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Ok so you've seen the news lately "Vitamin industry a scam" , "Investigation blows the lid on Vitamin industry" et cetera. It seems there is something of a war on Vitamins and Supplements. But look closely. The news organizations reporting this information have a tendency to sensationalize; to make broad sweeping statements using only a single example to back it up. There are unscrupulous actors in the Vitamin business surely but most Vitamin Manufactures abide by the highest safety standards.
What you need to look for:
There is this notion that since the FDA doesn't officially regulate the Vitamin and Supplement industry, it is this wild west anything goes kind of situation. That's simply not the case. While the FDA doesn't have official oversight over the industry, it has become increasingly involved in the minutiae of the manufacturing processes. A set of rules known as Good Manufacturing Practices, or GMP, have been laid out where by manufactures must meet the highest possible standards for safety and purity.
A finished product manufacturer must test every raw material that is used in their product, must validate their manufacturing process through each and every step and must finally test every single finished product in order to prove that it meets the absolute highest standards for safety and purity and that it meets or exceeds label claim so you know you are getting what you are supposed to be getting.
This means that you want to buy your products made in a GMP Certified Facility. Many products made in a GMP facility will have this fact stamped on the bottle (see image on bottom of page) to make it easier. GMP standards are validated by the NSF or the National Safety Foundation, who do random audits of manufacturing facilities to ensure all standards are being met or exceeded. GMP standards are equal to the standards of the FDA regulated pharmaceutical industry in regards to safety and purity of product.
Now we know that their safe, do they really work?
The short answer: Yes 100%. The long answer: Not all vitamins and supplements work for everyone. For instance, your average person gets enough Vitamin C through their diet. However, someone who works out strenuously depletes their body of Vitamin C making it difficult to replenish through diet alone. This makes supplementation necessary.
CoQ10 is another great example. Co Enzyme Q10 is a necessary component of mitochondrial energy production in almost every cell in the body. We can and do get some CoQ10 through diet and until the age of say 35 this is most often sufficient. However, after 35 our bodies have a harder and harder time synthesizing CoQ10. Deficiencies can lead to all manner of heart, immune, liver and overall energy impairments. It becomes incredibly difficult to reach healthy CoQ10 levels through diet alone.
Add cholesterol lowering Statin drugs to the mix which more and more adults are being prescribed and which paradoxically block the production of CoQ10 in the body, then supplementation becomes absolutely necessary. So to sum it up, not everyone needs to supplement with CoQ10 but for those over 35 and especially those taking a statin drug, supplemention is absolutely essential.
You could do a study with a healthy 25 year old and determine they do not need CoQ10 supplementation and then the news can't print the story "CoQ10 supplementation not necessary" and watch as millions of people suffer but that would make you an asshole and you wouldn't do that right? Unfortunately, if you've watched the news lately, there are a lot of assholes out there.
Now let's talk about a product like Curcumin. Curcumin is the active ingredient in the spice Turmeric. Turmeric has been used for thousands of years for both its medicinal and culinary benefits. It's most often found in Curry. Daily use of Turmeric has been found to have astounding benefits for overall health as Curcumin protects the body in over 600 different unique capacities from Cancer Prevention to reduction in overall inflammation, the leading cause of age related death, to antioxidant protection and much more.
But most people in the Western world don't use Turmeric anywhere near enough to derive these benefits. This is where supplementation is a God Send. An effective Curcumin supplement can confer all of those benefits in just one easy dose, allowing the consumer to enjoy these astounding benefits without having to completely change their daily practices.
But the "Newest Study Claims..."
When consuming news always remember, the people who determine what makes a story are not scientists or nutritionists. They are editors looking for headlines and if the actual science isn't juicy enough they'll just reword the headline to make it appear so. Scientists actually hate the way science is treated in the news specifically because people's lives can be heavily affected by the five minutes of information they take in that screams "this is now bad never use this ever" "No wait it's actually good, use it everday" "now wait it's bad again". Nuance is always lost in a one minute synopsis framed with the explicit but subliminal goal of capturing the attention of the audience, not necessarily inform them.
This happens extremely often with Vitamins and Supplements. It happens especially because the top advertisers to the major networks and news publications, the Big Pharmaceutical companies, have a huge vested interest in keeping the public misinformed about the value of vitamins and supplements in their lives. In fact Big Pharma often funds many of the studies that make it to the news. Why is this?
Two reasons;
1) Many vitamins and supplements are as if not not more effective then their prescription counterparts and the natural products will always come without the debilitating side effects found in these monstrous drugs being peddled everyday. It's just that the natural products can't be patented so one group can't create a monopoly and then use lies and misinformation to protect that monopoly..
2) Believe it or not, Big Pharma, like much of the modern day health care system, has very little interest in keeping you healthy. If you're healthy you're not a repeat customer. If they simply treat the symptoms, you'll remain just sick enough to keep coming back. For this reason it is in their financial interest to prevent you from finding the information that will keep you off of their toxic drugs.
Yes this sounds conspiracy theory-ish but it's really not a massive, hidden conspiracy. These are practices carried out in broad daylight and accepted by the public. It's not a conspiracy when everyone knows about it but simply does nothing to stop it. Then it's policy.
The most important thing I can tell everyone is to research your own health.
Determine:
Determine these three things and use this information to seek out the best vitamins and supplements for you! You'll see that they can make a world of difference if targeted to your individual needs.
