Supplements send 23,000 American's to the Emergency Room
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Considering how many people take supplements, that's a relatively low number. Half the U.S. population takes supplements, so 23,000 out of 250,000,000 isn't all that much.
it may be a "low" number to some, but I see it as a number that can lowered if people chose only to supplement when they actually needed to.
Okay, what's your proposed solution?
Only take supplements when someone is actually deficient in something ( I mentioned this in the OP), education for people looking for quick fixes, and possible get some sort of regulatory body involved to ensure that that is listed as ingredients is actually in the supplement.The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/new-york-attorney-general-targets-supplements-at-major-retailers/
So you only want people to be able to take Vit C ( and others) with a prescription?
Did I say with a prescription? But its a waste of money to take Vitamin C if you already getting enough from your diet. You will be flushing your money down the toilet, literally considering it is a water soluble vitamin. If that's what you want to do, I'm not going to stop you.
How do you propose to go about educating people?
BTW, I'm all for the FDA being involved in supplements and ensuring that they are what is claimed to be within them.
What about a campaign to make sure that people are aware of the risks here on the boards? It might look something like this thread.0 -
diannethegeek wrote: »Considering how many people take supplements, that's a relatively low number. Half the U.S. population takes supplements, so 23,000 out of 250,000,000 isn't all that much.
it may be a "low" number to some, but I see it as a number that can lowered if people chose only to supplement when they actually needed to.
Okay, what's your proposed solution?
Only take supplements when someone is actually deficient in something ( I mentioned this in the OP), education for people looking for quick fixes, and possible get some sort of regulatory body involved to ensure that that is listed as ingredients is actually in the supplement.The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/new-york-attorney-general-targets-supplements-at-major-retailers/
So you only want people to be able to take Vit C ( and others) with a prescription?
Did I say with a prescription? But its a waste of money to take Vitamin C if you already getting enough from your diet. You will be flushing your money down the toilet, literally considering it is a water soluble vitamin. If that's what you want to do, I'm not going to stop you.
How do you propose to go about educating people?
BTW, I'm all for the FDA being involved in supplements and ensuring that they are what is claimed to be within them.
What about a campaign to make sure that people are aware of the risks here on the boards? It might look something like this thread.
Agreed. And also can go hand in hand with using a regulatory body ensuring the safety of medications.0 -
I've taken them in the past for months on end and not noticed any changes nor felt any different. Perhaps I'm deficient in something, but how can I find out? I had a forty year health check recently and my tests were all okay, they told me to eat more fruit and vegetables based on the information I'd given them about my diet. Is it worth spending the money on a multivitamin? Or will I be wasting it? I'm undecided on the issue.0
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hamlet1222 wrote: »I've taken them in the past for months on end and not noticed any changes nor felt any different. Perhaps I'm deficient in something, but how can I find out? I had a forty year health check recently and my tests were all okay, they told me to eat more fruit and vegetables based on the information I'd given them about my diet. Is it worth spending the money on a multivitamin? Or will I be wasting it? I'm undecided on the issue.
It depends honestly on your diet. IF you are getting a wide variety of fruits, veggies and whole foods you may not be deficient in something. But if you aren't getting those different foods in you could very well be deficient in something. when you are making food, look at the labels and look at the micro nutrition portion to see what you are taking in.0 -
diannethegeek wrote: »Considering how many people take supplements, that's a relatively low number. Half the U.S. population takes supplements, so 23,000 out of 250,000,000 isn't all that much.
it may be a "low" number to some, but I see it as a number that can lowered if people chose only to supplement when they actually needed to.
Okay, what's your proposed solution?
Only take supplements when someone is actually deficient in something ( I mentioned this in the OP), education for people looking for quick fixes, and possible get some sort of regulatory body involved to ensure that that is listed as ingredients is actually in the supplement.The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/new-york-attorney-general-targets-supplements-at-major-retailers/
So you only want people to be able to take Vit C ( and others) with a prescription?
Did I say with a prescription? But its a waste of money to take Vitamin C if you already getting enough from your diet. You will be flushing your money down the toilet, literally considering it is a water soluble vitamin. If that's what you want to do, I'm not going to stop you.
How do you propose to go about educating people?
BTW, I'm all for the FDA being involved in supplements and ensuring that they are what is claimed to be within them.
What about a campaign to make sure that people are aware of the risks here on the boards? It might look something like this thread.
Agreed. And also can go hand in hand with using a regulatory body ensuring the safety of medications.
