Supplement Wildly Unreliable, Despite FDA Regulations. Lots of people have an opinion on supplements. But when you go to the store to buy one, you’d expect the amount of the active ingredient to be consistent, right? Apparently, that doesn’t seem to be happening. Scientists tested one supplement which is sometimes used to treat high cholesterol called “red yeast rice.” They bought lots of the supplement from GNCs, Walgreens, and other stores, and analyzed the amount of monacolin K, the beneficial chemical, in the pills. It turned out that the amount of monacolin K in the same- sized pills varied wildly. All of this comes after the US Food and Drug Administration’s 2. Study author Pieter Cohen from Harvard University asked Gizmodo: “After implementing the revised standards, how could it be that the most mainstream products sold at retail pharmacies and grocery stores aren’t standardized?”Yes, red yeast rice is ancient Chinese medicine, and Gizmodo coverage is generallyhostile towards supplements. Before you write this one off, though, red yeast rice’s monacolin K is the same ingredient in the cholesterol- lowering drug, lovastatin. But according to the National Institutes of Health, “The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that red yeast rice products that contain more than trace amounts of monacolin K are unapproved new drugs and cannot be sold legally as dietary supplements.” So folks are buying it to lower their cholesterol, but the FDA says there can’t be more than a trace amount of that cholesterol- lowering chemical in the product. All that goes out the window with a little testing, however. Of the 2. 8 brands that Cohen’s team tested, 2. K. The amount could range anywhere from . Home page for the Learning Technology Hub, a central resource for exploring learning technology at UBC. Read more ». Higher Ed Impact Three publications, one distinct purpose: helping you advance your institution and your career. Book the Best Kelowna Hotels on TripAdvisor: Find 11,704 traveller reviews, 4,769 candid photos, and prices for hotels in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. If you have an active UBC Campus Wide Login account, you can submit your inquiry through the Self Service Portal. Otherwise please continue to fill out this form. About Body Soul & Spirit : Expo, Magazine & Network! What Is Body Soul & Spirit? Welcome to the Body Soul & Spirit website -a unique concept. Six of the tested brands contained more than the 4 milligrams maximum allowed by the FDA.“Consumers would have no idea which were and weren’t the ones with more than the allowed monacolin K amount,” said Cohen. So, what’s going on? Probably, companies aren’t being compliant and the FDA isn’t enforcing the law, said Cohen, but more likely it’s the former—companies are just importing big vats of rice powder without checking which part of the plant goes into their pill. There are limitations to the study, Cohen (and the paper, published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology) pointed out. The team only analyzed single batches from each brand, and the amount of the chemical might change between batches. But that doesn’t change the fact that relying on red yeast rice for monacolin K could be dangerous, especially when it shouldn’t have any of the chemical in the first place. On top of that, monacolin K has side effects like muscle pain that folks taking a supplement might suffer unsuspectingly.
At least one source thought this was a case as to why we shouldn’t deregulate the pharmaceutical industry. The spokesperson did offer some general information on supplement regulation via email: FDA regulation of dietary supplement safety is generally post- market, unlike with drugs and devices where it is generally pre- market. Put another way, most drugs and devices cannot be marketed until they have been affirmatively shown to be safe. On the other hand, like conventional foods, dietary supplements may be marketed without FDA approval. In general, a lack of safety information does not prevent a dietary supplement from being introduced to the market. Furthermore, “Red yeast rice products containing added lovastatin, or manufactured to contain enhanced levels of lovastatin, cannot be marketed as dietary supplement,” and “The FDA encourages health care professionals and patients to report adverse events or quality problems experienced with the use of dietary supplements to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Safety Reporting Portal.”So really all that can be said here is that you shouldn’t trust a supplement to do the things that a prescribed pharmaceutical should be doing, especially if the supplement contains the same active ingredient as the prescribed pharmaceutical. Said Cohen: “This is exactly why I do not recommend my patients use red yeast rice to lower cholesterol.”.
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