J. Douglas Bremner
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 Alternative Medicines
Patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders like IBS, FD, and GERD commonly self-medicate with a number of herbs, supplements, and food products. For example, constipation is often treated with herbal therapies that stimulate secretion of fluids into the bowel and muscular contraction of the intestines, the most common of which include senna, cascara, aloe vera, and rhubarb root. One small study of thirty-five patients showed that aloe vera combined with celandin and psyllium was better than placebo in treating constipation. |
| Although it is unclear whether these herbs and supplements are helpful, there is no evidence of potential harm.
As noted earlier, fatty foods can increase the symptoms of dyspepsia. Patients with IBS commonly can't tolerate a number of foods, including milk, wheat, eggs, and fresh fruits and vegetables. IBS patients do not, however, have a greater lactase deficiency (the enzyme that digests dairy products) or inability to absorb sugars (like fructose) when measured in the laboratory, although they may have more symptoms when exposed to these compounds outside the lab. |
| Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994, which I describe in more detail in Chapter 18 (Vitamins and supplements). Because of the very real risk of liver failure and possible death I do not recommend kava for the treatment of mood disorders. Kava is potentially lethal and should not be used.
OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS
There is one study I know of that has examined the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on symptoms of bipolar disorder.7 Thirty patients with bipolar disorder were randomized to receive four months of omega-3 fatty acids in the form of fish-oil capsules or placebo. |
| We've just been frightened or overly excited by vitamin manufacturers, the processed-food industry, and their supporters in the government into thinking we can benefit from supplements. We don't.
The link between health and vitamins may have gained momentum in 1962, when Linus Pauling won the Nobel Prize. He was convinced that megadoses of vitamins were good for your health. But these claims were based solely on his personal experience with vitamins; his own research had nothing to do with vitamin C. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 Needed supplements: Vitamin B2 (25 mg daily), CoQ10 (30-100 mg daily). monoamine oxidase inhibitors (maois): isocarboxazid (Marplan), phenelzine (Nardil), and tranylcypromine (Parnate)
These are seldom used, and only when others have failed.
Actions: They work by inhibiting or reducing the levels of the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO) that breaks down neurotransmitters in the brain. MAOIs also can cause blood pressure to rise.
Side effects: They can cause dangerously high blood pressure if taken with decongestants, antihistamines, or foods containing tyramine, such as cheese or red wine. |
Ron Garner
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 When selecting supplements, check to ensure that they have been formulated by taking into account the electrical integrity of the component combinations, and that they have been prepared at low heat. Remember that each combination of foods or herbs produces a different group of electrical matrices, and that the body can only use natural electrical matrices from whole foods for health.
Try not to become discouraged when you embark on your health program. It took a long time to get to the health condition and age you are now. |
| These two supplements returned the workers back into his body, which had been completely exhausted over his years of traveling and eating cooked foods. We also gave Dr. Jensen food for his liver and body in the form of TOCO?which is a product that I formulated.2 With the workers and complete proteins returning to his body, Dr. Jensen started to rebuild and gain energy. In fact, just eight weeks and one day later, I was walking with Dr. Jensen on the hills of his farm in California. He was fully recovered.
A sequel to this story is that, approximately six weeks later Dr. |
| It was given the power to approve drugs and natural supplements as either safe or unsafe.
At that time, all medical schools in America taught the use of only natural remedies for healing. Students did not learn to use drugs for treatments and therefore doctors did not prescribe the pharmaceutical companies' products. This was not good business for the cartel. Its solution to this problem was to form the Council of Medical Education in 1910, through the American Medical Association. This became the body that accredited medical schools. |
| Antioxidant Sources
A healthy diet of raw fruits and vegetables contains naturally-occurring antioxidants. Many supplements, such as vitamins A, C, E, selenium, and coenzyme Qio, are antioxidants. More recently, stronger antioxidants have been discovered and developed. Among these are: pycnogenol, which is a water extract from the bark of the French maritime pine; grape seed extract; tocotrienols; vitamin C ester; alpha lipoic acid; dmae; and alpha and beta hydroxy acids. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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 For instance, if you eliminate meat from your diet you must make sure you include alternative iron-rich foods or supplements. Making such a radical change to eating habits requires strong discipline. Ask yourself: 'Can I do it, how will it affect my system, and can I afford not to do it?' A consultation with your medical practitioner is advisable before coming to any decision.
