I hope many of my readers already know this but I want to emphasize something which is very common in the supplement and vitamin industry.
When you are selecting a supplement or vitamin, it's essential to know what the ingredients are AND also the concentration. All manufacturers know that people recognize names of common vitamins and herbal ingredients and likely don't know what the true therapeutic doses are.
So I see many products sold over the counter (OTC) or by multi-level marketing firms (MLM) that use what I call the "kitchen sink" method of product development. Throw every big-name ingredient in so the public will think it's a good product, and don't worry if the concentrations are below therapeutic levels.
Another very common practice is to produce what is labeled as a "proprietary blend" of multiple ingredients and give only the concentration of the whole group. This is used as a method to hide the individual ingredient concentrations from competitors, since the formulas usually are not patentable. My suggestion is to buy only OTC products that do not use this trick to hide the concentrations.
Vitamins are usually labeled with something called %RDA which means what percentage of the FDA mandated Recommended Daily Allowance does this product contain. RDA values are almost meaningless today because they were established to prevent the worst scourges of previous generations, namely scurvy, beriberi and pellagra. We need a new set of values for what I would call Effective Therapeutic Dosage.
I'm very careful in my own selection of products to recommend that the therapeutic dosing can be achieved easily. My colleague, Dr. Dean Raffelock, for example, has a line of supplements for pregnancy and postpartum use which are fine examples of proper formulation and effectiveness. See www.pregnancyrecovery.com for further information.
I recommend everyone have access to books which discuss the therapeutic doses of supplements and hopefully have a healthcare provider to offer guidance on selection and dosing.
drBob
I hope many of my readers already know this but I want to emphasize something which is very common in the supplement and vitamin industry.
When you are selecting a supplement or vitamin, it's essential to know what the ingredients are AND also the concentration. All manufacturers know that people recognize names of common vitamins and herbal ingredients and likely don't know what the true therapeutic doses are.
So I see many products sold over the counter (OTC) or by multi-level marketing firms (MLM) that use what I call the "kitchen sink" method of product development. Throw every big-name ingredient in so the public will think it's a good product, and don't worry if the concentrations are below therapeutic levels.
Another very common practice is to produce what is labeled as a "proprietary blend" of multiple ingredients and give only the concentration of the whole group. This is used as a method to hide the individual ingredient concentrations from competitors, since the formulas usually are not patentable. My suggestion is to buy only OTC products that do not use this trick to hide the concentrations.
Vitamins are usually labeled with something called %RDA which means what percentage of the FDA mandated Recommended Daily Allowance does this product contain. RDA values are almost meaningless today because they were established to prevent the worst scourges of previous generations, namely scurvy, beriberi and pellagra. We need a new set of values for what I would call Effective Therapeutic Dosage.
I'm very careful in my own selection of products to recommend that the therapeutic dosing can be achieved easily. My colleague, Dr. Dean Raffelock, for example, has a line of supplements for pregnancy and postpartum use which are fine examples of proper formulation and effectiveness. See www.pregnancyrecovery.com for further information.
I recommend everyone have access to books which discuss the therapeutic doses of supplements and hopefully have a healthcare provider to offer guidance on selection and dosing.
drBob