With the full-on holidays happening (and the winter bulge looming), it could be tempting to add weight-loss pills to the cart along with the eggnog and Christmas cookies. But do they actually work? Are they safe? Here are four women’s real-life takes on what happened when they tried them.
*Important note: REDBOOK does not endorse diet pills or supplements in any way. They are not regulated by the FDA and could be harmful. As with any herbal supplement or weight-loss aid, you should check with your doctor before trying.
Garcinia Cambogia
Tested by: Jessica and Michael Dewes, St. Louis
What is it? A small fruit grown in Southeast Asia and Africa, garcinia cambogia contains an enzyme called hydroxycitric acid, which marketers say slows the body’s ability to absorb fat.
Rank on Amazon: Number one for weight-loss supplements. After major celeb endorsements and a marketing push in the past few years, it’s become Amazon’s top seller.
Safety check: In 2009, the FDA issued a warning about links to liver toxicity in a Hydroxycut product line that contained garcinia. It wasn’t clear which ingredients could potentially lead to toxicity, but when they pulled the line and formulated a new one, garcinia wasn’t an ingredient. Its safety and weight-loss benefits haven’t been studied extensively, but one study did find that it could be toxic for people who take antidepressants.
What happened when I tried it for two months:
“My husband and I were on vacation in Michigan when we decided to buy a big bottle at the local grocery store. We were the typical parents. We needed to lose weight, but we worked long hours and didn’t have the best habits. A few celebrities had endorsed garcinia, and there are, like, a million other ads and testimonials for it. It was like any other vitamin. We didn’t notice any side effects… or any other effect, for that matter. Our weight stayed exactly the same, week after week. I was okay to stop after the first couple of weeks, but my husband kept it going until he finished the bottle—a few months or so. I wouldn’t recommend it—we didn’t really start losing weight until we aggressively changed our diet, which would have led to weight loss anyway. I don’t usually go for supplements, but when you’re overweight, tired, and have no time to exercise, it’s easy to be fooled.”
Bottom line:
“Now we’re doing the 5:2 fast, where you only eat about 500 calories a day for two days a week, and that’s worked a lot better for us.”
Alli
Tested by: Michelle Mulligan, New York City
What is it? A capsule you take three times a day, Orlistat (Alli), a reduced dose of a prescription drug, is said to work by blocking absorption of 25 percent of the fat you consume. Important note: The supplement is meant to work by decreasing the fat in low-calorie, healthy foods you consume, and can cause “gastrointestinal distress” if you eat fatty food while taking. (More on this later.)
Rank on Amazon: Number two for weight-loss supplements.
Safety check: FDA-approved, but has been linked in rare cases to liver toxicity.
What happened when I tried it for a week:
“I had just rejoined Weight Watchers around the time Alli was launching, and somehow I got a free week’s trial in the mail. (It felt like the universe was trying to tell me something.) I desperately wanted to lose the 15 pounds that had crept back on after my last Weight Watchers run. I got really excited and imagined it would work in two ways: First, it would block the effects of my inevitable midnight fried chicken and beer run, and second, it would force me to be mindful of everything I was eating because I had to take a pill with every meal. Not to mention the competition. I had an elaborate fantasy about a dramatic first weigh-in, involving a gold badge for the biggest one week weight loss of all time (I’ve since learned they don’t dole out awards for this). A friend of mine was also doing it and warned me not to eat any fatty food after you took the pill, as it could have some serious bathroom consequences. I heard her out, carefully choosing my meals as not to end up incontinent. The pill quickly became a routine before meals, and I seemed less hungry and kind of forgot about it. Plus, nothing bad happened when I finished my friend’s rice and beans…. All was fine, until on the third day, when I had a turkey burger. To me, a turkey burger was a healthy choice that should have earned me admiring stares from my coworkers, especially considering I didn’t order the fries! Apparently it contained too much fat for Alli, though. After feeling contractions resembling a sharp kick to the stomach, I ended up in the bathroom for most of a brutal afternoon.”
