls its entire supply chain.Were a seed-to-shelf company, meaning we control the seed selection, the supply chain, horticultural development, the farms, the extraction, the testing, the whole processeverything thats building up to the pinnacle of the quality of the finished product, Scalzo explains. We had all of the inputs already controlled here at Gaia. All of that data had already been collected for years and years, and the challenge for us was figuring out how to compile it, report it, and bring it all under one platform.

Scalzo says, It took us a long time to write a software program to harness all this data, from several locations. Most of it was coming from our operational management system, but some of it was coming from separate types of data platforms, and we had to link it all together and then somehow command access to the data and then report it in a way that was meaningful to the consumer.

Scalzo does acknowledge that for an emerging brand, implementing this kind of traceability can be a challenge because most start-ups and smaller companies do not have control back to the field like Gaia does; instead, companies are more likely buying finished extracts from a raw-materials supplier or distributor, and because of that, a big part of the traceability story [may be] cut off, Scalzo says.

Traceability is still possible for some companies because they are doing it on a smaller scale.In March, boutique freeze-dried fruit and veggie brand Crunchies announced that it had launched its own traceability platform that allows customers to learn about the region, including climate and topography, where each bag of fruit/veggie was grown by entering a lot code from the packaging on a website.

CEO Scott Jacobson says, I think a larger corporation would have a tougher time implementing a project like this. We are a one-ingredient snack, so from a practical standpoint, we have a lot less to track. He adds that once Crunchies figured out how to get the technology to jive with its current lot-tracking and production procedures without duplicating data entry, it came together quite well. And, he says, moving forward, with the infrastructure in place, our next phase should be a little easier.

Both Scalzo and Jacobson say their companies have seen the payoff from investing in traceability. It continues to separate us from our competitors, says Jacobson. Since we are the only vertically integrated freeze-dry brand in the U.S., we wanted a way to clearly highlight that benefit to our customers and, more importantly, the consumer.

Scalzo says the investment in Meet Your Herbs has benefited Gaia Herbs in every way, sales included. Its definitely catapulted the brand to a much, much higher status of respect and as a brand leader for quality and certainly traceability, he says. Not only that, he says, We saw how outside companies began to look at Gaia from a point of reputation. We also saw how FDA began to look at Gaia as a responsible leader.

All around, at every level, everything was lifted up in terms of brand integrity, he concludes. Can traceability do the same for your company?

Also read:

Amazon Elements Dietary Supplements: Fear, or Follow?

Is Full Traceability Possible in Todays Dietary Supplement Supply Chain?

Natural Products Expo West 2016: Dietary Supplement Firms Arent Just Talking about Transparency; Theyre Acting on It

Jennifer Grebow Editor-in-Chief Nutritional Outlook magazine jennifer.grebow@ubm.com

Originally posted here:

Can Small Dietary Supplement and Food Brands Also Build ... - Nutritional Outlook

The Hindu

Goel for testing food supplements The Hindu The Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel has stated that the government is probing the possibilities of setting up a mechanism to test food supplements to help the athletes. Emphasising the need for a scientific approach to diet and nutrition for athletes ... Doping a criminal offence? NADA set to discuss possibilitySportstarlive Sports Authority of India to adopt a policy of `zero tolerance` towards doping, says Sports Minister Vijay GoelZee News all 6 news articles »

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Goel for testing food supplements - The Hindu

Researchers have come up with a new way to fortify food and drinks with iron: a hybrid material made of edible whey protein nanofibrils and iron nanoparticles.

Iron deficiency affects around 1.2 billion people worldwide, causing fatigue, anemia, headaches, and diminished work performance.Boosting iron levels through diet or supplements is difficult since it needs to be in a form that the body can absorb successfully. Further, iron can change the color, taste, and smell of food.

As reported in Nature Nanotechnology, the protein nanofibrils are formed by denaturing native whey protein by heating them to 90C, and then placing them in strong acid until they form the final protein filaments. Several protein filaments then organize themselves into thicker protein nanofibrils.

The nanofibrils are then combined with iron nanoparticles which can be readily absorbed by the body. To produce these nanoparticles, researchers mixed ferric chloride directly with the protein nanofibrils in the same acid solution, creating iron nanoparticles of 20 nanometers which immediately bind to the protein nanofibrils surface and are effectively stabilized.

