Last night, the CBS Evening News ran a report about the potential harm that can result from taking vitamin supplements. The resident medical expert told us that the FDA doesn't control the safety of these products.
A 17 year old boy's story was detailed; a picture of him when he was 15 was shown: bulging yellow eyes, an indicator that his liver was not functioning properly. His mother related the story that at 15, this morbidly obese boy started taking a green tea-based weight loss product. In her words, "He saw how well one dose worked and decided on his own to take extra." His liver was found to be dysfunctional and he was given a 50/50 chance to live. He recovered, but his story was described in detail as a cautionary tale about taking "unregulated" vitamins.
Most of you regular readers know that I don't recommend regular lab-based vitamins and for those new readers, you may read about the reason on my website. As an aside, the news program showcased many different non-FDA regulated supplements....Standard Process was not among those shown as this food-based supplement company is regulated out the....well, let's just say, "regulated."
The bias of this reporting astounds me. The good doctor didn't bother to mention that the highly FDA-regulated pharmaceutical industry is responsible for producing medications that cause tens of thousands of deaths every year. How many deaths could this investigative reporting find? ZERO! Interesting, don't you think?
Now, I'm the first one to assert the cautionary tale about not taking synthetic, non-food based or fractionalized vitamins, but the fact that 2,300 people (according to the report) are hospitalized every year with symptoms associated with taking or, more accurately, improperly taking vitamin supplements, in my opinion, does not warrant the level of fear that this report tried to encourage.
"Take all your vitamins and dump them out on the desk..." when you go to the medical doctor and he (even though he's had no nutritional education whatsoever) will tell you if your vitamins aren't safe to take, the good doctor on CBS advised. Wow.
Just another reason that I'm so pleased to offer Standard Process nutritional supplements to my patients and clients.
Dr. Esther
drkollars@gmail.com
fixdhealthcare.com
No comments:
Post a Comment