Bottom line:
“I stopped using Alli after the turkey incident, so I’m not sure if it really helped me or not. I’ll admit I didn’t know how much fat was in the burger, and I imagine for some very careful food-monitoring people, it could work. In my case, I did at least earn a big Weight Watchers clap for the two pounds I lost that week.”
Carb Inhibitors With White Kidney Bean Extract
Tested by: Danielle Sampson, St. Louis
What is it? Supplements that contain “carb inhibitors,” like white kidney bean extract, are said to block the absorption of fat and carbs after every meal. One popular brand called It Works! combines kidney bean extract, prickly pear extract, garcinia cambogia, chromium, and other herbs, and it’s supposed to pack a super-carb-blocking punch. Like Alli, you take one with or just after every meal.
Rank on Amazon: Number five through number 16 in carb blockers.
Safety check: The FDA has sent warnings to It Works! marketers about its weight-loss claims because they haven’t been significantly studied.
What happened when I tried it for a year:
“As a professional dancer and instructor, I was sick of being the biggest girl in the group. I didn’t want to look sloppy, and I hoped to tighten and tone my curves. Weight loss has always been hard for me because I come from a family of thick girls. We’re just bigger naturally. Then I went to a a doctor who said that I was obese. I weighed 220 pounds, and I really wanted to make a change. I went on a strict diet plan, and started working out intensely. I lost about 15 pounds the first month, then felt like I might plateau, so I took Hydroxycut to speed things up. It made me jittery and I couldn’t sleep; I just stayed up at night staring at the walls. I feel like it slowed down my weight loss; I only lost about 7 to 10 pounds the month I was on it. After that, I decided to do a 90-day challenge. A friend from my Zumba class recommended It Works!; I liked it because it would be safe and all-natural, and I felt like my metabolism still needed a boost. The challenge involved five two-hour bikini body workouts a week, eating healthy meals every two hours, the supplements, and body wraps. By the end, I weighed 170 pounds.”
Bottom line:
“I finished that challenge a year ago, and I’m still taking the pills. I don’t work out as much, so I haven’t lost more weight. But I feel like the supplements do keep my energy up, curb my appetite, and keep my metabolism moving. I weigh 172 pounds now.”
Hydroxycut
Tested by: Caz McKinnon, Brooklyn, New York
What is it? A combo of herbs ranging from wild olive extract to raspberry ketones and sometimes caffeine, it’s supposed to work by speeding fat metabolism and stopping cravings.
Rank on Amazon: Number eight in weight-loss supplements.
Safety check: The FDA recalled a previous version in 2009 due to a link to liver toxicity. Its original formula, which contained the stimulant Ephedra, was also banned in 2004. No recent research has been published on new formulations.
What happened when I took it for two weeks:
“I had just moved to the United States from England, and the shift in lifestyle made me gain just under 30 pounds in about six months. I needed to lose weight fast. I saw Hydroxycut pretty much everywhere on the shelves, so I thought it was probably just a normal supplement that everybody took to help lose weight. I figured it wouldn’t be like the prescription-strength, speedy, scary stuff you hear about, because it was legal and available, so I grabbed a bottle at a drugstore. Within 24 hours, I had a reaction. It started to feel like my mouth was full of glass splinters. I couldn’t swallow anything because I had so many canker sores. My mouth got to the point where it was so swollen, I had to live off liquids and smoothies. I felt like I had protracted a terrible illness, and I didn’t tell anyone about it. I was nauseous all the time, so I couldn’t hold much down. It got so bad that one day I would have a spoonful of ice cream for lunch, followed by whatever I had in the fridge mixed in the blender for dinner. I was living in a haze, but for some reason I stuck with it, probably because the scale showed me I had lost five pounds. One night my roommate was over the weirdness and asked me what was happening. I told him about the pills, and he went to find them and threw them out immediately, saying the whole thing was ‘effing ridiculous.’ I was fine with it. It was one of those things where you just need someone to say it.”
Bottom Line:
“I had tried Slim Fast and other fads before, but this is pretty much the end of my supplement career.”