The researchers, from ETH Zurich, say this part is key, since iron nanoparticles are normally not stable: they tend to clump together and form aggregates that cant easily mixinto foods or drinks.

To test the efficacy of the new iron compound, scientists gave it to rats with iron deficiency after they were fed a low-iron diet. The new preparation cured the animals iron deficiency and the associated anemia just as effectively as iron sulphatethe most common iron supplement for human usethat has a downside of causing undesirable sensory changes in foods.

The new supplement is also easy to digest: The enzymes in the rats stomachs entirely digested the whey protein nanofibrils. Further, acid conditions like those in the stomach dissolved the iron nanoparticles into iron ions, which can be quickly absorbed into the blood and used to produce new red blood cells.

The iron-coated whey protein nanofibrils can come in eitherpowder or liquid form, and the new compound can go into different types of food without affecting their taste, smell, or color.

To identify potential risks and side effects, researchers ran microscopic tests on the rats brain, heart, kidneys, and other organs, after they had eaten the nanofibrils for two weeks. They were particularly interested in the whey protein nanofibrils, which have never been used in foods or food supplements before.

The structures are similar to amyloid fibrils, which accumulate in the brain and have been linked to Alzheimers disease, but are made out of hydrolyzed edible food proteins. Researchers therefore wanted to make sure that eventually undigested protein fibers in the supplement wont accumulate in the body and potentially produce tissue anomalies.

On examining the organs and tissues of the rats, we did not find any evidence of nanoparticles or nanofibrils accumulating or possibly causing organ changes, says Raffaele Mezzenga, professor of health sciences and technology at ETH Zurich. Our new iron supplement has enormous potential for successfully combating iron deficiency in an economic and efficient way.

The ingredients in thefood supplement are cheap and plentiful. Whey proteins are a byproduct of the dairy industry. Iron salts are also cheap and readily available. As both the process and the ingredients are easy to work with, the supplement could also be a good alternative for people living in poor countries who are more prone to iron deficiency.

Mezzenga and coauthor Michael B. Zimmermann have filed a patent for the product. The Swiss National Science Foundation funded the work.

Source: ETH Zurich

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Whey hybrid adds iron to food but not weird flavors - Futurity: Research News

A rogue batch of dietary food supplements with excessive levels of aluminium withdrawn from Czech Republic over health concerns.

The Czech food authorities have ordered a supply of a dietary supplements found to contain several times the tolerable daily dosage of aluminium to be withdrawn from the market over health concerns.

The supplier of the rogue batch of dietary supplements, Kamenn zdrav s.r.o, based in Prague, will now a face a fine enforced by the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA).

The CAFIA said it had ordered the supplier to immediately withdraw the lot in question from retail network and inform all its customers.

The dietary supplement is called Schindeles Mineralien and is made by the Austrian company Robert Schindele GesmbH.

The batch of supplements was found on an inspection by the CAFIA, which checks the market in the Czech Republic for contaminated substances and wrongdoing.

Excessive aluminium

A test of the food supplements found them to contain aluminium amounting to 15,760 milligrams per 1 kg of dry mass of the product, which the CAFIA said was several times over the tolerable daily dosage.

It is unclear as to the size of the batch, which the CAFIA said was unsafe for human health, which was found, or whether any further batches are to be withdrawn.

The maximum fine that can be levied for such a wrongdoing in the Czech Republic is 50 million Czech Koruna (186,000) but it is unlikely that Kamenn zdrav s.r.o, which will be levied with the fine, will be hit with the maximum fine.

Supplier to face fine

As a national food inspection authority, the CAFIA is not entitled to fine the Austrian manufacturer, as it outside its jurisdiction, but the Austrian authorities will be informed about the rogue food supplements.

Kamenn zdrav s.r.o will now provide the CAFIA with details of the size of the batch that is being withdrawn.

Pavel Kopriva, CAFIA spokesperson, told Nutra Ingredients: Its not unusual that in a segment of food supplements that there are contaminated, and substances that are not legal or certain substances are present in a higher level than would be legal.

Kamenn zdrav s.r.o could not be contacted and Robert Schindele GesmbH was unavailable for comment.

