OT: Dietary supplements shown to increase cancer risk if taken in excess

Not exactly good news. A wild guess might be too many antioxidants may lead to them becoming pro oxidants,

or even somehow interfering with endogenous antioxidant redox system,might mean that ROS is needed to destroy cancer, and excess exogenous antioxidants are preventing this.

A different study not to long ago, also indicates that supplements interfere with chemo, stopping ROS generated from the chemo working.

Old Mike

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-dietary-supplements-shown-cancer.html

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 4/20/2015 5:04:31 PM (GMT-6)

Guardian7, I guess supplements can cause side effects like pharmaceutical medications after all (from a conversation from another thread).

I posted one a few months back, it was a probiotic
contaminated with fungus. Killed a baby, not sure if there were more deaths.
Given in a hospital setting.
Old Mike

iPoop said...
Rare, but it happens, just like pharmaceuticals.

Actually pharmaceutical deaths and adverse reactions are not rare. It's all fun and games until it happens to a loved one:

“Prescription drug therapy stands as one of the most significant perils to health resulting from human activity.” Prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death in the US. In any given month, 48% of US consumers ingested a prescription drug, and 11% ingested five or more prescription drugs. Americans suffer from an estimated 45-50 million adverse effects, from prescription drugs–of which 2.5 million to 4 million are serious, disabling or fatal.

This is in contrast to the few deaths from dietary supplements (assuming if old mike is correct).

Post Edited (Guardian7) : 4/20/2015 5:51:32 PM (GMT-6)

"Far from an isolated case, a USA TODAY investigation finds that a wide array of dietary supplement companies caught with drug-spiked products are run by people with criminal backgrounds and regulatory run-ins. Consumers buying products from these firms are in some cases entrusting their health and safety to people with rap sheets for crimes involving barbiturates, crack cocaine, Ecstacy and other narcotics, as well as arrests for selling or possessing steroids and human growth hormone. Other supplement company executives have records of fraud, theft, assault, weapons offenses, money laundering or other offenses, the investigation shows."

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/19/dietary-supplements-executives-criminal-records-spiked/4114451/

There too little oversight in the supplement industry, buyer beware. Yes, there are good supplements but you have to be very careful.

Guardian7 said...

iPoop said...
Rare, but it happens, just like pharmaceuticals.

Actually pharmaceutical deaths and adverse reactions are not rare. It's all fun and games until it happens to a loved one:

“Prescription drug therapy stands as one of the most significant perils to health resulting from human activity.” Prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death in the US. In any given month, 48% of US consumers ingested a prescription drug, and 11% ingested five or more prescription drugs. Americans suffer from an estimated 45-50 million adverse effects, from prescription drugs–of which 2.5 million to 4 million are serious, disabling or fatal.

This is in contrast to the few deaths from dietary supplements (assuming if old mike is correct).

there does not seem to be a quality source for this text

sciencenordic.com/confirmed-vitamin-pills-can-cause-death

Ugghh, not contradictory. Vitamin D is not mentioned in the study I linked.

Really G7, this isn't about you.

Anyone who thinks all drugs are just chemicals and bad and all supplements are "natural" and good needs a reality check. Many drugs are derived from plants and other organic things, not just manufactured out of thin air using chemicals. There are far more supplements on the market which are dangerous (mostly due to unregulation) than people realize. Of course you can make the argument to only buy quality supplements but when you look at the market as a whole the quality manufacturers are just a very small part of the overall supplement market. As far as medicines go, I'm guessing that there is more of a problem with drug interactions and other misuses than if the drugs were taken and prescribed correctly in a controlled environment, which admittedly doesn't happen much. Take Tylenol for just one example. Many people take compound medicines that have tylenol in them and then take more tylenol on top of that, not realizing they are getting multi-dose tylenol without realizing it. The more medications you take the more these types of problems are prevelant. And yes, you could argue that the more meds you take the more dangerous it is compared to the same for supplements but in most cases it is not the individual meds that are the problem it is the mistakes, lack of knowledge, and downright misuse that is the real problem.

If one is low in vitamin A, D, iron, etc then the healthiest action is to eat a diet high in foods that'd remedy that without a supplement pill

Do you really mean that? Are you saying that those who are on Sulfasalazine for their IBD should try to eat tons of spinach every day instead of taking supplementary folate? Or all those people who were clinically anemic from chronic IBD bleeding should just try to eat more calves liver to get more iron instead of supplements?

Please suggest a viable way besides supplements for those of us who live in northern climes in the winter with severely low blood levels of vitamin D. What a great excuse to get my adequate sunlight by visiting the Caribbean every other week.