FRIDAY, Oct. 26, 2018 (HealthDay News) — A moss-like plant grown only in a few countries may offer better pain relief than medical marijuana, animal research suggests.
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) from marijuana is used to treat conditions such as pain, muscle cramps, dizziness and loss of appetite. However, while medical marijuana is increasingly accepted in the United States, it’s illegal in many countries and can cause significant side effects.
Swiss scientists are working with a potential alternative. They say the liverwort plant (Radula perrottetii) contains an anti-inflammatory substance called perrottetinene that’s related to THC. The plant only grows in Japan, New Zealand and Costa Rica.
“This natural substance has a weaker psychoactive effect and, at the same time, is capable of inhibiting inflammatory processes in the brain,” researcher Andrea Chicca said in a University of Bern news release. Chicca is with the university’s Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine.
Using a synthetic version of the compound on lab animals, the researchers found that perrottetinene reaches the brain easily and activates cannabinoid receptors there. They said it also has a stronger anti-inflammatory effect in the brain than THC.
However, this is still early stage research, the scientists noted, so medical pot won’t have competition anytime soon. And research on animals often doesn’t produce the same results in humans.
The study was published Oct. 24 in the journal Science Advances.
Japanese researchers in the 1990s were the first to identify the psychoactive compound in the liverwort plant. Previously, it was thought that only marijuana produced psychoactive effects, according to background notes with the study.
If you haven’t, you probably will soon enough; or perhaps you’ve heard of it, but you don’t know what it’s all about. If you follow diet trends, or buy diet or weight loss products, however, then Garcinia combogia has likely already become part of your everyday vocabulary: This extract of a South Asian plant is hot stuff these days.
For the past two years, I’ve been working on a book. The final product, titled Unmasking Superfoods, is now in wide release. While the road from concept to completion was long and at times daunting, I actually enjoyed the process more than I expected to, and the things I discovered changed the way I look at food.
Throughout the process of writing, however, I found myself tempted to write in a loud and highly opinionated — some might call obnoxious — way a voice heard often in diet and nutrition books these days. Bestsellers tend to be full of sweeping generalizations, us-vs.-them thinking and, perhaps most irritatingly, cherry-picked research, all to support the author’s grand claim. There’s also the common theme that “this” is poison, or “that” is the reason we struggle with our weight — though “this” and “that” can vary with each book. It was hard to know where my way of thinking fit in.
Garcinia cambogia is a plant found in India, Indonesia and other parts of South Asia that has a long history of use in cooking as a flavour agent in place of lemon or tamarind. More recently, Garcinia cambogia’s claim to fame stems from a compound found in the dried rind of its fruit, known as hydroxycitric acid, or HCA. First identified in the 1960s, HCA inhibits a particular enzyme, known as ATP-citrate-lyase, and early studies on cells and animals suggested it could prevent fat storage, reduce appetite, and ultimately, support weight loss efforts.
THE SCIENCE
The first well-controlled trial on Garcinia cambogia was published in 1998 in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), but the results were hardly sensational: in 84 overweight, but otherwise healthy men and women, half of whom were randomized to receive either two 500mg caplets of Garcinia cambogia 30 minutes before each of three meals per day (the caplets contained 50% HCA, providing a total of 1,500mg of the active compound per day), and half of whom received a placebo, or dummy pill, there was no significant difference in body weight or body fat between groups after 12 weeks. In fact, the placebo group actually lost nine pounds and 2.16% of body fat over the course of the study, while the Garcinia cambogia group lost seven pounds and 1.44% body fat, though the differences between the groups was small enough to be considered statistically insignificant.
National Post files
Importantly, while subjects were encouraged to follow a calorie-and fat-reduced diet, while maintaining their usual activity level, these elements of the study were not tightly controlled. While that means we didn’t necessarily gain insight in to the true effects of Garcinia cambogia alone, it does give a sense of how effective the supplement could be in a “real world” situation, and the results were hardly promising.
