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Thread: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

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    Default Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    I thought this would be of interest to our members.
    My mother and sister are the kind of girls that enjoy taking supplements .
    I read this article and showed it to them last night during a family visit. Both of them appeared to really appreciate reading this information.

    Hopefully others will find it to be of interest as well.









    Americans spend an estimated $5 billion a year on unproven herbal supplements that promise everything from fighting off colds to curbing hot flashes and boosting memory. But now there is a new reason for supplement buyers to beware: DNA tests show that many pills labeled as healing herbs are little more than powdered rice and weeds.


    Using a test called DNA barcoding, a kind of genetic fingerprinting that has also been used to help uncover labeling fraud in the commercial seafood industry, Canadian researchers tested 44 bottles of popular supplements sold by 12 companies. They found that many were not what they claimed to be, and that pills labeled as popular herbs were often diluted — or replaced entirely — by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice.

    Consumer advocates and scientists say the research provides more evidence that the herbal supplement industry is riddled with questionable practices. Industry representatives argue that any problems are not widespread.

    For the study, the researchers selected popular medicinal herbs, and then randomly bought different brands of those products from stores and outlets in Canada and the United States. To avoid singling out any company, they did not disclose any product names.

    Among their findings were bottles of echinacea supplements, used by millions of Americans to prevent and treat colds, that contained ground up bitter weed, Parthenium hysterophorus, an invasive plant found in India and Australia that has been linked to rashes, nausea and flatulence.

    Two bottles labeled as St. John’s wort, which studies have shown may treat mild depression, contained none of the medicinal herb. Instead, the pills in one bottle were made of nothing but rice, and another bottle contained only Alexandrian senna, an Egyptian yellow shrub that is a powerful laxative. Gingko biloba supplements, promoted as memory enhancers, were mixed with fillers and black walnut, a potentially deadly hazard for people with nut allergies.

    Of 44 herbal supplements tested, one-third showed outright substitution, meaning there was no trace of the plant advertised on the bottle — only another plant in its place.

    Many were adulterated with ingredients not listed on the label, like rice, soybean and wheat, which are used as fillers.

    In some cases, these fillers were the only plant detected in the bottle — a health concern for people with allergies or those seeking gluten-free products, said the study’s lead author, Steven G. Newmaster, a biology professor and botanical director of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph.

    The findings, published in the journal BMC Medicine, follow a number of smaller studies conducted in recent years that have suggested a sizable percentage of herbal products are not what they purport to be. But because the latest findings are backed by DNA testing, they offer perhaps the most credible evidence to date of adulteration, contamination and mislabeling in the medicinal supplement industry, a rapidly growing area of alternative medicine that includes an estimated 29,000 herbal products and substances sold throughout North America.

    “This suggests that the problems are widespread and that quality control for many companies, whether through ignorance, incompetence or dishonesty, is unacceptable,” said David Schardt, a senior nutritionist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. “Given these results, it’s hard to recommend any herbal supplements to consumers.”

    Representatives of the supplement industry said that while mislabeling of supplements was a legitimate concern, they did not believe it reached the extent suggested by the new research.

    Stefan Gafner, the chief science officer at the American Botanical Council, a nonprofit group that promotes the use of herbal supplements, said the study was flawed, in part because the bar-coding technology it used could not always identify herbs that have been purified and highly processed.

    “Over all, I would agree that quality control is an issue in the herbal industry,” Dr. Gafner said. “But I think that what’s represented here is overblown. I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks according to this study.”

    The Food and Drug Administration has used bar-coding technology to warn and in some cases prosecute sellers of seafood found to be “misbranded.” The DNA technique has also been used in studies of herbal teas, which showed that a significant percentage contain herbs and ingredients that are not listed on their labels.

    But policing the supplement industry is a special challenge. The F.D.A. requires that companies test the products they sell to make sure that they are safe. But the system essentially operates on the honor code. Unlike prescription drugs, supplements are generally considered safe until proved otherwise.

    Under a 1994 law, they can be sold and marketed with little regulatory oversight, and they are pulled from shelves generally only after complaints of serious injury. The F.D.A. audits a small number of companies, but even industry representatives say more oversight is needed.

    “The regulations are very appropriate and rigorous,” said Duffy MacKay of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a supplement industry trade group. “But we need a strong regulator enforcing the full force of the law. F.D.A. resources are limited, and therefore enforcement has not historically been as rigorous as it could be.”

    Shelly Burgess, a spokeswoman for the F.D.A., said that companies were required to adhere to a set of good manufacturing practices designed to prevent adulteration, but that many were ignoring the rules.

    “Unfortunately, we are seeing a very high percentage — approximately 70 percent — of firms’ noncompliance,” she said, “and we are very active in taking enforcement actions against such violations.”

