Dangerous Supplements - Nevada City

Just because you buy something in the health food store does not mean its safe. In this month’s edition of Environmental Health Perspectives (a journal of the National Institutes of Health), a case is reviewed of a woman who developed arsenic poisoning from a kelp supplement;

“She took kelp for one year, during which her fatigue worsened to the point that she had to switch from full- to part-time work. She also experienced rash, diarrhea, vomiting, severe headaches, and hair loss.”

After discovering the arsenic in the kelp the researchers tested 9 different kelp supplements. Astonishingly, only one of the 9 supplements tested was arsenic free!

While I am all for freedom of choice in the herb and supplement market, I do believe products sold as supplements need to be tested for purity and active ingredients. In the 80’s we had a debacle due to impurities in tryptophan, we presently have problems with mercury in fish oil, and apparently with arsenic in kelp! In addition, it is very common for nutritional products to be completely devoid of what they are supposed to be. For more information on this please click here …this article reviews some supplements claiming to contain chondroitin that either contain none at all or contain it in a form that cannot be used by the human body.

Until some sort of oversight is enforced, bring your supplements to a nutritionally minded health provider—what you are taking “for your health” may be killing you!

Click here for the article in Environmental Health Perspectives (you'll have to scroll down).