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Rogue supplements: Czech authorities withdraw batch over aluminium concern - NutraIngredients.com

MONDAY, April 24, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A nutrient in meat and eggs may conspire with gut bacteria to make the blood more prone to clotting, a small study suggests.

The nutrient is called choline. Researchers found that when they gave 18 healthy volunteers choline supplements, it boosted their production of a chemical called TMAO.

That, in turn, increased their blood cells' tendency to clot. But the researchers also found that aspirin might reduce that risk.

TMAO is short for trimethylamine N-oxide. It's produced when gut bacteria digest choline and certain other substances.

Past studies have linked higher TMAO levels in the blood to heightened risks of blood clots, heart attack and stroke, said Dr. Stanley Hazen, the senior researcher on the new study.

These findings, he said, give the first direct evidence that choline revs up TMAO production in the human gut, which then makes platelets (a type of blood cell) more prone to sticking together.

Choline is found in a range of foods, but it's most concentrated in animal products such as egg yolks, beef and chicken.

Hazen said he and his colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic wanted to isolate the effects of choline on people's levels of TMAO and their platelet function. So they studied supplements.

The researchers had 18 healthy adults --10 meat-eaters and eight vegetarians/vegans -- take choline supplements for two months.

The supplements provided around 450 milligrams of choline daily -- roughly the amount in two or three eggs, Hazen said.

One month in, the study found, the supplements had raised participants' TMAO levels 10-fold, on average. And tests of their blood samples showed that their platelets had become more prone to clotting.

"This study gives us one of the mechanisms by which TMAO may contribute to cardiovascular disease," said Dr. J. David Spence.

Spence, who was not involved in the study, directs the Stroke Prevention & Atherosclerosis Research Centre at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

For the healthy people in this study, Spence said, the TMAO rise from choline might not be worrisome. But, he added, it might be a concern for people at increased risk of heart disease or stroke.

Spence suggested those individuals limit egg yolks, beef and other foods high in choline.

Hazen had similar advice. "You don't have to become a vegetarian," he said. "But you could try eating more plant-based foods, and more vegetarian meals."

He also pointed to the Mediterranean diet -- rich in olive oil, vegetables and fish. In an earlier study, Hazen said, his team found that a compound in olive oil seems to inhibit TMAO formation.

The new study uncovered yet another compound that may counter TMAO: low-dose aspirin.

In a separate experiment, the researchers had some participants take 85 milligrams of aspirin (a baby aspirin) a day, in addition to choline supplements. That, it turned out, lessened the rise in TMAO and the change in platelet activity.

Doctors already prescribe low-dose aspirin to certain people at risk of heart disease and stroke.

It's possible, Hazen said, that aspirin's effects on TMAO are one reason it helps ward off cardiovascular trouble.

The current study is small and preliminary. But it's the latest to suggest that the gut "microbiome" plays a key role in cardiovascular disease, Spence said.

The "microbiome" refers to the trillions of bacteria that dwell in the gut. Spence said researchers are just beginning to understand how gut bacteria and their byproducts affect the cardiovascular system.

But one hope, he said, is to figure out what balance of gut bacteria supports cardiovascular health -- and possibly use probiotic ("good" bacteria) supplements to help treat people at high risk of heart disease or stroke.

Spence said his own lab is working on just that.

There are, of course, many factors in heart disease risk -- from age to high blood pressure to diabetes to smoking, Hazen pointed out.

"We're saying a portion of the risk is related to the gut microbiome," he said.

Hazen and a colleague report potential royalty payments from several companies related to "cardiovascular diagnostics and therapeutics." One company, Cleveland HeartLab, recently launched a test for measuring TMAO levels.

The findings appear in the April 25 online issue of Circulation.

Excerpt from:

Common Food Nutrient Tied to Risky Blood Clotting - Bloomington Pantagraph

As discussed in the last two columns, vitamins are substances necessary in trace amounts for normal metabolic functioning of cells and the human body. With two exceptions, vitamins are made by plants, although because animals eat plants, vitamins are present in some animal products. The two exceptions are vitamin B12 made by bacteria in dirt, and vitamin D produced by our bodies when exposed to sun. Last week's column was about vitamin B12 and the health tip column two weeks ago was about vitamin D.