So you're talking about a grass roots awareness campaign? How many of the 2.5 million users do you think this will reach?0 -
diannethegeek wrote: »Considering how many people take supplements, that's a relatively low number. Half the U.S. population takes supplements, so 23,000 out of 250,000,000 isn't all that much.
it may be a "low" number to some, but I see it as a number that can lowered if people chose only to supplement when they actually needed to.
Okay, what's your proposed solution?
Only take supplements when someone is actually deficient in something ( I mentioned this in the OP), education for people looking for quick fixes, and possible get some sort of regulatory body involved to ensure that that is listed as ingredients is actually in the supplement.The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/new-york-attorney-general-targets-supplements-at-major-retailers/
So you only want people to be able to take Vit C ( and others) with a prescription?
Did I say with a prescription? But its a waste of money to take Vitamin C if you already getting enough from your diet. You will be flushing your money down the toilet, literally considering it is a water soluble vitamin. If that's what you want to do, I'm not going to stop you.
How do you propose to go about educating people?
BTW, I'm all for the FDA being involved in supplements and ensuring that they are what is claimed to be within them.
What about a campaign to make sure that people are aware of the risks here on the boards? It might look something like this thread.
Agreed. And also can go hand in hand with using a regulatory body ensuring the safety of medications.
So you're talking about a grass roots awareness campaign? How many of the 2.5 million users do you think this will reach?
Who knows. But people are starting to pay attention now that new research has started to come out and that's a good sign.0 -
@stevencloser, the trick with the American 1994 sidestep is that these supplements can go unregulated as long as they make no special claims.
@brower47 there are many more levels of regulation besides prescription. The manufacturer might be constrained on how they label their product, list the percentage active ingredient, and be fined if they lie.
Canada has gone the way of licensing "Natural Health Products"0 -
@stevencloser, the trick with the American 1994 sidestep is that these supplements can go unregulated as long as they make no special claims.
@brower47 there are many more levels of regulation besides prescription. The manufacturer might be constrained on how they label their product, list the percentage active ingredient, and be fined if they lie.
Canada has gone the way of licensing "Natural Health Products"
I believe most European countries require a prescription for supplements also.0 -
I would be curious, can someone with a better grasp of the science and statistics extrapolate from ER visits how many people had adverse reactions that weren't recorded because they weren't ER visits, but visits to a primary care doc?
(I know from people trying to extrapolate sports injuries that it gets confusing because some injuries go unreported if the individual goes to a private doctor and not an ER. For example, I tore my ACL at rugby practice several years ago, but I went to an orthopedist right away, so that doesn't get documented as a sports injury. But someone who tears their ACL playing pick-up basketball and goes to the ER on a Sunday afternoon does get marked as a sports injury.)0 -
The ER is hardly the place to document problems with suppliments as It could be energy drinks, synthetic drugs, caffeine all bunched together.. Just read the article ya "stimulants" makes sense but I bet the numbers in that article are VERY under estimated..0
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@stevencloser, the trick with the American 1994 sidestep is that these supplements can go unregulated as long as they make no special claims.
@brower47 there are many more levels of regulation besides prescription. The manufacturer might be constrained on how they label their product, list the percentage active ingredient, and be fined if they lie.
Canada has gone the way of licensing "Natural Health Products"
But isn't saying some ingredient is in there when it's not a special claim?0 -
questionfear wrote: »I would be curious, can someone with a better grasp of the science and statistics extrapolate from ER visits how many people had adverse reactions that weren't recorded because they weren't ER visits, but visits to a primary care doc?
(I know from people trying to extrapolate sports injuries that it gets confusing because some injuries go unreported if the individual goes to a private doctor and not an ER. For example, I tore my ACL at rugby practice several years ago, but I went to an orthopedist right away, so that doesn't get documented as a sports injury. But someone who tears their ACL playing pick-up basketball and goes to the ER on a Sunday afternoon does get marked as a sports injury.)
I actually wondered the same thing and tried to find information based on that, but couldn't. It wouldn't surprise me though if there are more cases of adverse reactions but people chose to see their primary care instead. But I have no stats to prove it.0 -
"Weight-loss or energy products caused more than half these visits, commonly for cardiac symptoms," they added. These included rapid heartbeat, chest pain and heart palpitations.0
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Some of these herbs can interact with prescription drugs in a bad way. Such as blocking the prescription from working. St Johns Wort block some meds used to treat seizures. I know this is true for it happened to me.0
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Hey, we still have rampant herbals on our shelves here in Canada, too.
http://www.bna.com/lakota-herbal-supplements-n17179881209/
@stevencloser that link to the FDA 1994 sidestep lists the requirements. I don't know if there is a fine or other penalty if testing shows there is sawdust instead of a claimed active ingredient. I know the FDA is not testing these remedies.0 -
diannethegeek wrote: »
What about a campaign to make sure that people are aware of the risks here on the boards? It might look something like this thread.