All told, among all placebo-controlled studies using HCA or Garcinia cambogia for at least eight weeks, six have demonstrated some benefit, while six have not. Of the six positive studies, only two used HCA or Garcinia cambogia on its own: the rest used weight-loss supplements that included other compounds, such as chromium or fibre, which could have influenced the results. In one of the two positive studies, published in 2000, overweight women given 2,400 mg of Garcinia cambogia (providing 1,200 mg of HCA) per day along with a low-calorie diet and exercise, lost 8.2 lbs over 12 weeks, versus 5.3 lbs for the placebo group. Interestingly, there was no difference in appetite markers between the groups, despite that being one of Garcinia cambogia’s possible methods of action. Also interesting was the fact that a small group of men initially included in the study had their results excluded because they showed no response to the supplement.
Of the six neutral studies, four examined HCA or Garcinia cambogia alone, with doses ranging from 1,000 to 1,500 mg per day of HCA. None found any effect on body weight or body fatness.
TAKING GARCINIA CAMBOGIA
If you do choose to take Garcinia cambogia, it is generally recommended that you do so between 30-60 minutes before each meal, however, some evidence suggests HCA levels take closer to between one and two hours to reach their peak, and that food present in the stomach suppresses its effect. So taking it on an empty stomach at least an hour before a meal is probably best. Recommended doses vary widely, but research studies typically use 1,000 mg to 2,400 mg of HCA per day, taken in divided doses over three meals.
‘You can’t trust most Garcinia labels, nor should you rely on suggested serving sizes’
As mentioned, Garcinia cambogia and HCA are commonly included in many weight loss products, often in combination with other stimulants, appetite suppressants or weight loss agents. Since being mentioned on The Dr. Oz Show in 2012, Garcinia supplements have exploded in popularity, leading to quality concerns. In late 2013, Consumer Labs, a consumer watchdog based out of the U.S., tested 13 Garcinia supplements, and found that only six contained the amount of HCA listed on the label.
Side effects, such as digestive upset and headache have been noted, but to date, Garcinia is generally considered safe, although studies in humans have only lasted up to 12 weeks.
THE BOTTOM LINE
“You can’t trust most Garcinia labels, nor should you rely on suggested serving sizes,” says Consumer Labs, and it’s hard to argue with the statement.
Garcinia might have some effect on weight loss, but to date, we have precious little high quality evidence in humans to prove the claims true. For my money, your best bet is still to focus on old-fashioned habits, such as a good, balanced diet and exercise, cooking and eating at home, and addressing mindless eating issues.
But that’s never quite as sexy as prescribing weight loss in a bottle, now is it?
-Jennifer Sygo, MSc., RD, is a registered dietitian and sports nutritionist at Cleveland Clinic Canada, and author of the newly released nutrition book Unmasking Superfoods, (HarperCollins, $19.99). Visit her on the Web at jennifersygo.com and send your comments and nutrition-related questions to her at info@jennifersygo.com.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — What’s the slimming secret of celebrities these days? Hollywood is supposedly swearing by an all-natural, appetite suppressant.
But could it really help you lose weight like a star? CBS2’s Cindy Hsu went to find out.
“The claim is that the active ingredient decreases our appetite and decreases the amount of fat we store,” Slayton said.
The active ingredient is called hydroxycitric acid, also known as HCA, and the one-two punch it supposedly delivers has many people saying they’re effortlessly shedding the pounds. Some say they’ve lost as much as 20 pounds over a single month.
“I’ve been seeing a really big difference in the way clothes are fitting me,” one user said.
Another said they’ve lost 47 pounds. Others claim different benefits.
“I’ve been seeing more definition in the shoulders, the pectorals and the arms,” another said.
Manufactured by a variety of supplement companies and sold just about everywhere now in pill form, Garcinia Cambogia actually comes from a tropical fruit grown in Southeast Asia.
For best results, directions indicate to take three pills a day; one before breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“By the time we are ready for our meals, we don’t really feel very hungry,” a user said.
But before you run out and buy a bottle, Slayton said the research on whether it actually works is mixed.