How about minerals and other vitamins? They are clearly important for optimal health. In the distant past people suffered from diseases such as scurvy caused by lack of vitamin C, and beriberi due to deficiency of vitamin B1 (thiamine). In our part of the world, diseases due to deficiency of vitamins other than D and B12 are rare now.

In Western societies we like to practice what T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. (featured in the documentary "Forks Over Knives," author of "The China Study") calls reductionism. Different foods have been shown to cause certain health benefits, and we like to find the "magic bullet" responsible for these benefits, put it in a pill or capsule, market it and make millions in profits.

The problem is that nutrition doesn't work that way. There are thousands of vitamins and other nutrients in various unprocessed plant foods, many of which remain unknown, and many of which work synergistically when the whole food is consumed. As Dr. Esselstyn (also featured in "Forks Over Knives," author of "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease") puts it, if we eat a "symphony of plant-based food" our bodies have an amazing way of taking out what we need.

You cannot get the same thing in pill or capsule form. For example people who eat plants rich in vitamin E have less heart disease, but high doses of vitamin E in pill form cause heart disease. Vitamin A-containing food helps prevent cancer, but high doses in pill form increase certain cancers. Joel Fuhrman, M.D., author of several books including "Eat to Live," notes that folic acid is the synthetic form of folate added to food and used in vitamin supplements. Whole foods with natural folate prevent disease, whereas "evidence suggests that folic acid supplementation may significantly increase the risk of cancer."

Regarding minerals, In his book "Power Foods For The Brain" Neal Barnard, M.D. points out that:

The amount of copper we need is 0.9 mg, which can easily be obtained by eating greens, nuts, whole grains and mushrooms. There is evidence that larger doses from supplements or from cookware may contribute to Alzheimer's.

Daily iron requirements can be obtained by eating greens, beans, whole grains and dried fruits, but too much from supplements and cookware may contribute to Alzheimer's. (Note that women with heavy menses might need to supplement if their red blood count is low.)

We need 8-11 mg of zinc daily, with healthy sources being oatmeal, whole-grain bread, brown rice, peanuts, beans, nuts, peas and sesame seeds. Too much in pill form may contribute to Alzheimer's.

Many studies have proven that vitamin/mineral supplements are not beneficial and may even be harmful. Yet one-third of Americans take these products and spend billions of dollars doing so. Here's the bottom line:

As discussed in the previous two columns, many Americans are deficient in vitamin B12 and D and should therefore supplement (read the articles to find out the details).

We should be getting other vitamins and trace minerals the way we evolved to get them: in our food, by eating a variety of vegetables, fruit and whole grains.

If you eat animal products, eat more plant-based foods as well.

You cannot get from pills what you can get by eating a healthy diet.

A couple of caveats:

We should avoid salt because it harms the endothelial lining of blood vessels and eventually leads to high blood pressure. Years ago, in order to prevent goiters, guidelines were put in place to add iodine to commercial salt. If you don't eat salt you can get iodine by eating seaweed every day, by eating Eden brand canned beans (contain a tiny bit of kelp), or by taking a 150 microgram supplement of iodine a day (especially important in pregnant and breast-feeding women).

If you are plant-based and want more details about vitamins and minerals, Dr. Michael Greger (nutritionfacts.org, author of "How Not to Die") recommends a reference book by "the pre-eminent dietitians" Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina called "The Complete Guide to Adopting a Plant-Based Diet."

Dr. Feinsinger, who retired from Glenwood Medical Associates after 42 years as a family physician, now has a nonprofit Center For Prevention and Treatment of Disease Through Nutrition. He is available for free consultations about heart attack prevention and any other medical concerns. Call 970-379-5718 for an appointment. For questions about his columns, email him at gfeinsinger@comcast.net.

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Doctor's Tip: Get vitamins from your food, not pills - Glenwood Springs Post Independent

How do you stay sharp and fit despite fatigue and age? By consuming substances extracted from blueberries, flowers and algae, say the makers of a new group of unregulated and unproven health pills.

Trusting natural chemicals to solve inevitable ailments is familiar to anyone who has visited a GNC store or contributed to the $30 billion spent annually in the U.S. on dietary supplements.