Why do people, who don't think twice about taking immunosuppressants with all their toxic side effects, have such a problem with others taking supplements?

Assembly lines can get contaminated in any processing facility

Including assembly lines for prescription drugs:

www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugRecalls/default.htm?tracking=BikePGH
2015
04/10/2015 Baxter Initiates Voluntary Recall of Select Lots of IV Solutions Due to the Potential Presence of Particulate Matter
04/01/2015 North Carolina Board of Pharmacy Announces a Recall of All Lots of Non- Sterile and Sterile Products Compounded, Repackaged, and Distributed by Prescription Center Between September 10, 2014 and March 10, 2015 Due to Lack of Sterility, Potency, and Stability Assurance
03/11/2015 Hospira Issues a Voluntary Nationwide Recall of One Lot of Lactated Ringer's Irrigation Due to Mold Contamination
03/05/2015 Hospira Issues A Voluntary Nationwide Recall of One Lot of 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection, USP, 250 mL VisIV Container Due to Particulate Matter
02/25/2015 Heritage Pharmaceuticals Initiates a Nationwide Voluntary Recall of Colistimethate for Injection USP, 150 mg and Rifampin for Injection USP, 600 mg/vial Due to a Lack of Sterility Assurance
02/23/2015 Sagent Pharmaceuticals Initiates a Nationwide Voluntary Recall of Atracurium Besylate Injection, USP, 50mg/5mL and 100mg/10mL due to FDA Observations Pertaining toAseptic and GMP Practices at the Manufacturer’s Site Potentially Impacting Product Sterility
02/10/2015 Hospira Issues a Voluntary Global Recall of Multiple Lots of Ketorolac Tromethamine Injection Due to Potential Particulate in Glass Vials
01/20/2015 Hospira Issues a Voluntary Nationwide Recall of One Lot of 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection, USP, 250 mL Due to Particulate Matter

2014
12/31/2014 Valeant Pharmaceutical North America LLC Issues Voluntary Nationwide Recall Of Virazole (Ribavirin Powder For Solution) Due To Microbial Contamination
12/23/2014 Hospira Announces Voluntary Worldwide Recall of 10 Lots of Mitoxantrone Due to Confirmed Subpotency and Out-Of-Specification Impurities
12/12/2014 Tristar Equine Issues Voluntary Recall of Gastrotec

[Edited for excessive length post]

Post Edited By Moderator (iPoop) : 4/21/2015 9:56:11 AM (GMT-6)

Drugs are highly regulated, tested, quality controlled, and necessitate reporting and recalls when a mistake happens. Supplements have none of that, as there is no regulation by the fda; it's the wild, wild west out there for them.

This just isn't true. If the FDA regulated the pharmaceutical industry well enough, drugs would not be the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, but they unfortunately are and millions experience adverse reactions every year (see data I posted). I don't understand why this is an acceptable statistic for something that is considered safe and regulated. If we're going by the death tolls, supplements are almost as harmless as water - they are almost never indicated in harm.

A number of drugs were out in the market and then recalled because of issues not covered in the relatively short trials. This is because the trials don't encapsulate a large enough sample size and are restricted to non-elderly individuals to make sure nothing surfaces. There is also certain exclusion criteria and demographics who take the drug later on get some of the undiscovered side-effects.

I won't even get into how trials are seeded until desired results are achieved. Then there are issues with leaving out trials that are negative. I already discussed in another thread why it's impossible to trust pharmaceutical data at face value. Systemic reviews reveal that drugs are not more effective than the placebo.

As an example, the popular biologic tysabri was recalled after PML reports surfaced in the trials. There just wasn't adequate testing on it, and the same holds true for remicade and humira. There are many drugs out there that need to be restricted, if not recalled. Look up the death toll on Vioxx.

Post Edited (Guardian7) : 4/21/2015 11:31:13 AM (GMT-6)

I guess there's not even a whisper of a chance of getting you to reconsider your viewpoints. You're both vehemently anti-pharmaceutical to a point that startles me

Why do you say that I am anti-pharmaceutical? I would have probably tried to remain in remission with a mild oral mesalamine with rowasa taken as needed, but I am allergic to mesalamines. Check out my posts. When newbies come for advice I always recommend mesalamines and rectal meds. And for them to figure out if diet might aggravate their symptoms. Diet can be a problem often enough for people to check for it.

Diet modification is very effective for me and I get very angry when someone who doesn't believe in diet tries to put us down by calling us “cultists” or whatever. But I don't have anything against meds per se.