    DNA bar coding was developed about a decade ago at the University of Guelph. Instead of sequencing entire genomes, scientists realized that they could examine genes from a standardized region of every genome to identify species of plants and animals. These short sequences can be quickly analyzed — much like the bar codes on the items at a supermarket — and compared with others in an electronic database. An electronic reference library at Guelph, called the International Barcode of Life Project, contains over 2.6 million bar code records for almost 200,000 species of plants and animals.

    The testing technique is not foolproof. It can identify the substances in a supplement, but it cannot determine their potency. And because the technology relies on the detection of DNA, it may not be able to identify concentrated chemical extracts that do not contain genetic material, or products in which the material has been destroyed by heat and processing.

    But Dr. Newmaster emphasized that only powders and pills were used in the new research, not extracts. In addition, the DNA testing nearly always detected some plant material in the samples — just not always the plant or herb named on the label.

    Some of the adulteration problems may be inadvertent. Cross-contamination can occur in fields where different plants are grown side by side and picked at the same time, or in factories where the herbs are packaged. Dr. Gafner of the American Botanical Council said that rice, starch and other compounds were sometimes added during processing to keep powdered herbs from clumping, just as kernels of rice are added to salt shakers.

    But that does not explain many of the DNA results. For instance, the study found that one product advertised as black cohosh — a North American plant and popular remedy for hot flashes and other menopause symptoms — actually contained a related Asian plant, Actaea asiatica, that can be toxic to humans.

    Those findings mirror a similar study of black cohosh supplements conducted at Stony Brook University medical center last year. Dr. David A. Baker, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive medicine, bought 36 black cohosh supplements from online and chain stores. Bar coding tests showed that a quarter of them were not black cohosh, but instead contained an ornamental plant from China.

    Dr. Baker called the state of supplement regulation “the Wild West,” and said most consumers had no idea how few safeguards were in place. “If you had a child who was sick and three out of 10 penicillin pills were fake, everybody would be up in arms,” Dr. Baker said. “But it’s O.K. to buy a supplement where three out of 10 pills are fake. I don’t understand it. Why does this industry get away with that?”

    Source:

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    United States Avalon Member Mike's Avatar
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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    it's not that we "like" taking supplements - we *need* them. some of us anyway. in my case, they saved my life.

    herbal preparations are largely harmless, as most companies are reluctant to make them too powerful for fear that one might overdose. i can speak from experience: when i was trying to heal my heart i was ingesting entire bottles of hawthorn berry over 2 day periods, with no negative reactions whatsoever. no positives, either, unfortunately (until much later, when i made my own concoctions)

    prescription drugs are the number one killer in a large majority of American states. the damage they've done is astronomical! but when one batch of Echinacea is found compromised, the FDA and its fan club start screaming about tighter regulations, or abolishing nutritional supps all together. it's absurd.

    for many folks around the world, nutritional supps are a godsend. most alleged studies done on them are dubious, in my eyes, as the only way to perform them requires funding from the same nefarious entities that want them off the market. and when testing their efficacy, often weak herbal capsules are used - not the powerful preparations made by vaunted herbalists such as Dr Richard Schulze. so these so called studies are very often egregiously flawed.

    we have a capitalist system here in the states, so every area of the market is bound to be corrupted, but if you want to talk about *real* corruption, lets talk about the FDA, the pharm cartels. i'd guess the number of citizens here in the states using supps is nearing the number on prescription drugs; simply look at the number of fatalities caused by pharm drugs vis a vis supplements. that's the bottom line
    Last edited by Mike; 11th November 2013 at 19:37.

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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    Another attack most probably backed by the pharmaceutical industry.

    Yes there are a few dodgy suppliers but notice they will not name them, why?

    Why not name the ones that are lying.

    They would rather tar the other 75% that provide a good service with honest ingredients

    Prescription drugs kill far more people, but lets not talk about that.

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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    most herbs can be found wild and around your home/area. we CAN make our own medicines if we chose to.
    personally, i hope to harvest my own st johns wort plus others for this exactly. it doesnt have to be an attack from pharmaceuticals, herbs work. it just is appalling that they arent actually IN the supplement itself.
    unite, alright
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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    Probably the dodgy stuff can be traced back to the PTW just to discredit alternative medicines or to enable the government to "fix" stuff to make sure we can't treat ourselves- they don't want us getting better after all do they?
    Personally I always buy the best product I can afford .
    I think I shall start my own Herb Garden next spring.
    Last edited by sheme; 11th November 2013 at 16:19.

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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    Are there any research results available for CHINESE herbal products distributed in the US?

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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    Quote Posted by sheme (here)
    Probably the dodgy stuff can be traced back to the PTW just to discredit alternative medicines or to enable the government to "fix" stuff to make sure we can't treat ourselves- they don't want us getting better after all do they?
    Personally I always buy the best product I can afford .
    I think I shall start my own Herb Garden next spring.
    This is a large part of the problem, yes! The phama thugs have bought many natural supplement companies and are intentionally providing inferior products to sulley the name of alternative medicine and natural remedies. And then there are just unscrupulous vendors with no conscience. There are many very ethical companies. Find a few and stick with them.