But the new supplement firms are grabbing attention because theyre founded and funded by people more at home at a Silicon Valley technology campus than a late-night infomercial.

Led by tech world veterans and funded by venture capitalists, dietary supplement start-ups such as Ritual, Elysium and Nootrobox are peddling daily multivitamins and energy-boosting gels with transparency and testing thats turning heads in the industry. Theyre taking the unusual steps of pointing to studies that justify ingredient choices and even publishing full lab test results.

Were not introducing a new drug or something very different, Ritual Chief Executive Katerina Schneider said. Were making something a lot better. The industry needs this disruption.

Thats plausible in an industry long associated with unreliable promises and dodgy characters. And the start-ups deep pockets and tech pedigree may cut through skepticism and instill a sense of authenticity craved by younger customers.

But there are signs that these start-ups, like many supplement companies before them, leave out key facts and overstate health claims.

Supplement start-ups are gaining traction as venture capitalists spread hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to lucrative areas beyond apps and gadgets.

The investors are lending their credibility from successful bets on Snapchat, Uber and Dollar Shave Club to offbeat ideas in food and health. They're backing products that resemble eggs and meat hoping to produce them in more environmentally friendly ways and start-ups seeking to turn breakfast, lunch and dinner into slurpable meal-replacing drinks.

Investors expect big paydays because of several apparent cultural shifts. People now are accustomed to paying monthly for a ration of products and services, whether its supplements or shows on Netflix. Having the Internet at their fingertips all day has made younger consumers more attuned to what they eat and they prize products that are cheap, simple and affordable.

Those desires are at odds with business models of struggling retailers such as GNC, but neatly addressed by the start-ups.

The firms also aspire to be more than pill pushers. By adding services such as coaching and offering online videos on healthy living, the start-ups could be as essential to millennials as Centrum or Weight Watchers are to seniors.

About half of U.S. adults and a third of children take supplements: some by choice, some by doctors' orders, some because they believe that their dietary restrictions (vegan, dairy-free, etc.) leave them unfulfilled. The tech-backed approaches could convert the other 50%, which skews younger, investors say.

Elysium and Nootrobox each say they have tens of thousands of subscribers, and Ritual reports 500% growth in subscribers since Jan. 1.

Many others are getting involved. Actress Gwyneth Paltrows online shop Goop peddles pill packs such as High School Genes. Life Boost sells a blender that mixes powders into vitamin shots, claiming that drinking vitamins leads to better absorption.

Supplements can launch and boast about improving health without approval of the Food and Drug Administration, as long as they aren't claiming to treat or prevent specific diseases.

The policy enables companies to sells billions of dollars of goods without authenticated evidence of their worth. Though companies typically stick with ingredients the FDA deems safe, the agency doesnt test the combinations found in supplements.

Its not to say these products dont have a role in health, but we dont have a lot of clinical trials investigating that question, said Regan Bailey, a Purdue University associate professor of nutritional science.

The start-ups websites tout research that they argue justifies ingredients and sometimes suppliers. They are far more specific than traditional supplement websites, where suppliers go unnamed and relevant studies arent cited.

But researchers the start-ups mention arent ready to recommend the pills.

Many study authors expressed surprise that their work has been referenced and shared their dismay about how their findings had been portrayed. The Los Angeles Times contacted authors of about 40 studies described on Rituals website, 10 from Elysium and seven from Nootrobox. Altogether, more than a dozen authors raised concerns.

Rituals semi-clear, vitamins-and-minerals pill aims to give women more vibrant lives and looks. Backed by $5 million and inspired by its founders pregnancy-fueled search for safer products, Ritual promises an obsessively researched vitamin directly to your door. It paraphrases studies into short declarations on its website, identifying only the authors, not the works themselves.

Purdues Bailey, who is mentioned on Rituals iron webpage, and several others described the companys conclusions as unsound.

Sarah Booth of Tufts University said that by condensing her work into food sources for K2 are difficult, Rituals site is incorrect because she has found that the vitamin is abundant in pork and dairy products. In addition, Booth said theres no established dietary requirement for K2, making it difficult to argue that people dont get enough.

Ritual intended to provide a synopsis that the non-scientist could wrap her head around, founder Schneider said. Studies didn't get links because of regulatory concerns and authors werent contacted since the works were in the public domain. Schneider also thought that the presentation wouldnt mislead consumers into assuming that the scientists endorsed the product.

