Supplements, Medical Rabbit Holes and Timothy Caulfield

Accidentally got hauled into a minefield of medical information that forced me out of "non thinking mode". It started with Timothy Caulfields Netflix series called "A Users Guide to Cheating Death". Now I understand not everyone has Netflix, but some of his talks are free on YouTube.

He is pretty much a skeptical medical/ethics law professor from Alberta Canada. Thru the series he questions just about everything and actually tries out different alternative medical procedures comparing any measurable results with established studies. It was both hilarious and sobering.

Altho you'd think this was all very dry stuff, I mean who spends the day giving a rats behind right?
I discovered in many ways I'd managed to turn off my critical thinking skills in certain areas and was overwhelmed by some info as well. Because I just don't read or watch most stuff without some googling for corroboration this is where the rabbit hole comes in.

I went off on the tangent/piece I could deal with and wandered into the wonderful world of supplements just because of one sentence in one episode. The part about only really needing 50mg of vitamin C per day. Altho the body of info about Linus Pauling was educational.
So in my google-travels I hit pay dirt.

labdoor.com...

Labdoor
There is another independent lab testing company, south of the border, that tests for these things in products they get off their US shelves and from online stores. Their name is Labdoor and they independently test and rank hundreds of supplements in dozens of categories. They test for things like label accuracy (is what’s in the bottle what’s on the label in terms of amount of active ingredient) and product purity (are there heavy metals in the product?).

As it turns out I'd fallen into the trap of buying in to vitamins are good, so was probably taking way too much cause I didn't think it thru. In checking out my own bunch thru Labdoor I was appalled to find out two kinds contain arsenic!!!
And who doesn't want to start their day out with news like that???

Now to quantify, I'm not a health nut I don't get too wound up about every new thing out there and stuff like butter is good, NO it's bad! ect...I take with a grain of salt cause at this point I'm pretty convinced the entire problem is that white lab mice are probably inherently bad test subjects. But this info was just too good to not share.

Timothy Caulfield I'm sure has an ax to grind and in his own way biased, but by poking me forced me to actually think, plus he's entertaining.
It's a series I'll go back too as a jumping off point to do my own research.

This website gives you plenty of tools to research your own supplements and was educational without all the Woo-woo hype.
leesaklich.com...

Tried to find a decent youtube of Caulfield speaking, just so folks could gauge if they liked what he says. This one starts out slow, but it's interesting. Plus he slams Dr.OZ an who doesn't like that???

a reply to: Caver78

There are a ton of caveats to these "outcomes."

For instance not all supplements are created equal. Yeast cultivated, food concentrated, or petro- distillate derived are but a few.

Vitamins "work" obviously otherwise why eat? Its how the vitamin is derived and delivered that defines this topic.

a reply to: BlueJacket

Thanks for the reply.

Can you explain this part more?
"Vitamins "work" obviously otherwise why eat? Its how the vitamin is derived and delivered that defines this topic."

Pretty much my point of creating the thread was to drop a couple of decent reference links and acknowledge just how easy it is to get lazy and not apply critical thinking skills to what we think of as very everyday concepts. In this case supplements. Frankly I was gobsmacked at how little thought I gave to just grabbing some vitamins and making them part of my daily routine with no meaningful knowledge of correct dosage or research into quality of the product.

Altho with other products I'm much more critical and do my research.
Plus it's hard to find someone or something that forces you to get out of autopilot and actually THINK. That's always a welcome thing.

a reply to: Caver78

Absolutely will elaborate, we are out in the mountains today (stuck behind a wreck). I work in health care, nearing 30 years...its a deeper topic than most realize.

Give me a half day

a reply to: Caver78

While this doesn't directly discount the accuracy of their testing (showing one of my fav brands) ....

Labdoor - is selling the products they 'rank' so can not be called truly independent as they are making money on the very products they 'test'.

Sorry about the top being cut-off: LInk: labdoor.com...-more



PS - you can only see the 'full report' by loging in to their website - another money making endeavor. Follow-the-money.

Vitamins and supplements are not regulated so there is little incentive to actually provide what is claimed by the products. Money is behind much of the deception and contamination is often a result of production lines producing a number of products without undergoing any sterilization. Most of our food, which is regulated is fortified with vitamins so the need for additional supplements is not needed. The body is capable of absorbing only so much with the rest being flushed out.

a reply to: DJMSN

Good to know!


The second link I gave had more testing facilities on it like Consumer Labs, Tru-ID and USP. It also gives you info on how to get and decipher science abstracts to lessen confusion. Nothings perfect but these things all seemed like a handy shortcut for people (like me) who just wanted quick valid answers.

I'd seen you could purchase from Labdoors website but in all honesty I'm going to google around for the best price then compare to my local stores. I'm just cheap that way.

If you are deficient in vitamins and minerals because your diet lacks enough that are bioavailable, supplements will help. Too much of a necessary thing can become toxic though. There are many ways that excessive consumptions of different food chemistries can cause harm over a period of time. I take a multimineral dayly, but only take b vitamins occasionally. My diet seems to have enough of most of the vitamins in it, but not enough of some trace minerals.

I also take other supplements when I need them. Bromelain or quercetin with bromelain are a medicine for me that I take when needed. I also keep taurine around and some Iodine pills if I feel I am running low. I do not take vitamin c, my diet contains plenty of that. I do have magnesium pills and calcium pills I take as treatment occasionally for some symptoms, it works great when needed, I tend to be more calcium deficient than magnesium deficient most times. The symptoms are different, but similar between those two minerals when deficient. The muscles tense different if off balance either way.

If I ate more veggies I would not need the mineral pill, but nitrates can make my head spin. Too much magnesium makes my muscles act weird too.

As a person with a life time of health issues, who studies nutrition, here is a caveat:

How's your gut?

Mine was not absorbing the (excellent, whole food) diet I was putting into it. Nor was it absorbing the (whole food based) vitamins, cod liver oil, coconut oil, minerals, etc etc. Once I began to correct my (maybe leaky) gut with bone broth to add collagen to my life, BOOM.

A hundred little things that were wrong are starting to right themselves. Conversely, my ears want to sweep out a bunch of accumulated stuff, so I am having issues with that. Still taking vitamins along with a good diet. Hoping to quit them once I get my food figured out.

Nothing beats a whole food diet, utilized by the body. I urge people to look into the "Nourishing Traditions" eating protocol (the website of Nutritional Therapy has free courses). Dr Li has a real interesting book on beating illness with diet.

Whole food=if you eat white meat chicken, be sure to get some dark meat regularly, or chicken bone simmered broth and have chicken livers once a week. Beef fan? Get some liver along with the muscle meat. Broccoli sprouts, not just the tops.

Most people have forgotten how to think, using what they are given. Many of my friends never even read the contents of the products they take.