    And as some have said, supplements are now essential, as the food supply has been corrupted in a gross way. Farming practices by the giant agri-businesses yield nutritionally unsound foods. And the FDA and USDA seem hell bent on killing the living essence of all foods by pastuerizing, irradiating, microwaving, chemically treating, and otherwise destroying nutrients.

    Mother Nature rules!
    The quantum field responds not to what we want; but to who we are being. Dr. Joe Dispenza

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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    Yep, good critical thinkers on this forum. Source/Names of these studies would be helpful. And pending lawsuits.
    Herbs are Nature's Medicine.
    Certain companies have better quality products. Like anything.
    In essence, you get what you pay for.

    Worse case, there is always the placebo effect.
    Believe it and it is so...

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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    I find it funny that tens of thousands of people die every year from over the counter pharma products, and hundreds of thousands die each year in the USA alone from medical related errors (mostly from prescription drugs) and it is the "natural health products" - which haven't killed anyone as far as I can recall in all of Canada's history is what needs better regulation?? Friggin flu shots kill more people than natural health products.

    In Canada all natural health products have to receive a natural health product number (NPN) after a NHPD (health Canada) review board approves them based on sources, efficacy and safety. So it is regulated already. The company I work for has invested likely millions into research and studies to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak in the natural health product world and now have NPNs for all our products (no natural health products without NPNs can be distributed past Dec 31 2013)

    The only problem is that they left the majority regulation up to the industry itself -- we all have an expectation to "rat out" any competitors who are selling products without NPNs.

    The problem left though is that no one is actually checking these formulas to see if they match what was actually approved.

    The system already exists in Canada - it's called the NHPD (Natural Health Products Directorate) - we just need to some better work in verifying claims against actual final product.
    Last edited by DeDukshyn; 16th November 2013 at 18:33. Reason: spelling
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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    Quote Posted by DeDukshyn (here)
    I find it funny that tens of thousands of people die every year from over the counter pharma products, and hundreds of thousands die each year in the USA alone from medical related errors (mostly from prescription drugs) and it is the "natural health products" - which haven't killed anyone as far as I can recall in all of Canada's history is what needs better regulation?? Friggin flu shots kill more people than natural health products. .
    http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v07n16.shtml

    Quote America's Largest Database Confirms Supplement Safety

    (OMNS, Dec 28, 2011) There was not even one death caused by a vitamin supplement in 2010, according to the most recent information collected by the U.S. National Poison Data System.

    The new 203-page annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, published online at http://www.aapcc.org/annual-reports/, shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins; zero deaths from any of the B vitamins; zero deaths from vitamins A, C, D, or E; and zero deaths from any other vitamin.

    Additionally, there were no deaths whatsoever from any amino acid or dietary mineral supplement.

    Three people died from non-supplement mineral poisoning: two from medical use of sodium and one from non-supplemental iron. On page 131, the AAPCC report specifically indicates that the iron fatality was not from a nutritional supplement.

    Fifty-seven poison centers provide coast-to-coast data for the National Poison Data System, "one of the few real-time national surveillance systems in existence, providing a model public health surveillance system for all types of exposures, public health event identification, resilience response and situational awareness tracking."

    Well over half of the U.S. population takes daily nutritional supplements. Even if each of those people took only one single tablet daily, that makes 165,000,000 individual doses per day, for a total of over 60 billion doses annually. Since many persons take far more than just one single vitamin or mineral tablet, actual consumption is considerably higher, and the safety of nutritional supplements is all the more remarkable.

    Over 60 billion doses of vitamin and mineral supplements per year in the USA, and not a single fatality. Not one.

    If vitamin and mineral supplements are allegedly so "dangerous," as the FDA and news media so often claim, then where are the bodies?

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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    In France most of the supplements contain very low doses of the main substance, so in a certain they are not "offensive".
    When you order food supplements in other countries, mainly in the US, they are regularly retained at Customs and you don't receive anything.

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    Default Re: Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

    Quote Posted by Chinaski (here)
    when i was trying to heal my heart i was ingesting entire bottles of hawthorn berry over 2 day periods, with no negative reactions whatsoever. no positives, either, unfortunately (until much later, when i made my own concoctions)
    Speaking as an herbalist, I was happy to see your post. You've highlighted the simplicity of the solution. It doesn't take more than sincere interest and the internet to become an herbalist. And even apartment dwellers can grow a garden. Growing your own food and medicines is not difficult. I'm not saying you'll never need to buy supplements or even see a doctor. I'm saying that by taking ownership of your own health you empower yourself to live a healthier and more fulfilled life.

    Common herbs like sage, cayenne, garlic, cilantro and others that are commonly available at any garden center can go a long way to safeguarding health. You can grow echinacea, lavender, peppers, chia and many other healthful, medicinal foods in containers in a sunny window even if you don't have a yard.

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