But a Los Angeles Times inquiry prompted Harvard University professor Goodarz Danaei to have a school attorney request that Ritual remove a reference to his study about omega-3 oil. Danaei said the company complied. He had concerns because he examined fish-based oil, not the algae-based variety that Ritual employs. The company contends that the options are scientifically equivalent.

With Elysium, several researchers described feeling conflicted about the New York City firms efforts. The company co-founded by a former venture capitalist and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher has received more than $20 million to produce sand-colored pills to combat aging. They say ingesting chemicals in quantities not feasible to attain through consuming blueberries, grapes and milk kicks the body into a state of hunger that extracts more life out of cells.

Professors whose studies Elysium cites online question its speculative science (theres no evidence that Elysium is using the right dosage, for example), though some are intrigued by its unconventional approach.

Company officials are right that the FDA is not likely to approve a drug to extend lifespan, so a vitamin supplement with the prospect to do so is a soft approach to the problem, said Anthony Sauve, an associate professor of pharmacology at Cornell University, whose work Elysium references.

Elysium reached out to several researchers, but not everyone who is referenced on its website.

Even scientists contacted by companies early on found issues with later references to their work. Matthew Pase, a fellow in Boston Universitys neurology department, said Nootroboxs website wrongly implies that his study found that the plant Bacopa monnieri improved memory. Nootrobox executives said the companys citations and explanations could have been clearer.

Nootrobox, based in San Francisco and financed by investors such as Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, churns out several pills and gummies that aim to help ambitious people stay alert, executives say. That would include its techie co-founders, who concocted drinks and slipped powdered herbs under the tongue in hopes of extending workdays better than coffee does.

Nootrobox could face scrutiny for including links on its website to studies about diseases. For example, text on one ingredient webpage could be seen to imply that Nootrobox pills guard against Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Chief Executive Geoffrey Woo said ingredient pages dont have buy buttons for fear of that very implication. Woo sees the ingredient guide as distinct, but he said he can see where the confusion is. The company removed some disease references after a Los Angeles Times inquiry.

Start-ups must balance their enthusiasm and blue-sky thinking with the realities of a precarious industry, said Duffy MacKay, senior vice president of science and regulatory affairs at industry trade group Council for Responsible Nutrition.

Ritual, Elysium and Nootrobox dont do their own verification of suppliers labor and environmental practices. But all say that they put pills through quality control and that consumers havent had issues yet. Theyre all preparing the type of product-effectiveness studies that the academic community wants to see.

For people who receive plentiful nutrients through food, supplements remain unnecessary, according to healthcare experts. In some cases, theyre viewed as harmful because chemicals may produce unreliable effects outside the items in which theyre normally found.

Elysium Chief Executive Eric Marcotulli acknowledged that theres a lot of work to do on the research front, but said the company believes the right thing is allowing the public to join the experiment.

We shouldnt have to wait until were broken to fix something, he said.

Those who abstain are missing out and thus worse off, Nootrobox co-founder Michael Brandt said. If something can improve your work performance, and the effects compound, its better to start sooner than later, Brandt said.

paresh.dave@latimes.com / PGP

Twitter: @peard33

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Venture capitalists look beyond tech to the dietary supplements ... - Los Angeles Times

BEWARE. Dr. Ellie May Villegas of the Philippine Society of Medical Oncologists warns the public about food supplements claiming to be substitutes for conventional cancer treatment. Villegas said most advertised food supplements, if not actually effective, actually interfere with chemotherapy, causing even more problems. Villegas was among the resource persons of the forum titled Holistic Oncology: Understanding Complementary versus Alternative Medicine held at the Marco Polo Hotel on Friday, April 21. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)

DAVAO CITY, Philippines A group of doctors specializing in the treatment of cancers warned the public on Friday about several herbal food supplements advertising as replacements for traditional cancer treatment, such as radio and chemotherapy.

Usually, some patients would go to my clinic to ask for replacements to chemotherapy and radiation. Unfortunately, theres nothing in literature that says that, said Dr. Omid Etemadi of the Philippine Society of Medical Oncologists.

