Sunday, June 3, 2018

June 03, 2018

What Are The Benefits and Risks of Dietary Supplements?

Most dietary supplements are safe, and some of them offer actual health benefits, but there can be some risk with their use. Dietary supplements are products designed to augment your daily intake of nutrients, usually the vitamins and minerals. Other substances sold as dietary substances include botanical (herbal) products, amino acids, essential fatty acids and oils, enzymes, probiotics, and animal organ and glandular extracts.

The Benefits

Normally, you should be able to get all the nutrients you need from a balanced diet. However, taking supplements can provide additional nutrients when your diet is lacking or when certain health conditions cause you to develop an insufficiency or deficiency.
In most cases, multiple-vitamin supplements provide all the basic micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) your body needs. These multiple vitamins are generally safe because they contain only small amounts of each nutrient.

Individual nutrients can also be sold as dietary supplements, but usually in larger amounts than what's found in a typical multiple-vitamin. They may be used to treat a deficiency, such as iron deficiency, but sometimes they're used therapeutically to treat specific health conditions or risk factors.​ For example, large doses of niacin may be used to raise good cholesterol, and folic acid has been used to reduce the risk of a birth defect called spina bifida.
Scientific research supports some of the benefits of using many dietary supplements for certain health conditions, but in many more cases, the effectiveness has not been backed up by the research evidence. The National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements has dietary supplement fact sheets that assess the evidence for (and against) the therapeutic use of a large number of dietary supplements.

The Risks

In the United States, dietary supplements are not regulated as strictly as drugs; manufacturers do not have to prove that their use is either safe or effective. Standardization of supplements is optional, although they are prohibited from selling unsafe products. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a list of tainted products that are marketed as dietary supplements. The worst offenders are usually weight loss aids, "natural" sexual enhancement pills, and supplements targeted at bodybuilders.
Dietary supplement manufacturers have to follow some rules regarding labeling and the claims that can be made about the supplements. The claim can be made that a dietary supplement addresses a nutritional deficiency, supports health, or reduces the risk for a particular health problem when there is enough evidence to support that claim. Supplement labels must also use this statement:
This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Most dietary supplements are safe as long as you follow the label instructions, but large doses of certain nutrients can have strong biological effects on the body. While that may be beneficial in some cases, there are times when taking large doses of individual supplements can be dangerous.
For example, the fat-soluble vitamins A and D can build up to toxic levels in your body when taken in large doses over extended periods of time. Vitamin B-6 is a water-soluble vitamin, so your body doesn't store it as efficiently as a fat-soluble vitamin, but prolonged use of vitamin B-6 in large amounts can cause nerve damage. Large doses of vitamin C may cause diarrhea.
Mineral supplements can also be dangerous. For example, selenium, boron, and iron supplements can be toxic in large amounts.
Some dietary supplements can interact with over-the-counter or prescription medications, or even with each other, and some supplements should be avoided before undergoing surgery.
Ask your health care provider about supplements before taking anything beyond basic multiple-vitamins; some dietary supplements, like raspberry ketone, have little to no research evidence to back their health claims.
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Saturday, June 2, 2018

June 02, 2018

What Are The Health Benefits of Eating Organic?


According to Dr. Mercola, many people want to lead a healthier lifestyle but aren’t sure where to start. In the realm of diet, in fact, most Americans (52 percent) believe it’s easier to calculate their income taxes than figure out what to eat to stay healthy.1 It shouldn’t feel this hard, which is why I want to give you one tangible step you can take to overhaul your diet, and lifestyle, for the better: "Go organic", Dr. Mercola says.

A survey by the Organic Trade Association revealed that, in 2017, Americans bought more organic foods and household products than ever, with sales reaching $47 billion in 2016 — an 8 percent increase from 2015.2 Katherine Paul, associate director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), said in a news release, “ … I think you are looking at a better-educated population that is connecting the dots between what they eat and their health.”3


This is true, indeed, and organic products are now available in close to 20,000 natural food stores and 3 out of 4 conventional grocery stores in the U.S. Even the U.S. Department of Agriculture acknowledges their staying power in the marketplace, noting “Organic products have shifted from being a lifestyle choice for a small share of consumers to being consumed at least occasionally by a majority of Americans.”4 But despite the gains in popularity, organic sales account for only about 4 percent of total U.S. food sales.