“There are some studies that show it’s more effective than a placebo, a couple of pounds,” she said.
But about half the studies show no results at all.
“And those are studies using an exact precise amount so it’s not necessarily effective,” Slayton said.
“We don’t always know exactly what else is in there, probably just filler,” he said.
“Garcinia Cambogia, did it for about a week, gained weight people,” another review read.
Reported side effects include dizziness and nausea.
Experts say there really is no “magic pill” and that the best way to lose weight is through diet and exercises, but they do have some tips.
“What we suggest is matcha, which is a powder form of green tea and research shows it improves your metabolism and decreases your fat storage,” Slayton added.
Several studies show matcha improves metabolism and decreases fat storage, something Slayton say has yet to be proven with Garcinia Cambogia.
For years, drug companies have been chasing the “holy grail” in the fight against obesity — an effective weight-loss pill without serious complications.
A new pharma-funded study released last month appears to be another step toward that goal, showing that the appetite suppressant lorcaserin did not increase the risk of serious heart problems.
But is the weight reduction large enough — and the risks small enough — that this drug should be prescribed more widely?
Lorcaserin is a twice-a-day pill that suppresses appetite by stimulating brain chemicals to create a feeling of fullness.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug in 2012, but the agency restricted the drug’s use to overweight or obese people with an existing weight-related health condition.
The FDA also required drug company Arena Pharmaceuticals to do long-term studies of the drug’s safety.
The new study is one of those.
It included 12,000 overweight or obese people with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or multiple risk factors for heart disease.
During the study, people took either lorcaserin or an inactive placebo pill twice a day. Researchers tracked people on average for slightly more than three years.
People who took lorcaserin had similar rates of heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular death as people taking the placebo — around 2 percent of people in both groups.
In the past, several weight-loss drugs have run into trouble when they were found to increase the risk of cardiovascular problems.
This includes Meridia, which was withdrawn from the U.S. market in 2010.
Questions still remain
Lorcaserin performed well in this study, but some experts say questions about its safety still linger.
Dr. Cecilia Low Wang, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus School of Medicine, said the positive results of the study should “encourage broader use of lorcaserin, with the caveat that there were a few concerning signals.”
She pointed to the increased rates for people taking the drug of heart valve problems and high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs and right side of the heart.
The authors of a related editorial in the New England Journal said that “for now, the drug may be best used on a cautious basis according to the needs of individual patients.”
Low Wang, who was not involved in the study, also said that “there was twice the rate of side effects such as headaches, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, and diarrhea on lorcaserin as on placebo.”
These side effects led to more people on lorcaserin to stop taking the pill, compared to those on the placebo.
Low Wang said longer-term follow-up studies are needed to better understand these risks.
Some weight loss was accomplished
As for weight loss, some people in the study did well on lorcaserin.
After one year, 38 percent of people taking the drug lost at least 5 percent of their body weight, compared to 17 percent of people taking the placebo.
In addition, almost 15 percent of people taking lorcaserin, and nearly 5 percent of people taking the placebo, lost at least 10 percent of their body weight.
After 40 months, people taking the drug lost an average of almost 9 pounds, compared to less than 5 pounds for the placebo group.
This means that more than 60 percent of people taking lorcaserin lost less than 5 percent of their body weight over the course of a year — at a cost of about $3,360.
Lorcaserin, sold in the U.S. under the brand name Belviq, costs about $280 per month, according to the website GoodRx.
Low Wang said the higher rates of weight loss compared to a placebo makes the drug promising, but “not enough to be a ‘holy grail.’”
Funding by pharma
This study was funded by pharmaceutical company Eisai Co., Ltd., which provided grants to lead author Dr. Erin Bohula and other researchers for work done during the study.
Several other researchers were paid personal fees and some of the authors were employees of the company.
Critics have raised concerns about studies funded by the same pharmaceutical companies that develop or market those drugs.
They argue that companies may be more interested in profit than accuracy. Companies could potentially design studies that emphasize benefits over risks, or publish only positive results.
