A South African consumers' guide to scams, pseudoscience and voodoo science, OR, a critical thinker's guide to the ins and outs of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Protein intake dominates fitness advice. Whether you want to build muscle, improve your fitness or watch your weight, the common advice handed out by everyone from fitness influencers to doctors is that we need more protein.
But while protein does play an essential role in maintaining our muscle mass and overall health, all this increased attention on the importance of protein in the media and fitness circles has sparked a surge in products marketed specifically for their protein content.
But our enthusiasm for protein might have gone too far. While protein is certainly important for our health, most of us don’t need these protein-enhanced foods as a regular feature in our diet.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) with the assistance of NSW Police have seized 478 sport supplements containing potentially dangerous substances from a Sydney retail store.
It is alleged that the supplements were intended for supply to consumers. Some of the supplements are alleged to contain substances which are banned from sale and supply in Australia due to their high risk to consumer health.
The seizures were made after the TGA and NSW Police executed search warrants at the Sydney retail store on 19 December 2023 as part of ongoing investigations into the alleged importation, manufacture, supply, and advertising of unapproved therapeutic goods.
In Australia, medicines and chemicals are classified into schedules in the Poisons Standard according to the level of regulatory control required to protect public health and safety. Schedule 4 lists substances regulated as prescription-only medicines and schedule 10 lists substances of such danger to … Read the rest
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of commercial products aimed at increasing testosterone; they represent a drop in an ocean that is swelling with some 30,000 dietary supplements. The ones offered for boosting testosterone range from relatively benign multivitamins to anabolic/androgenic steroids and everything in between, all thriving in an industry lacking effective regulation or validation of claims.
When evaluated, the evidence is found wanting. Of fifty commercial products claiming to boost testosterone, improve libido, or help men feel stronger, only around 25 percent were supported by any evidence. Around 62 percent of supplements had no literature whatsoever, which is a surprise given the 109 unique compounds found among the supplements (an average of 8.3 ingredients per product). With such a litany of ingredients, one would expect … Read the rest
Researchers analyzed 57 dietary supplements sold online and labeled as containing: R vomitoria, methylliberine, turkesterone, halostachine, or octopamine.
The researchers found:
no detectable amount of the labeled ingredient in 23 of the products
the actual quantity of the labeled ingredient ranged from 0.02% to 334% of the labeled quantity in 34 of the products
only six accurately labeled products that contained a quantity of the ingredient within 10% of the labeled quantity
seven products that contained at least one ingredient prohibited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
“You get what you pay for” isn’t an adage we can always rely upon. A US study has found more than one-third of a selection of sports supplements bought online don’t contain key ingredients the label says they should.
Pieter Cohen, a clinician-researcher at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and colleagues ordered 57 sports supplements to analyze their contents.
Each product’s label claimed the supplement contained one of five botanical compounds with purported performance-enhancing properties. The substances have been included in supplements since a stimulant called ephedra was banned in 2004.
“The FDA does not preapprove these ingredients, or any supplement ingredient, for either efficacy or safety before their introduction,” Cohen and colleagues write in their paper.
“But FDA inspections have found that supplement manufacturers often fail to comply with basic manufacturing standards, … Read the rest
Stuart Phillips, has spent two decades studying the impact of our diets on our muscles. Speaking on the BBC’s Food Programme last year, he summed it up like this: someone consuming extra protein and exercising two or three times a week will see a minimal benefit while those working out four or five times a week might see a small benefit.
We don’t know what the long-term impact might be of adding large quantities of protein powders to your diet on a daily basis
Exercise physiologist Nick Tiller, MRes, PhD, argues that pseudoscience is a systemic problem in sports. He offers examples of prominent athletes promoting pseudoscientific health and performance claims. [Tiller N. Is sport a breeding ground for pseudoscience? Skeptical Inquirer, Nov 10, 2022]
He concludes:
Pseudoscience preys on hopes and fears—two sides of the same coin—and it also feeds on desperation. Because of the “win at all costs” mentality nurtured in high-performance sports, athletes exhibit plenty of all three traits. And such characteristics likely become intensified closer to elite level. Even though many athletes prefer evidence-based approaches, it only takes a minority of individuals, especially those who are famous or revered, to allow for the spread of misinformation and erroneous advice. Moreover, there’s little doubt that the culture of high-performance sport may be allowing pseudoscience to breed unabated, generally unchallenged by athletes, coaches, and scientific support staff, all … Read the rest
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Tainted Supplements Database, created in 2007, lists products adulterated with active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Between 2007 and 2021, 1,068 unique dietary-supplement products were added to the database. A recent study has found that the products likely to include APIs were for sexual enhancement and weight loss.
The author noted:
Since 2016, the percentage of products containing more than one API has increased.
Since 2016, the percentage of adulterated products for sexual enhancement was higher, the percentage of weight-loss products was lower, and no muscle-building products were reported.
Some products with APIs were removed from the market by the FDA because the risks were too great, some were never reviewed by the FDA, and some combined multiple APIs in ways that make it impossible to determine how benefits compare to harms.
Reference: Continued Risk of Dietary Supplements Adulterated With Approved and … Read the rest
Protein has achieved a venerated status in the dietary world for everything from building muscle to preventing weight gain. But can you get too much of a good thing?
Protein powders that come in chocolate, strawberry, and cookies and cream flavors are doled out by the scoopful and mixed into smoothies, making it possible to effortlessly consume protein in amounts that far exceed dietary recommendations. A canned protein drink can contain almost as much protein as an eight-ounce steak, and snack bars or a small bag of protein chips can pack more of the macronutrient than a three-egg omelet.
But while some nutritionists have encouraged the protein craze, a number of experts are urging caution. They point out that protein powders and supplements, which come from animal products like whey and casein (byproducts of cheese manufacturing)
Banned stimulants found in weight loss and sports supplements Deterenol is a pharmaceutical bronchodilator that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) never approved as a drug for humans. The FDA determined in 2004 that deterenol is not permitted as an ingredient in dietary supplements. Although since 2018, deterenol has been detected in several brands of dietary supplements sold in the U.S., the FDA has not advised manufacturers to remove it from products or warned consumers to avoid supplements labeled as containing the drug. In April 2018, researchers made online purchases of 35 samples of 17 brands of supplements labeled as containing deterenol (or a synonym) to determine the presence and quantity of active pharmaceutical stimulants that have not been approved by the FDA for oral use.
The researchers found:
Eight of the brands were marketed for weight loss, six as sports/energy supplements, and three with