Even if you don't become a vegetarian you should ensure your intake of grains, fruit and vegetables is high. One result will be improvement in your bowel movement pattern. |
Melody Petersen
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 Pharmacia then paid to have the proceedings of the two London meetings published in supplements to the prominent medical journal Urology and distributed to physicians around the world. The first supplement in December 1997 had thirty articles, many of them written by doctors whom Pharmacia had put on its payroll. The articles showed how Pharmacia's wagon could get in front of its pony. One article said that "generally accepted definitions" of overactive bladder had not yet been established, although it was "highly desirable" to do so. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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 Women who believe they are getting enough calcium through diet and supplements may be sabotaging themselves if they do not include enough of the right oils (i.e. extra-virgin olive, canola, or flaxseed oils) in their diets. Also, because this diet includes minimum animal products and sodium and little or no sugar or caffeine, your body should better retain its nutritional and supplemental calcium.
Magnesium is another element that helps the body to eliminate excess estrogen. For women, magnesium levels tend to fall at certain times during the menstrual cycle. |
| Men who take DIM supplements will benefit biochemically because DIM promotes an optimal testosterone-to-estrogen ratio.
/ WOMEN SHOULD TAKE 200 MG OF DIM PER DAY; MEN SHOULD TAKE 400 MG PER DAY.
The B Vitamins
The B vitamins—Bi, B2, B3, B5, B6, Bi2, and folate—do a lot within your body to support estrogen detoxification.
Conversely, if your body is deficient in B vitamins, you will have higher levels of circulating estrogen. |
Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan
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 Interestingly, a goiter can be a sign that you're consuming too much iodine itself, from either food or supplements.
Goiters can occasionally signal thyroid cancer. In those cases the goiter is often large, hard, and may cause discomfort or pain.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
In the early 20th century, goiters were very common in a section of the United States referred to as the "goiter belt." These areas, which were remote from the sea, included the Midwest, Great Lakes region, Appalachia, and other mountainous areas. |
| A) supplements, or eating foods with orange or red dye, can have the same effect. Orange stools are also a common reaction to the drug rifampin, which is used to treat certain bacterial infections, especially tuberculosis, below.)
(See Golden Pee, SIGN OF THE TIMES
RED OR MAROON STOOLS
We all see red occasionally. However, seeing red in your stools may set off a red alert. Fortunately, sometimes it's just a false alarm. While what you're seeing may indeed be blood and signal a serious disorder, it can also be a harmless sign that you've eaten or drunk large amounts of something red. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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 Men and women over 50 years were recommended to consume extra vitamin D from food and/or supplements. Those in high-risk groups, defined as being unable under usual circumstances to make cholecalciferol in skin, were advised to consume an additional 25 pg (1000 IU). This amount exceeds the IOM recommendations for adults over 50 years. A recommendation for postmenopausal women was made by the American Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists [100] in 2003 to maintain an intake of vitamin D closer to 20 pg (800 IU). |
| African Americans consume less than the recommended intakes in every age group, with or without the inclusion of vitamin D from supplements as shown in Table 5 [36, 45-49]. Similar racial disparities in vitamin D intake were reported in more recent data from the NHANES 1999-2000 Survey [43]. Low vitamin D intakes among minority populations are largely attributed to lactose intolerance and limited consumption of milk, milk products, and ready-to-eat breakfast cereals [36, 43, 45]. |
| D from vitamin D-fortified foods and/or supplements"
In addition to IOM recommendations, intakes of 17.5-20 pg (700-800 IU) per day for women at deficiency risk because of inadequate sunlight exposure, such as older, frail, chronically ill, housebound, institutionalized, or those in northern latitudes. Doses as high as 50 pg (2000 IU) are safe. |
| There is an urgent need to reassess the adequacy of the vitamin D supplements currently available to meet individual needs, particularly in African Americans. This is illustrated by a study in African American women aged 15-49 who consumed 10 pg/day (400 IU) of supplemental vitamin D in addition to their usual diet. Serum 25(OH)D levels remained below 37.5 nmol#l in 11% of the African American women; thus a much higher percentage of black subjects could not attain the optimal serum range of 75-80 nmol ^ 1 at this modest level of vitamin D supplementation [43, 49].