Low Wang said that it would be “ideal” to have some drug studies done by public funding agencies, but the costs of large multicenter global trials makes that unlikely.
This doesn’t mean, though, that all studies done by a company making a drug should be discounted.
“Many of these types of studies, despite being pharma-funded, can be performed and analyzed to minimize potential bias and to give true results with which to base our clinical care decisions,” said Low Wang.
Advice on weight loss
If you’re searching for a weight-loss drug, talk to your doctor about your options, including the risks, benefits, and cost of each.
Also, other medications are available, some with more years of data about their safety.
“We have drugs right now that are approved for other indications that, when used in combination, could cause greater weight loss than any single medication used alone,” said Low Wang.
And keep in mind that a pill is just part of the equation.
The Diabetes Prevention Program, a lifestyle intervention for people at high risk for diabetes used by Medicare, leads to about 4 percent weight loss after a year.
“Behavioral modification and healthy lifestyle changes are fundamental to successful long-term maintenance of weight loss,” said Low Wang, “and all other weight-loss interventions including weight-loss medications are adjuncts.”
Nobody wants to beg for money when their bodies cannot work anymore. Interestingly, every person that is working today, either on a job or self-employed, the goal is to save up enough to last through the retirement period. However, just saving money in your piggy-bank is not enough. Investing for […]
Dietary supplements are big business. They are promoted for all sorts of health benefits, including weight loss, memory enhancement, body building and cancer prevention. Many of the claims featured on websites and product packaging are not true, but that doesn’t seem to stop supplement makers from promoting them.
Unlike drugs, supplements are generally not FDA-approved. With drugs, the FDA requires that they be both safe and effective, but with supplements, they can only take action when products are tainted in some way, or when supplement makers cross the line and make specific claims about curing disease. When they do cross that line, all the FDA can do (in most cases) is issue a stern warning and tell them to stop making false claims, which has little effect. In an effort to educate the public, the FDA regularly issues warnings such as this one, telling consumers to “beware of products promising miracle weight loss,” but supplements continue to sell briskly.
Many of the best-selling supplements have little or no evidence to back up their claims, and the vast majority of people will not benefit from taking them. So here are the top five dietary supplements that you should not take:
1. Ginkgo biloba. Ginkgo biloba extract is made from the leaves of a beautiful tree that is native to China. It is widely advertised as a supplement that can enhance memory, stave off dementia and Alzheimer’s, and treat other conditions. I found it available from many vendors, including Target, Whole Foods, CVS, Walgreens and others.
Alas for any hopeful consumers, ginkgo biloba doesn’t work, as scientific studies have repeatedly shown. A recent meta-analysis of 28 different trials looked at its effect on memory, executive function and attention, and found that it had zero effect on any of these functions.
Gingko trees stand in the autumn sun on December 6, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images )
Nonetheless, web vendors such as Zooscape.com continue to promote ginkgo as a treatment for dementia and Alzheimer’s, despite having received a warning notice from the FDA stating that their advertising violates the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. The FDA letter, dating from 2010, stated that ginkgo biloba is “not generally recognized as safe and effective” for dementia or Alzheimer’s, but the Zooscape website still claims otherwise.
2. Garcinia cambogia. “Garcinia cambogia is hot,” says Consumer Reports. Also known as the tamarind fruit, garcinia cambogia is promoted as a near-magical weight loss treatment. It does contain a substance that was once thought to have promise in treating obesity, but it’s been studied in multiple trials, all of them negative. The first trial, in 1998, concluded:
Garcinia cambogia failed to produce significant weight loss and fat mass loss beyond that observed with placebo.
According to Consumer Reports, multiple studies since then have all reached the same conclusion: it doesn’t work.
Garcinia cambogia’s popularity took off after Dr. Oz promoted it on his TV show in November 2012, where he called it a “revolutionary fat buster.” This episode, which has now been removed from the Dr. Oz show website, was the subject of a U.S. Senate hearing led by Sen. Claire McCaskill, who sharply criticized Oz for promoting products that aren’t backed by science. Said McCaskill, “I don’t know why you need to say this stuff, because you know it’s not true.”
