This month’s Regular KosAbility meeting is on Sunday, 28 October at 4pm Pacific time.
For each quarter of the year, one of the four KosAbility admins (Bésame, CathyM, Steven Park, wilderness voice) takes charge of the meetings. Bésame's quarter begins this month with a diary about caring for our eyes and vision. Bring your experiences (e.g., cataract surgery stories) to share along with questions and whatever else is on your mind.
Kosability is BY and FOR
- PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITIEs;
- WHO LOVE SOMEONE WITH A DISABILITY; OR
- WHO WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE ISSUES.
OUR DISCUSSIONS ARE OPEN THREADS IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS COMMUNITY.
FEEL FREE TO
- COMMENT ON THE DIARY TOPIC;
- ASK QUESTIONS OF THE DIARIST OR GENERALLY TO EVERYONE;
- SHARE SOMETHING YOU'VE LEARNED; OR
- gripe ABOUT YOUR SITUATION.
OUR ONLY RULE IS TO BE KIND.
TROLLS WILL BE SPAYED OR NEUTERED.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN CONTRIBUTING A DIARY CONTACT WILDERNESS VOICE, BESAME, CATHYM, OR STEVEN PARK.
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War on Supplements
Among the headlines on Saturday, October 13: "Hundreds of Dietary Supplements Are Tainted with Prescription Drugs". This was not click bait for the likes of the National Enquirer - this was for an article in the Scientific American. It was based on a study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
One's immediate reaction might be: "Oh noes my vitamins cannot be trusted!"- until we start reading. It turns out that 98% of the accused products were for sexual enhancement, weight loss, or muscle building. The remaining few were for "pain", or "cancer".
The offenders were pulled from a list at the FDA website. None of the accused supplements were labeled as vitamins or minerals. They had names that included terms like "Viagra", "performance", "strong", "slim", or "diet", or names like Alpha Male, Amerect, Arize, Bee Thin, B-Lipo, and Duramaxxx.
There were over 800 entries attributed to about 150 different manufacturers. None of the accused manufacturers were reputable supplement suppliers. The accused manufacturers had names like Advanced Muscle Science, Anabolic Xtreme, Blunt Force Nutrition, Envy Me, Fossil Fuel Products, Hardmenstore, Rage, Rockhard Laboratories, Ultimate Body-Tox, and Volcano Company.
There is no excuse for putting prescription drugs in over-the-counter products. That said, if a person is buying products from manufacturers with names like these, it should be no surprise to find some contain questionable ingredients.
ConsumerLab is a subscription supported site that tests supplements - the vitamin and mineral kind, not those reported above. Per Consumer Lab’s testing, the vast majority of vitamin and mineral supplements have exactly what they say they have.
On the other hand, how about medical patients expecting prescription medicines and medical devices to be safe? To explore that, we have another FDA page, safety recalls over the last couple of years. If you access this page, select "Drugs" from the filter pulldown.
Here we find the list is replete with big-name manufacturers such as Actavis, Baxter, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. There are about 150 entries including 35 for injectable medications. Among the reasons for injectable recalls are: Particulate contamination (mold), Lack of Sterility Assurance, and Particulate Matter (including glass and human hair).
The mold contamination was found in an IV formulation of the antibiotic linezolid. This would typically be given in the hospital to a seriously ill patient with a difficult to treat bacterial infection. Putting mold into the such a person's bloodstream could well be fatal.
The Scientific American article was published October 12, the same date as publication of the source article in JAMA. Likewise for a similar article in Forbes. This bespeaks a coordinated publicity campaign. The $5 billion Big Pharma advertising budget pays for a lot more than just direct to consumer advertising. I find the rate at which anti-supplement propaganda is issued is so rapid it is not possible to respond to all of it.
This is the fourth installment of what has become a "War on Supplements" series. Here are the prior entries:
- Long before his resignation due to sexual misconduct allegations, former New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman hired a lizard expert to assist him in a project that attacked supplements. That story here: Schneiderman Denounces Supplements Then Quietly Withdraws Accusations
- Cranberry juice does reduce the incidence of urinary tract infection. Here is how a review of studies was constructed to arrive at the opposite conclusion: How To Create An Invalid Review Of Studies
- A review purporting to be a comprehensive survey of the impact of supplements on cardiovascular disease claimed supplements were of no use. They omitted any study of the most effective supplement for that purpose: Junk Science, Bad Reporting Propagate Unhealthy Misinformation Regarding Supplements
-wv