D. |
Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan
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| In addition to supplements, it's found in nuts (especially Brazil nuts), meat, seafood, and—not surprisingly—garlic. But you'd be hard pressed to eat so much garlic—or any other selenium-containing food—to cause this problem. Tooth discoloration and decay, skin discoloration, hair loss, nail prob-
SIGNIFICANT FACT lems, listlessness, and irritability xJBTJ/ APProximate|y 40 mi"ion
Americans suffer from bad are other signs of excess selenium. breath
Selenosis can lead to neurological damage and in extreme cases result in lung disease, cirrhosis of the liver, and even death. |
| But if your skin looks more orange than yellow, it may merely be a sign of carotenemia (see Chapter 7), a usually benign condition resulting from consuming too much beta-carotene or vitamin A, either from supplements or from foods such as carrots.
In some cases, yellow skin can be a sign of a hereditary, benign form of jaundice called Gilbert's syndrome. (See Chapter 2.) However, it's warning sign
For some people the combination of wearing perfume or cologne and going out in the sun can cause skin discoloration, which can be permanent. |
| Dark yellow urine may signal that you're taking in large amounts of beta-carotene from either foods or supplements. Some drugs will turn urine a true orange. High on the list are the antituberculosis drug rifampin, the blood thinner warfarin, and some cancer drugs. These are many of the same medications that turn stools orange. (See Orange Stools, above.)
WARNING SIGN
Although you might think you're not getting dehydrated, by the time you're thirsty, you're already on your way. Dehydration can lead to seizures, brain damage, and even death. |
Elaine Magee
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 An independent testing firm analyzed 16 brands of garlic supplements and found that few products clearly label how much active compound they contain; even when they do, it's often not accurate.
It's probably not one component in garlic and onions that holds the wealth of health benefits, either, but a combination of substances. For example, originally researchers focused on allicin, the compound that can be blamed for garlic's taste and smell. |
David W. Grotto, RD, LDN
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 Besides raw cranberries, you can also purchase dried (usually sweetened), juice (sweetened and unsweetened), sauce, jelly, and even cranberry supplements.
• Store cranberries in the crisper section of the refrigerator, in their original bag, for up to four weeks, or in the freezer section for up to six months.
PREPARATION AND SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
• Unsweetened juice can be rather bitter tasting by itself, so it's best mixed with equal parts of apple juice or any other sweet juice of choice. It also comes in the "cocktail" form, sweetened or artificially sweetened. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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| About 80 percent of women and men will never need anything more than over-the-counter bio-identical progesterone, our recommended regimen of foods and supplements, and a practice of hormone-healthy life habits to maintain optimal hormone balance. However, with age, approximately 20 percent of women and men will suffer a decline in estrogen and/or testosterone production that will require treatment. They will need the help of a knowledgeable physician and a compounding pharmacist. |
Melody Petersen
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| Roughly half of Americans ages sixty-five and older take five or more different drugs or supplements every week. Twelve percent use ten or more different brands of pills every week. In part, the elderly use more drugs because they have more chronic illnesses.
Dr. Jerry H. Gurwitz, an expert in geriatric medicine, explains this to his students in this way: "As older patients move through time, often from physician to physician, they are at increasing risk of accumulating layer upon layer of drug therapy, as a reef accumulates layer upon layer of coral."
There's another factor at work too. |
Steven V. Joyal
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 If you choose to use pomegranate extract rather than pomegranate juice, look for supplements that are standardized for punicalagins and provide about 78 mg per day—this is the approximate level of polyphenols that showed remarkable, atherosclerosis-reducing properties in the clinical studies.
Whey Protein Isolate
Whey is a protein found in milk. Studies indicate that whey protein can be useful in several ways when it comes to diabetes. |
| Fortunately, many studies show that chromium supplements taken by people who have low chromium levels and who also are diabetic or have impaired glucose tolerance can result in improvements in blood glucose, insulin, and lipid levels.
In 2006, scientists published a comprehensive review of many studies involving nearly 1,700 patients who took chromium and concluded that the mineral was very helpful in supporting healthy blood glucose, insulin, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels as well as in reducing the need for oral diabetes medications. |
| The following supplements have been shown to increase insulin sensitivity.
Barley Extract
Barley extract contains beta-glucan, a naturally derived fiber that has a sticky, glutinous consistency. The stickiness of beta-glucan slows down the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream and helps to optimize blood glucose levels. Barley extract also reduced Hb A and fasting blood glucose in experimental studies. |
| The following supplements have shown promise for supporting beta-cell health.
CofTee Berries
Your morning cup of coffee started out as a bright red fruit (berry). The coffee berry is rich in antioxidants and other phytonutrients known as polyphenols. These polyphenols (or phenolic acids) have been shown to be helpful in supporting optimal blood glucose levels as well as in fighting damaging free radicals and protecting cardiovascular health. |
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