Etemadi said that there are actually very few scientific evidence to prove that these food supplements work, and at best, can only complement traditional treatment.

Apart from the lack of scientific evidence proving the potency of these food supplements, Etemadi said some of the purported anti-cancer supplements could interfere with treatment and may cause more problems.

Etemadi cited the case of grape seed extract, which interferes with the metabolism of tamoxifen, a drug that blocks the action of estroge, which in turn, is used to treat certain types of breast cancer.

He also warned against drinking too many herbal food supplements, saying this may stress the liver because it may be impairing its ability to metabolize properly.

With that, Etemadi advised the public to consult their doctors before taking any food supplements.

Dont hide it from your doctor. Actually were not against it if you want to take other pills. We just want to make sure that youre drinking the correct supplements to avoid endangering you, he said.

Meanwhile, another oncologist, Dr. Ellie May Villegas, said it could take many years of rigorous testing and clinical trials before the efficacy and safeness of a drug could be assured.

Villegas said that Xanthone, a compound extracted from the mangosteen, was proven to have positive effects only in the in vitro stage, which means it was only tested on cells in a test tube. Uson said this is only in the preliminaries, and has not been tested yet on animals, or humans.

Villegas also warned the public about alternative practitioners pitching their claims directly to the media, because it only emphasizes the purported benefits without discussing the possible side effects.

We do not go on TV to discuss scientific treatment because it has to be explained in person by a medical professional, Villegas said.

For his part, Food-Drug Regulation Officer III of the Food and Drug Administration, Willison John De Luna admitted that the marketing strategies of food supplements is not the responsibility of the FDA. De Luna said that while they are consulted in the content, ultimately, it is the Advertising Standards Council, an independent regulating agency that approves the commercials.

Nevertheless, De Luna encouraged the public to report to the FDA any food supplement with any suspicious and outrageous claims for further investigation.

Lets be critical on how to deal with this information, what are their evidences, sources, for example. In the end ang isipin natin dito ay public health, and if does this product really has an effect not just on us, but to the people who are taking this product, De Luna said.(davaotoday.com)

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Beware of 'anti-cancer' herbal food supplements, doctors say - Davao Today

F

ollowing in the footsteps of its predecessor Viagra, the female libido drug Addyi has snuck into over-the-counter supplements that tout their ability to naturally enhance sexual desire.

The Food and Drug Administration announced a recall Wednesday of two supplements marketed to boost womenssex drive. The supplements Zrect and LabidaMAX both manufactured by Organic Herbal Supply actually contained flibanserin, a medication approved by the FDA in late 2015 to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder in women. Its the first time federal officials have recalled a product contaminated with the drug.

Its the latest example of brand-new drugs being found in supplements, said Dr. Pieter Cohen,a physician at Harvard Medical School who studies dietary supplements.

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The problem has long plagued the male sexual enhancement supplement market. Viagra has turned up in dozens of over-the-counter pills that never declared they contained the drug. The FDA regularly checks supplements shipments for the presence of Viagra, and has added flibanserin into their scans since the drug was approved.

FDA lab tests have found that hundreds of these products contain undisclosed drug ingredients, said Lyndsay Meyer, a spokesperson for the agency.

Cant buy love? Drug price hikes put sex beyond reach

The massive dietary supplement industry is largely unregulated. The products can be sold without a prescription in supermarkets, supplement stores, and, increasingly, online. The products currently being recalled were sold on Amazonthrough February.

Andwhilesupplement makers are not allowed to claim that their products cure or treat a particular condition, they are allowed to make general claims that their products supporthealth or, in this case, promotesexual desire.

Theres nothing that you can actually put into the pill that lives up to advertised claims, so there is this temptation to introduce a pharmaceutical drug that attempts to meet those claims, said Cohen.Organic Herbal Supply, which is recalling its products, did not respond to a request for comment.

The FDA said it has not received any reports of adverse events tied to either of the supplements. But Cohen said they are far from safe andargued a lack of regulation will allow those risks to remain.

We have no idea the harms being caused by these products. As long as these products can be sold as if they improve your sexual health, theres going to be no stopping this, he said.

What is actually in erectile dysfunction supplements?

The amount of undeclared flibanserin in a supplement could vary widely from one pill to the next, as has been the case with Viagra. Its also possible the drugcould be introduced into a supplement along with other potentially libido-boosting compounds, exacerbating thoseeffects.

