14 DAY TRIAL // The very fashionable healthy way of life is often misunderstood and the easy way adopted by millions of people is alternative medicine. In the United States only, $34 billion are spent every year on this kind of remedies. Experts say that botanical supplements and even common vitamins might actually prove dangerous if abused.
An article published in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News, cited by LiveScience, says that many plant-based supplements have not yet been tested and people might just take too much of something that normally is a good or harmless thing. Ikhlas A. Khan, a professor of pharmacognosy at the University of Mississippi stated: “Right now, we do not even understand the chemical composition” of these plants. “Inherent variability blurs the composition.”
Too much of anything can make you sick and this statement “is true for dietary supplements”, according to Stephen Barnes of the University of Alabama, Birmingham. “The big concern is that because you can get them over the counter, there's always a possibility that people will take ridiculous amounts.”
As for highly reputed plants that have no real effect, scientists try to provide concrete evidence. A study in the December issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association states that Ginkgo biloba, sold as a memory enhancer, does no such thing. Another study carried out in 2008 and published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism proved that the natural supplement combo of glucosamine and chondroitin, purported to relieve arthritis, is no better than a sugar pill. Finally, Polynesian noni juice, said to heal the mind, body and spirit, rather causes liver problems.
Vitamins are also a mass phenomenon. Everybody takes them and in 2006, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that most Americans had too many nutrients because of supplemental pills. Studies that establish the effects of some vitamins are starting to come out. For example, a study in 2008 found that chemotherapy effectiveness is reduced by vitamin C; furthermore, vitamins C and E associated cannot prevent cancer over a period of 10 years and long-term use of multivitamins did not reduce the risks of cancer, overall mortality in menopausal women or cardiovascular disease.
The advice that scientists give is to take nutrients from food only. “Whole foods are better than dietary supplements. Getting a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains is particularly important,” said Marian L. Neuhouser, the leader of the multivitamin study at the Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson Center.
Public safety studies concerning these dietary supplements need to be done. Furthermore, “all botanical dietary supplements should be standardized,” Richard B. van Breemen, co-director of the Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research at the University of Illinois, said.