I had no trouble at all finding many sources for garcinia cambogia, all of them making strong weight loss claims. Amazon.com sells many brands, including Quality Encapsulations, which calls it a “powerful appetite suppressant” that will “block the formation of new fat cells” (there’s no evidence for this). A brand called Stay Healthy, also available from Amazon, claims you can “eat like a gorilla and lose belly fat fast!”
Sorry, but no: you can’t eat like a gorilla and lose weight. At least not like a healthy gorilla.
3. St. John’s wort is a flowering plant that some people use to treat depression. In this respect, it’s in a different category from the other supplements in this list, which are used for physical rather than psychological conditions.
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of St. John’s wort as a treatment for major depression was published in 2002. This type of study is the gold standard for science-based medicine, and produces the most reliable results. The conclusion was clear: St. John’s wort performed worse than placebo, and the authors concluded that St. John’s wort is not effective for major depression.
This might have settled things, but studies continued, and in 2008 a review article came to a different conclusion, finding that St. John’s wort was better than placebo for major depression. Even more recently, a 2011 study looking at minor (rather than major) depression found, just like the 2002 study, that St. John’s wort offers no benefit.
Thus the evidence for St. John’s wort is confusing and contradictory. One thing that is clear, though, is that St. John’s wort can have dangerous interactions with other drugs. The NIH warns:
Combining St. John’s wort with certain antidepressants can lead to a potentially life-threatening increase of serotonin, a brain chemical targeted by antidepressants. St. John’s wort can also limit the effectiveness of many prescription medicines. (emphasis in original)
Despite these dangers, you can buy St. John’s wort anywhere: it took me mere seconds to find dozens of choices. If you’re thinking about trying it, follow NIH’s advice and consult your physician first.
4. Glucosamin and chondroitin. These two supplements have been promoted for years as a treatment for joint pain. Scientists have run many experiments to see if they work, and some of the experiments have been mildly positive, encouraging people to give them a try. Joint pain, especially in the knees, is very common, and we don’t yet have a real cure (unless you count knee replacement). (I have chronic knee pain myself, and I would love to find a pill that would cure it.)
To finally resolve the question, NIH conducted a large $12.5 million study called GAIT, which compared glucosamin, chondroitin, celecoxib (an NSAID) and placebo. The conclusion: the only treatment that worked was celecoxib (Celebrex). In a small subset of patients with moderate to severe pain, there was a hint of a benefit for glucosamine-chondroitin, but it wasn’t significant. For patients with mild pain, only celecoxib worked better than a placebo.
So the door isn’t completely closed for this supplement: it clearly doesn’t work for mild pain, but for moderate to severe pain, it might offer a small benefit, although an NSAID is better.
Of course, there’s no hint of this uncertainty in the advertising I found. For example, Puritan’s Pride says their pill “nourishes joints to improve flexibility, supports connective tissue in and around the joints” and “promotes healthy cartilage.” Of course, the very bottom of their web page has a disclaimer stating that “these products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.” Oh, so why exactly should anyone purchase them?
5. Echinacea. Echinacea is a flower, similar to a daisy, that is widely used to treat the common cold. Apparently this got its start when a Swiss herbal supplement maker was erroneously told that Native American tribes used it as a cure. Regardless of the source, the use of echinacea grew, and it has now been subjected to multiple scientific studies.
What does the science say? In 2003, a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial published in JAMA– again, these are the gold standard for scientific evidence – found that echinacea was not effective for treating colds in children aged 2-11, and that it appeared to causes rashes in some of them. Another study, also a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial, looked at college students, and found again that echinacea didn’t work for them either: “Echinacea provided no detectable benefit or harm in these college students who had the common cold.” More recently, a 2014 review concluded, “Echinacea products have not here been shown to provide benefits for treating colds.”