We dont know what danger this poses because these combinations have never been studied before theyre sold to unsuspecting consumers, Meyer said. Consumers can report adverse events tied to these or other dietary supplements to the agency online.

Cohen said the message from the recall is clear: Consumers should just completely avoid sexual enhancement supplements. They either might be safe and dont work, or they might work but are likely to be dangerous.

Megan Thielking can be reached at megan.thielking@statnews.com Follow Megan on Twitter @meggophone

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Supplements containing female libido booster Addyi recalled - Stat - STAT

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12)

Bad reactions to dietary supplements are sending tens of thousands of Americans to the ER every year, a new study shows.

More than 23,000 visits to emergency rooms occur annually due to complications from taking dietary supplements such as herbal or complementary nutritional products, vitamins, and minerals, according to scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who coauthored the study.

About 2,154 of the visits resulted in hospitalizations, the scientists reported.

Consumer Reports also studied the use of supplements. They found supplements can cause organ damage, cardiac arrest and cancer.

These latest results now have many doctors warning their patients about taking supplements.

Two years ago, when Chris Herrera was fifteen, he lost 56 pounds while taking a green tea extract billed as a fat burner.

According to his mom, Lourdes Gonzalez, his eyes turned yellow and medical tests showed his liver was failing.

"Having to hear the doctor tell me every day that Christopher had a 50% chance of dying and not making it, it was hurtful," said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said doctors blamed the green tea extract. Herrera eventually recovered.

That wasn't the case for Logan Stiner.

Logans mother, Katie Stiner, says her healthy 18-year-old son suddenly died while taking a powdered caffeine supplement.

"He had no idea what he was doing. None," said Stiner.

"One of my biggest concerns is that people think that a supplement is meant to replace food, and it is not," said Karen Hartung, Lead Clinical Dietitian at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.

Hartung added some people misuse supplements, "People have shown they are dying from these supplements."

When people don't, Hartung says, they end up in the emergency room. "They may be overdosing or they are going into cardiac arrest because they took a pre-workout or they are taking a fat burner, and you just don't know the long term effects of that."

In fact, the recent study by the CDC found weight loss and energy products accounted for about 72 percent of visits for patients between ages 20 and 34.

The most typical patients were young adults or unsupervised children ingested the supplements.

The most common symptoms were chest pain, palpitations, and elevated heart rate.

Unlike prescription drugs, manufacturers don't need to prove safety and effectiveness for supplements.

In the United States, supplements can't be marketed for the treatment or prevention of diseases they don't get scrutinized and approved by the FDA like prescription drugs but, many people take them to address a range of symptoms or to boost general health.

About half of adults used at least one dietary supplement in the past month, and people spend billions on herbal or complementary nutritional products every year, according to the researchers.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition, which represents the supplement industry, maintains that "overwhelmingly dietary supplements are safe and play a valuable role in helping Americans live healthy lifestyles."

If you take supplements, Hartung recommends the following:

With the help of an expert panel of independent doctors and dietary-supplement researchers, Consumer Reports identified 15 supplement ingredients that are potentially harmful.

The risks include organ damage, cancer, and cardiac arrest.

The severity of these threats often depends on such factors as pre-existing medical conditions, as well as, the quantity of the ingredient taken and the length of time a person has been exposed to the substance.

Many of the ingredients on this list also have the potential to interact with prescription and over-the-counter medications, such as cholesterol-lowering statins and blood-thinning drugs like aspirin and Warfarin (Coumadin and generic).

According to Consumer Reports, experts agree that none of these supplement ingredients provide sufficient health benefits to justify the risk. Even so, Consumer Reports found all 15 ingredients in products available online or in major stores such as GNC, Costco, CVS, Walmart, and Whole Foods.

The following are the 15 ingredients identified by Consumer Reports:

Aconite

Caffeine Powder

Chaparral

Coltsfoot

Comfrey

Germander

Greater Celandine

Green Tea Extract Powder

Kava

Lobelia

Methylsynephrine

Pennyroyal Oil

Red Yeast Rice

Usnic Acid

Yohimbe

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Dietary supplements send thousands to the ER each year - WPEC