Ok so you've seen the news lately "Vitamin industry a scam" , "Investigation blows the lid on Vitamin industry" et cetera. It seems there is something of a war on Vitamins and Supplements. But look closely. The news organizations reporting this information have a tendency to sensationalize; to make broad sweeping statements using only a single example to back it up. There are unscrupulous actors in the Vitamin business surely but most Vitamin Manufactures abide by the highest safety standards.
What you need to look for:
There is this notion that since the FDA doesn't officially regulate the Vitamin and Supplement industry, it is this wild west anything goes kind of situation. That's simply not the case. While the FDA doesn't have official oversight over the industry, it has become increasingly involved in the minutiae of the manufacturing processes. A set of rules known as Good Manufacturing Practices, or GMP, have been laid out where by manufactures must meet the highest possible standards for safety and purity.
A finished product manufacturer must test every raw material that is used in their product, must validate their manufacturing process through each and every step and must finally test every single finished product in order to prove that it meets the absolute highest standards for safety and purity and that it meets or exceeds label claim so you know you are getting what you are supposed to be getting.
This means that you want to buy your products made in a GMP Certified Facility. Many products made in a GMP facility will have this fact stamped on the bottle (see image on bottom of page) to make it easier. GMP standards are validated by the NSF or the National Safety Foundation, who do random audits of manufacturing facilities to ensure all standards are being met or exceeded. GMP standards are equal to the standards of the FDA regulated pharmaceutical industry in regards to safety and purity of product.
Now we know that their safe, do they really work?
The short answer: Yes 100%. The long answer: Not all vitamins and supplements work for everyone. For instance, your average person gets enough Vitamin C through their diet. However, someone who works out strenuously depletes their body of Vitamin C making it difficult to replenish through diet alone. This makes supplementation necessary.
CoQ10 is another great example. Co Enzyme Q10 is a necessary component of mitochondrial energy production in almost every cell in the body. We can and do get some CoQ10 through diet and until the age of say 35 this is most often sufficient. However, after 35 our bodies have a harder and harder time synthesizing CoQ10. Deficiencies can lead to all manner of heart, immune, liver and overall energy impairments. It becomes incredibly difficult to reach healthy CoQ10 levels through diet alone.
Add cholesterol lowering Statin drugs to the mix which more and more adults are being prescribed and which paradoxically block the production of CoQ10 in the body, then supplementation becomes absolutely necessary. So to sum it up, not everyone needs to supplement with CoQ10 but for those over 35 and especially those taking a statin drug, supplemention is absolutely essential.
You could do a study with a healthy 25 year old and determine they do not need CoQ10 supplementation and then the news can't print the story "CoQ10 supplementation not necessary" and watch as millions of people suffer but that would make you an asshole and you wouldn't do that right? Unfortunately, if you've watched the news lately, there are a lot of assholes out there.
Now let's talk about a product like Curcumin. Curcumin is the active ingredient in the spice Turmeric. Turmeric has been used for thousands of years for both its medicinal and culinary benefits. It's most often found in Curry. Daily use of Turmeric has been found to have astounding benefits for overall health as Curcumin protects the body in over 600 different unique capacities from Cancer Prevention to reduction in overall inflammation, the leading cause of age related death, to antioxidant protection and much more.
But most people in the Western world don't use Turmeric anywhere near enough to derive these benefits. This is where supplementation is a God Send. An effective Curcumin supplement can confer all of those benefits in just one easy dose, allowing the consumer to enjoy these astounding benefits without having to completely change their daily practices.
But the "Newest Study Claims..."
When consuming news always remember, the people who determine what makes a story are not scientists or nutritionists. They are editors looking for headlines and if the actual science isn't juicy enough they'll just reword the headline to make it appear so. Scientists actually hate the way science is treated in the news specifically because people's lives can be heavily affected by the five minutes of information they take in that screams "this is now bad never use this ever" "No wait it's actually good, use it everday" "now wait it's bad again". Nuance is always lost in a one minute synopsis framed with the explicit but subliminal goal of capturing the attention of the audience, not necessarily inform them.
This happens extremely often with Vitamins and Supplements. It happens especially because the top advertisers to the major networks and news publications, the Big Pharmaceutical companies, have a huge vested interest in keeping the public misinformed about the value of vitamins and supplements in their lives. In fact Big Pharma often funds many of the studies that make it to the news. Why is this?
Two reasons;
1) Many vitamins and supplements are as if not not more effective then their prescription counterparts and the natural products will always come without the debilitating side effects found in these monstrous drugs being peddled everyday. It's just that the natural products can't be patented so one group can't create a monopoly and then use lies and misinformation to protect that monopoly..
2) Believe it or not, Big Pharma, like much of the modern day health care system, has very little interest in keeping you healthy. If you're healthy you're not a repeat customer. If they simply treat the symptoms, you'll remain just sick enough to keep coming back. For this reason it is in their financial interest to prevent you from finding the information that will keep you off of their toxic drugs.
Yes this sounds conspiracy theory-ish but it's really not a massive, hidden conspiracy. These are practices carried out in broad daylight and accepted by the public. It's not a conspiracy when everyone knows about it but simply does nothing to stop it. Then it's policy.
The most important thing I can tell everyone is to research your own health.
Determine:
- Your family health history
- Your current health through a physical
- Your deficiencies based on your diet
Determine these three things and use this information to seek out the best vitamins and supplements for you! You'll see that they can make a world of difference if targeted to your individual needs.