Not surprisingly, though, everyone sells echinacea. The NatureMade brand only says it “supports immune system health” (a vague claim that the FDA doesn’t restrict). Puritan’s Pride’s label says the same thing. The Dr. Oz website doesn’t sell echinacea, but an article there by Tod Cooperman claims that “echinacea can help you get over a cold faster and reduce symptoms.” Zooscape is even bolder: it sells an echinacea tea that it advertises with the phrase “colds and flu be gone!”
Save your money. If you have a cold, echinacea won’t help. I have it on very good authority, though, that chicken soup works wonders.
Garcinia cambogia is a fruit grown across India and Southeast Asia and it is used there as a food and its rinds are used in some traditional recipes of south India.
It used to be an obscure hard-to-find ingredient, but recently the Internet has exploded with websites selling weight loss products based on an extract of the fruit and it even got some decidedly hucksterish treatment from Dr. Oz, a TV personality made famous by Oprah Winfrey.
The fruit is known in India as gambooge. It is apparently also an ingredient in some weight loss products as hydroxycitric acid. Dr. Oz promoted it and continues to assert that garcinia cambogia is an effective aid to weight loss. The claims for weight loss are nothing short of outlandish and there is real science that suggests the whole thing is a hoax.
Studies that claim to have found weight loss were carried out on animals. Studies involving humans are for the most part badly designed.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2004 published a systematic review of meta-analyses and clinical trials on dietary supplements for weight loss by complementary medicine researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth. None of the over-the-counter weight loss aids worked, including garcinia cambogia.
Late in 2010 the peer-reviewed Journal of Obesity published a meta-analysis of studies testing the garcinia as a weight loss aid. Of the 23 trials they identified, 12 were methodologically sound enough to include in their analysis.
The analysis revealed that some statistically significant weight loss occurred, but “the magnitude of the effect is small and the clinical relevance is uncertain.” They also found that gastrointestinal adverse events were twice as likely in the hydroxycitric acid group as in the placebo group.
When you are considering the potential benefits of products look for meta-analysis studies that take in all the sound research available. One-off studies that get a significant result are not evidence of anything. Only when an effect is repeated in many studies by many scientists should you believe.
RANDY SHORE‘s new cookbook Grow What You Eat, Eat What You Grow is now available at Chapters, Book Warehouse, Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks and Whole Foods.
LISTEN TO THE GREEN MAN PODCAST
The Green Man Podcast is not just a broadcast version of the Green Man Blog: It’s much, much more. For the past seven weeks I have been creating a weekly broadcast with interesting, opinionated and sometimes controversial guests.
To view the entire catalogue including notes on the shows and the guests – and multimedia audio player – click here. You’ll find podcasts on the modern revival of hunting for sustainable meat, the real value of organic foods, the benefits and risks of raw milk, urban farming, craft beer and the ethics of eating meat.
Here is a sample and audio players so you can enjoy the broadcasts right now on your computer. Search “Randy Shore” on iTunes to download to your smartphone or tablet.
The Paleo Diet
Host Randy Shore welcomes paleo nutritionist Travis Steward and St. Paul’s Hospital dietitian Sinead Feeney for a paleo diet cage match. Should you eat like a caveman? Should you eat like Alton Brown? How about eating like the Green Man, Randy Shore?
Ethical Killing and Sustainable Hunting
Host Randy Shore, Harrison Mooney and hunting instructor Dylan Eyers of EatWild.ca talk about the modern revival of hunting in B.C. Urbanites, hipsters, hippies and women are taking up hunting as a way to harvest ethical, sustainable meat and reject the industrial food industry.
Animal Welfare and the Ethics of Meat
Host Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun reporter Zoe McKnight and Leanne McConnachie of the Vancouver Humane Society talk about the ethics of meat, the reality of industrial farming and animal welfare. Omnivore Shore – a recovered vegetarian – takes on two practicing vegetarians over who should eat what and why.
The Benefits and Risks of Raw Milk
Host Randy Shore welcomes raw milk activist Jackie Ingram and farmer Alice Jongerden of Home on the Range Dairy. Do the health benefits of raw milk outweigh the potential risks? Are the benefits proven? What about the risks?
