Your dietary supplements are at risk

Your dietary supplements are at risk. Drug companies have great influence over FDA decisions and drug companies do not want us to have natural dietary remedies to safeguard and improve our health; they want us to take their expensive, hazardous, pharmaceutical products. The drug companies go to extraordinary lengths to limit our freedom to protect our health. - Read the National Health Federation's SAVE OUR SUPPLEMENTS.

Omega-3 may reduce muscle loss in older people, study finds

Daily supplements of omega-3 fatty acids may boost the production of muscle protein in older people, and reduce the risk of degenerative muscle loss, suggest data from a new human trial. Four grams per day of omega-3 fatty acids for eight weeks were found to increase the rate of muscle protein synthesis associated with increased supply of amino acids and insulin, according to findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Read article at nutraingredients-usa.org

Gabby Logan on Radio 5 - today' s vitamin supplements discussion

This programme missed the opportunity to do a great deal of good by giving information that is not widely known. Instead it rehearsed the usual distinctly disputable message that if you eat a good balanced diet you will get all the vitamins you need and the usual warning that if you take too high a dose you could harm yourself. The panel of speakers did correctly mention that certain groups, e.g. the housebound, need extra vitamin D, since food alone does not provide sufficient vitamin D. But I felt the tone of much that was said was on the lines of criticising people for eating poor diets and so it was their choice of poor diets that caused their nutritional deficiencies. We were also patronisingly told that staff in health stores will be trying to sell you supplements you may not need. I can't say that that has been my experience.

I did not hear anyone mention that prescription drugs often seriously deplete the body of nutrients. I wrote about this very recently: Medication often causes nutritional deficiencies. Dr Hilary Jones was one of Gabby's panel of speakers. I wonder whether he himself did not know much about this. Few doctors do. And few patients do. It would have been a good idea to have on the programme a doctor with a special interest and expertise in nutrition, e.g. Dr John Briffa.

Inositol supplement may help prevent spina bifida

See BBC News article.

Omega-3 may improve the kidney health of diabetics: study finds

Supplements of omega-3 fatty acids may improve the kidney health of diabetics, say results of a double-blind placebo-controlled trial from Hong Kong.
Read article at nutraingredients.com

No Deaths from Dietary Supplements: Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids, Herbs

No Deaths from Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids or Herbs
Poison Control Statistics Prove Supplements' Safety
There was not even one death caused by a dietary supplement in 2008, according to the most recent information collected by the U.S. National Poison Data System. The new 174-page annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers, published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, shows zero deaths from multiple vitamins; zero deaths from any of the B vitamins; zero deaths from vitamins A, C, D, or E; and zero deaths from any other vitamin. Additionally, there were no deaths whatsoever from any amino acid or herbal product.
Read news release at orthomolecular.org

Omega-3, Vitamin C and Zinc may ease childhood asthma

A combination supplement containing omega-3, vitamin C and zinc may improve symptoms of asthma suggests a new study from Egypt. These three nutrients were associated with improvements in asthma measures, lung function, and markers of inflammation in the lungs, according to findings of a randomised, double blind, placebo-self-controlled crossover trial published in Acta Pædiatrica. “Children with moderately persistent bronchial asthma may get benefit from their diet supplementation with omega- 3 fatty acids, Zinc and vitamin C,” wrote the researchers, led by Mohammed Al Biltagi from Tanta University in Egypt.
Read article at nutraingredients.com

Reducing intake of salt/sodium also helps in preventing and in reducing asthma symptoms.

Alliance for Natural Health online petition on unfair EU restrictions on vitamins and minerals

The ANH has launched the first of its Online Petitions via the ANH homepage. The first petition aims to positively influence the approach the European Commission is taking in its efforts to limit the maximum available dosages of vitamin and mineral food supplements across the 27 Member States of Europe.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

Food Supplements Directive - Head of Irish Nutrition Institute warns of Health Harm

In accordance with the requirements of a European directive, the European Commission is about to pass restrictions on formulating food supplements that contain vitamins and minerals integrating daily nutrient intake. Richard Burton, the head of the Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health has written to members of the European Parliament that approved a directive mandating such restrictions, to warn that the directive, if implemented as planned, will harm the health of Europe's citizens.
Read letter from Richard Burton on the La Leva website (Italy)

Fluoride: Now it can be added to our food! - I regard this as reprehensible.

Fluoride can now be added to foods manufactured and supplied in Europe. It’s been classified as a safe supplement, according to Europe’s highest authority on food standards. The decision means that food manufacturers can include sodium monofluorophosphate, the common form of fluoride found in toothpaste and mouth washes, to their products. The decision, by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has angered the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), the consumer pressure group, which is calling for an immediate enquiry.
Read article on the What Doctors Don't Tell You (WDDTY) website (UK)

EC registers vitamin upper limit concerns

The Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS) has come away from a European Parliament Petitions Committee meeting confident its concerns about appropriate maximum permitted levels (MPLs) for food supplements are being listened to at European Union level. The meeting was attended by four Irish MEPs, one UK MEP as well as EU delegates, with the Petitions Committee chairman insisting a 60,000-strong, IAHS-backed petition submitted to the European Parliament in December, 2007, be kept open.
Read article at nutraingredients.com

Ray of sunlight from ANH/Irish efforts in Brussels

The Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS) defended its petition in the European Parliament against the European Commission’s planned setting of EU-wide maximum limits for dosages of vitamins and minerals in food supplements. The petition, submitted originally in December 2007 with the support of 60,000 Irish citizens, claims that measures to harmonise maximum levels of vitamin and mineral food supplements under the Food Supplements Directive (2002/46/EC)—soon to be implemented by the European Commission—will unduly impact consumers, health stores and practitioners in Ireland. Instead of being closed down, the apparent goal of the European Commission, the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee chairman insisted that the petition be kept open.
Read press release on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

Prisoners given supplements in new trial

An Oxford University study being conducted in three UK prisons is investigating the link between nutrition and behaviour. It follows a 2002 UK trial that found consumption of food supplements could reduce anti-social behaviour in teenagers as well as 30 years inquiry into the subject by one of the lead researchers, professor Alexander Schauss, PhD, FACN, senior director of natural and medicinal products research at natural products consultancy, AIBMR Life Sciences. Schauss noted more than 20 controlled clinical trials carried out in state and county juvenile and adult institutions confirmed that diet could be used to reduce the incidence of antisocial behavior by up to 60 percent.
Read article at nutraingredients.com