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Cambridge (Massachusetts): "Middle East"
There is no evidence of the health benefits of most of them, and some contain stimulants that can affect heart health.
Americans spend about two-thirds of their total food intake of $ 37 billion on vitamins and minerals, while tablets, powders, and alcoholic preparations contain many substances derived from many sources, including plants, animals, and animals. microorganisms, represent the remaining third.
– Popular supplements
What is the secret of the popularity of these products and why they are popular? Some people think that the foods we eat do not contain important nutrients. They therefore agree to take supplements to compensate, although many foods are enriched with nutrients to replace vitamins lost during treatment. Others think that Western medicines depend heavily on pharmaceuticals and prefer to use natural materials. However, a number of common drugs are extracted from plants.
Anyway, the law that was passed 25 years ago is the real reason for the boom in the dietary supplement industry, says Dr. Peter Cohen, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Medicine, who is studying dietary supplements.
Dietary supplements, as defined by the 1994 Health and Awareness Act, are non-medicated foods, which means that they are not subject to the same regulations governing the quality and safety of medically prescribed medications. .
"Dietary supplements can be sold and advertised as a way to improve health without it being necessary to provide evidence of their impact and effectiveness for humans," said Dr. Cohen. One might think that the law will establish rules that supposed health benefits should be based on scientific evidence, but the opposite is true: the law protects manufacturers by allowing them to write phrases such as "can promote heart health "even though no experiment is conducted on the human to support this claim. "
– Deceived consumers
In fact, even when government-sponsored experiments, supported by millions of people, show the ineffectiveness of a dietary supplement (such as over-the-counter fish oil supplements to healthy people to prevent heart disease), manufacturers of dietary supplements The right to write the health benefits alleged on the stickers affixed to the product, according to Dr. Cohen. As a result, consumers end up buying products that offer false promises.
Even though the benefits of dietary supplements may prove to be a specific health problem, there is no guarantee that the product you buy from your pharmacy will have the same effectiveness. The amount of active ingredient contained in the supplements can vary greatly, not just from one brand to another. Other For example, red yeast rice supplements contain a substance called monacolin K, which is chemically the same active ingredient of levastatin, a cholesterol lowering drug (Mevacor). A different brand of red yeast rice from different retailers found different amounts of monokoline K, with no significant effect on the material of two brands, while other brands contained similar amounts to those found in levastatin. Their study was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology in September 2017.
– The pacemaker of the heart is forbidden
Dr. Cohen's latest research has examined dozens of products that help to lose weight and improve athletic performance. These products are available on the Internet and at specialty retailers. These products carry labels indicating that they contain higamine, also known as norcoclaurine or dimethylcoclaurine, which may be a harmful vascular antagonist banned by the AMA in 2017.
The higenamine is derived from several plants, including lotus, and a shrub called celestial bamboo. The substance has been studied in China to be used to examine the heart's tension in order to simulate the effect of exercise when the patient is not able to walk on the treadmill. The substance, if taken regularly, can increase heart rate, cause apnea and dizziness.
As reported in the September Journal of Clinical Toxicology, the amount of substance detected in 24 products ranged from negligible to 62 milligrams per dose. Only five brands mention the amount in the product on the label, but none are accurate. In the case of some products, if people take the recommended amount on the label, they will take about 110 milligrams of Higinamine a day. The potential impact of this has not been well studied, but this could have disturbing effects on the heart, said Dr. Cohen. (Several years ago, the use of dietary supplements containing other catalysts derived from another plant had severe or even fatal effects – see Box 2: ; ephedra).
Ask your doctor
It is important that tips over time tell your doctor if you have any doubts about the supplements you are taking. Instead, says Dr. Cohen, the most logical thing to do is to ask your doctor if you need to take dietary supplements. "This plays a clear role in specific cases," says Dr. Cohen.
An example of this is that for the elderly, calcium supplements are used in people who do not get enough calcium from food, or vitamin B12 in the case of people who have trouble absorbing nutrients.
If your doctor advises you to take a dietary supplement, read the label and choose a brand that is certified and approved by the US Pharmacopoeia or the National Institutes of Health, independent non-governmental organizations.
– Beware of sexual stimuli
In addition to dietary supplements, considered weight loss or improved physical ability, beware of those who claim to improve their sexual capacity. Hundreds of these products contain undeclared ingredients that are similar or identical to those prescribed in medications. such as selenafil (Viagra).
All these "natural" products can cause a significant reduction in blood pressure, especially in people taking nitrates, which are also prescribed as a treatment for heart patients.
Ephedra – A story of warning
Food supplements containing ephedra, derived from the Chinese herb Ma Huang, were marketed in the 1990s as an energetic stimulant and stimulant for weight loss. When taken with caffeine, caffeine stimulates weight loss slightly and in the short term, but contains chemicals that can cause constriction and narrowing of blood vessels. And a heart attack.
However, as the law requires the Food and Drug Administration to prove that products containing ephedra are dangerous, it took ten years to gather enough evidence. During this period, the agency had recorded 16,000 injury reports, 62,000 consumer complaints and at least 155 deaths related to products containing ephedra.
– Harvard Heart Message, Tribune Media Services.
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