The type of person who takes raspberry ketones and other ridiculous junk they see on TV in an effort to lose weight isn't going to be reachable by any sort of FDA campaign. There's already more than enough information out there for people to educate themselves. The problem is that few do.
Even here on these boards you constantly see people falling for ridiculous pseudoscience. People in general just aren't very sophisticated, so they wind up in the hospital for dumb things. Any real educational initiative would have to start in kindergarten (which won't happen, because supplements are Big Business).
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diannethegeek wrote: »Considering how many people take supplements, that's a relatively low number. Half the U.S. population takes supplements, so 23,000 out of 250,000,000 isn't all that much.
it may be a "low" number to some, but I see it as a number that can lowered if people chose only to supplement when they actually needed to.
Okay, what's your proposed solution?
Only take supplements when someone is actually deficient in something ( I mentioned this in the OP), education for people looking for quick fixes, and possible get some sort of regulatory body involved to ensure that that is listed as ingredients is actually in the supplement.The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/new-york-attorney-general-targets-supplements-at-major-retailers/
So you only want people to be able to take Vit C ( and others) with a prescription?
Did I say with a prescription? But its a waste of money to take Vitamin C if you already getting enough from your diet. You will be flushing your money down the toilet, literally considering it is a water soluble vitamin. If that's what you want to do, I'm not going to stop you.
How do you propose to go about educating people?
BTW, I'm all for the FDA being involved in supplements and ensuring that they are what is claimed to be within them.
What about a campaign to make sure that people are aware of the risks here on the boards? It might look something like this thread.
Agreed. And also can go hand in hand with using a regulatory body ensuring the safety of medications.
So you're talking about a grass roots awareness campaign? How many of the 2.5 million users do you think this will reach?
Who knows. But people are starting to pay attention now that new research has started to come out and that's a good sign.
You can't expect to have an effective awareness campaign if you can even begin to guess as to how many people you're going to reach. Might as well just say, I wish people were more educated about supplements because that's all you're doing. Unless you plan to petition this site and many of the other fitness sites into making this issue stand out more. Do you plan to do that?0 -
diannethegeek wrote: »Considering how many people take supplements, that's a relatively low number. Half the U.S. population takes supplements, so 23,000 out of 250,000,000 isn't all that much.
it may be a "low" number to some, but I see it as a number that can lowered if people chose only to supplement when they actually needed to.
Okay, what's your proposed solution?
Only take supplements when someone is actually deficient in something ( I mentioned this in the OP), education for people looking for quick fixes, and possible get some sort of regulatory body involved to ensure that that is listed as ingredients is actually in the supplement.The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/new-york-attorney-general-targets-supplements-at-major-retailers/
So you only want people to be able to take Vit C ( and others) with a prescription?
Did I say with a prescription? But its a waste of money to take Vitamin C if you already getting enough from your diet. You will be flushing your money down the toilet, literally considering it is a water soluble vitamin. If that's what you want to do, I'm not going to stop you.
How do you propose to go about educating people?
BTW, I'm all for the FDA being involved in supplements and ensuring that they are what is claimed to be within them.
What about a campaign to make sure that people are aware of the risks here on the boards? It might look something like this thread.
Agreed. And also can go hand in hand with using a regulatory body ensuring the safety of medications.
So you're talking about a grass roots awareness campaign? How many of the 2.5 million users do you think this will reach?
Who knows. But people are starting to pay attention now that new research has started to come out and that's a good sign.
You can't expect to have an effective awareness campaign if you can even begin to guess as to how many people you're going to reach. Might as well just say, I wish people were more educated about supplements because that's all you're doing. Unless you plan to petition this site and many of the other fitness sites into making this issue stand out more. Do you plan to do that?
I didn't realize I was kick starting an awareness campaign? Last I checked all I was doing was providing interesting information and studies to people on a calorie counting website. I wish people would be more educated about supplements and wish there was more regulations involved. I'm pretty sure that's all I've said, not that I'm kick starting this amazing campaign you're talking about.0 -
What is happening in this thread? OP posted an interesting article about supplements without giving any demands or suggestions. It's an interesting article. Some of us like to see information being provided around here.
It just feels like a lot is being read into this thread that's not there. It's also mostly impossible to convince Americans to lose weight, and yet here we are on a whole site/app/message board for it. Maybe we should all go home.0
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