Avoiding Pesticides Is the No. 1 Reason People Buy Organic

“Polling shows the No. 1 reason people go organic is to avoid pesticides, chemicals and all of those things that are not allowed in organics,” Paul said,6 and this is a primary reason why going organic is so important — for your health and the environment. Not only do these chemicals threaten the Earth as we know it, but they pose a direct risk to human health, including to developing babies.

In research presented at a 2017 Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) conference in Washington, D.C., it was demonstrated that women exposed to higher glyphosate levels during pregnancy had babies born earlier and with lower adjusted birth weights.7 What’s more, the chemical was detected in more than 90 percent of the mothers in the study.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, has made headlines because it’s the most used agricultural chemical in history and also because the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined it a probable carcinogen. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has revealed that nearly 30 percent of the more than 3,000 foods they tested contain glyphosate.8

This included nearly 37 percent of grain products, 47 percent of bean/pea/lentil products and more than 30 percent of infant food and cereal. Even 7 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables contained the residues. Eating nonorganic genetically engineered (GE) foods (the prime candidates for Roundup spraying) is associated with higher glyphosate levels in your body.9

Pesticides Are Harmful to Children’s Brains, Farmworkers

The European Parliament commissioned a report on the human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture, which was co-written by Harvard Chan School’s Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health.10 A primary message of the report again centered on pesticides and the potential benefits of reducing their usage via organic agriculture.

In a Harvard School of Public Health news release, Grandjean said, “In conventional food, there are pesticide residues that remain in the food even after it’s washed. Organic foods are produced virtually without pesticides.”11 While U.S. regulators insist that set limits on pesticide residues in conventional produce are enough to protect the public’s health, the report found negative health effects may occur in children even at current levels of exposure. According to Grandjean:12

“[T]hose limits are based on animal studies, looking at the effect of one pesticide at a time. The human brain is so much more complex than the rat brain, and our brain development is much more vulnerable because there are so many processes that have to happen at the right time and in the right sequence — you can’t go back and do them over … Three long-term birth cohort studies in the U.S. suggest that pesticides are harming children’s brains.

In these studies, researchers found that women’s exposure to pesticides during pregnancy, measured through urine samples, was associated with negative impacts on their children’s IQ and neurobehavioral development, as well as with ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] diagnoses.

Also, one of the studies looked at structural brain growth using magnetic resonance imaging and found that the gray matter was thinner in children the higher their mothers’ exposure to organophosphates, which are used widely in pesticides. I think that’s quite scary.”

One of the studies Grandjean refers to is the CHAMACOS Study, which followed hundreds of pregnant women living in Salinas Valley, California, an agricultural mecca that has had up to a half-million pounds of organophosphates sprayed in the region per year. The children were followed through age 12 to assess what impact the pesticides had on their development.13 It turns out the impact was quite dramatic, and mothers' exposure to organophosphates during pregnancy was associated with:14

  • Shorter duration of pregnancy
  • Poorer neonatal reflexes
  • Lower IQ and poorer cognitive functioning in children
  • Increased risk of attention problems in children

Farmworkers who are exposed to agricultural pesticides on a near-daily basis also suffer, as do their families. Up to 20,000 farmworkers are poisoned by pesticides each year, although the actual number is likely far higher, as many of the workers may not seek medical care or may be misdiagnosed if they do seek treatment.


There is also no coordinated national incident reporting system to track such exposures. Despite this, pesticide exposures cause farmworkers more chemical-related injuries and illnesses than any other workforce nationwide.15 So when you choose organic, you’re helping to protect farmworkers as well as your own family.

Sources and References:

1 IFT May 25, 2012
2, 3, 6 Organic Consumers Association May 24, 2017
4, 5, 20 USDA, Economic Research Service, Organic Market Overview
7 Environmental Working Group April 12, 2017
8 The Huffington Post April 12, 2017
9 The Detox Project
10 European Parliamentary Research Service, Human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture December 2016
11, 12, 17 Harvard School of Public Health February 8, 2017
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Friday, June 1, 2018

June 01, 2018

Organic Foods - What You Should Know


The term “organic” refers to the way agricultural products are grown and processed. While the regulations vary from country to country, in the U.S., organic crops must be grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, bioengineered genes (GMOs), petroleum-based fertilizers, and sewage sludge-based fertilizers.
Organic livestock raised for meat, eggs, and dairy products must have access to the outdoors and be given organic feed. They may not be given antibiotics, growth hormones, or any animal by-products.
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