4 ms·
I don't think it's half as bad as you seem to think. My wife's an NP, so I have an inside view of Syracuse, NY's medical situation. There's two issues at hand:
by cpfohl 11y ago
I don't think it's half as bad as you seem to think. My wife's an NP, so I have an inside view of Syracuse, NY's medical situation. There's two issues at hand:
1. The quality of evidence for most supplements ranges somewhere between Bigfoot and Flat-Earth society. That's not to say it's all bad, but it's generally unstudied and unproven.
That being said: it's standard practice to strongly recommend vitamin D supplements for us northerners. That's reasonably new, high quality supplement data and it's not ignored. There's no bias for these types of medical practitioners, the data's just not there.
2. A lot of older docs are untrained when it comes to new studies about various things: pain meds (don't use them), alternative pain management (can be useful), H. Pylori (a proven explanation for stomach ulcers). These docs don't keep up to date. They're otherwise excellent doctors. Most of them care deeply about their patients and are fiercely defensive of them and their care (exceptions abound, but giving people the benefit of the doubt is a good way to live life a lot happier).
There's tons that's wrong with our medical system, try not to generalize it too far.
Also tell your doctor about ALL supplements you take. Some can react terribly with other medications and supplements.
- 6stringmerc 11y ago1. Elsewhere I definitely agree that advertising and claims in the supplement world are a real bothersome issue. However the exact same criticism can be levied at the official medical community which has a habit of prescribing lots of different drugs for things such as "restless leg syndrome" or in the case of Lyrica, advertising it for all sorts of different applications until one finally gets market traction. Selling quick fixes is a long, glamorous and shady business. Also, in my experience, a good deal of the actual, effective supplements that have been on the market are now illegal for suspect reasons. As in, because it actually works we're going to ban it. 2. A lot of older docs are pretty much what I was getting at, re: the 'wall' of knowledge. They've got long, strong careers in medicine doing things the way they've always done them, occasionally updating their knowledge but not really putting in a lot of effort. That breeds 'know it all syndrome' which, again anecdotally, tends to be a little bit more prevalent in that professional field.
- bkmartin 11y agoDo you have any examples of where actual, effective supplements have been taken off the market? And if you do, can you say why the removal was suspect?
- 6stringmerc 11y agoSure, the easiest is 4-Androstenedione. It worked as intended. Maybe a little hard on the liver but that's pretty common for the type of compound it was. I say the removal is suspect because the claims of its dangers outwardly appear politically motivated. Keep in mind this was what Mark McGwire claimed he was taking legally during the height of the steroid era in baseball (which he may have been - but if Canseco is to be believed he was using "real" AAS as well). Another would be ephedra, in that it did what it claimed, but irresponsible people (apparently) thought eating handfuls of the pills would be a great idea. Several high-profile heat stroke cases as well. I'm not saying it's 100% side-effect free or safe or whatever, but it did what it stated, got a bad rap, and is now banned/illegal. I'd love to see a comparison between the number of 4-AD and Ephedra related deaths vs. acetaminophen poisoning, which the CDC notes is about 33,000 cases per year (25% unintentional).