Robert Crayhon

Reporter Jane Brody says that there is potential harm in dietary supplements. With anything that has a powerful clinical effect, there is danger for misuse. But her strident overstating of the facts is at odds with reality. She writes:

“A form of substance abuse rampant in this country is rarely discussed publicly or privately. It involves abusing legally sold dietary supplemets - vitamins, minerals, herbals and homeopathic remedies — all of which can be sold over the counter without prior approval for safety and effectiveness.”

Not so.  You cannot sell something that is not safe. That is completely wrong, and a cheap shot.  The FDA will be on your doorstep.  What’s more, the supplement industry is regulated.But the bigger picture she is trying to paint is what is most distorting - that supplements either harm or do nothing.  Let’s look at recent research:

Carnitine supplements have been found to lower LDL cholesterol, raise HDL cholesterol, lower body fat levels, raise lean tissue levels, and decrease mental and physical fatigue in older adults, and these benefits have been replicated.  No drug has ever been shown to do that.  References: Carnitine has a myriad of benefits for older adults.  Carnitine benefits centenarians.Vitamin D, at doses of 1100 IU per day, have been found to decrease the relative risk of cancer in women by 78%.  No drug can do that.  Vitamin D decreases cancer risk in women markedly. Vitamin D has has been found deficient in a large segment of the US population, and few foods have little if any vitamin D. Even women in sun-drenched Arizona are low in vitamin D.   Can any drug replace the power anti-cancer benefits of vitamin D? Can you get enough through your food without guzzling milk, which is associated with an increased risk to diabetes? No.

The documented, researched benefits of supplements are available for review in a vareity of online databases.

Ms. Brody says that salmon oil, ginkgo and turmeric taken together thin blood. She points out that when the supplements are stopped, the effect is reversed.  Also correct. What is exciting is that nutrients can be used to replace dangerous blood thinning medications, under proper supervision. What is a beneficial clinical effect is seen as a problem by Ms. Brody.

What about drug toxicity?  How about NSAIDS ability to dramatically increase the rates of kidney failure?  Vioxx increasing mortality?  How about the one billion Merck has set aside to pay for Vioxx related lawsuits, which will eventually be charged to consumers in higher health care costs? And how about the fact that we prefer expensive drugs to inexpensive nutrient therapies is going to, according to the top accountant of the United States, going to bankrupt us by 2030?  David Walker, as head of the GAO, said that this high cost of health care is the greatest threat to American people and our way of life.

According to Jane Brody, nutrients and natural therapies are suspect. Drugs, by exclusion from her discussion, are therefore good, because they are more closely regulated. That’s because drugs are like guns: their dangers (and power) require that they be strictly regulated.

The true and most ominous danger of nutrients and natural therapies? Their ability to replace drugs and an entire industry. Their danger is economic, to an industry that is toxifying our bodies, our environment, and destroying our economy. So, Ms. Brody, and others in the drug-friendly media, are on the offensive.What is the most dangerous unregulated sector in our world? The 80,000 chemicals that are in our environment, which are in part responsible for the 23.5 million cases of autoimmune diseases in America today.  Let’s regulate these chemicals, and ask they be proven safe, like the Europeans are doing.  Otherwise, we’ll keep heading towards ever high levels of cancer and other toxicity related diseases.  Five new chemicals are released in America every day, and they do not have to be proven safe in humans.  And it is the very supplements Ms. Brody attacks that give us the best and only chance of detoxifying them before they do cause harm in our bodies.

So, when buying drugs, or standard medical therapies these days, the message is clear, both for your health and the health of the US economy: caveat emptor.