Diet Supplements and Safety: Some Disquieting Data

[Gaby Rottler]

Dear all,

from the New York Times:

Excerpt:
"By 2005, the number had grown ninefold: 125,595 incidents were reported
related to vitamins, minerals, essential oils, herbs and other
supplements. In all, over the 23-year span, the association - a national
organization of state and local poison centers - has received more than
1.6 million reports of adverse reactions to such products, including
251,799 that were serious enough to require hospitalization. From 1983
to 2004 there were 230 reported deaths from supplements, with the yearly
numbers rising from 4 in 1994, the year the supplement bill passed, to a
record 27 in 2005."

Entire article at:
http://tinyurl.com/yo8sul
---------------------

Best,

Gaby

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaby Rottler
Germany
rottler@curantur.de
http://www.curantur.de
***Scriptum homoeopathicum***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Sheila Venter]

funny how data like this shows up, but when it comes
to pharmaceuticals, all seems to be quiet on the
eastern front so to speak about the side effects.
--- Gaby Rottler wrote:
____________________________________________________________________________________
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[Luise Kunkle]

Hi List,

Perhaps someone is registered with the New York Times and can
post to the list what it says in this article about 7300 or so
bad reactions to homeopathic remedies.

Endeavours to get them off the shelves may be starting in the USA
also.

Regards

Luise
--
One thought to all who, free of doubt,
So definitely know what's true:
2 and 2 is 22 -
and 2 times 2 is 2:-)
==========> ICQ yinyang 96391801 <==========

[Gaby Rottler]

Hi Luise,
I wasn'T registered at the NYT-Site but could read the entire article
without any problems.

As for the sources:
The author quotes the 2005 report of the
American Association of Poison Control Centers

The entire report (130 pages) can be downloaded from
http://www.aapcc.org/annual.htm

Best,

Gaby

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaby Rottler
Germany
rottler@curantur.de
http://www.curantur.de
***Scriptum homoeopathicum***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Kathleen Ramsey]

Obviously DAN HURLEY needs to look at the drug and household cleaners for an
even better story, not very credible when you read the entire report, what I
read was it is grouped for all Dietary supplement, herbals and homeopathic
together. He is reporting 2 deaths to alternatives but does he mention the
60,000 that were affected by Vioxx alone? See if you can read the whole
story here:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... 752C0A9619
C8B63
&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=print
Kathy
From: minutus@yahoogroups.com [mailto:minutus@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Luise Kunkle
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 8:31 PM
To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Minutus] Diet Supplements and Safety: Some Disquieting Data
Hi List,

Perhaps someone is registered with the New York Times and can
post to the list what it says in this article about 7300 or so
bad reactions to homeopathic remedies.

Endeavours to get them off the shelves may be starting in the USA
also.

Regards

Luise
wrote:

--
One thought to all who, free of doubt,
So definitely know what's true:
2 and 2 is 22 -
and 2 times 2 is 2:-)
==========> ICQ yinyang 96391801 <==========
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Tanya Marquette]

this is no longer vai
an
what I
the
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... 752C0A9619

[Tanya Marquette]

this article is no longer available on the internet. if you have a copy,
can you please forward it?

tanya
an
what I
the
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... 752C0A9619

[Kathleen Ramsey]

Sorry try this http://tinyurl.com/39m8zk
Thanks Kathy
From: minutus@yahoogroups.com [mailto:minutus@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Tanya Marquette
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 2:37 AM
To: minutus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Minutus] Diet Supplements and Safety: Some Disquieting Data
this is no longer vai

>
an
what I
the
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... 752C0A9619
] On
Behalf
Of
>

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Dana Ullman, MPH]

Dear Friends,

The Dan Hurley essay in the NY TIMES on the "dangers" of dietary
supplements said,

"Among herbs and other specialty products, melatonin and homeopathic
products - prepared from minuscule amounts of substances as diverse as salt
and snake venom - had the most reports of reactions in 2005. The poison
centers received 2,001 reports of reactions to melatonin, marketed as a
sleep aid, including 535 hospitalizations and 4 deaths. Homeopathic
products, often marketed as being safe because the doses are very low, were
linked to 7,049 reactions, including 564 hospitalizations and 2 deaths."

source that the author used for his shabby use of statistics), and what Mr.
Hurley refers to as "reactions" are actually "exposures" (an "exposure" is
neither a reaction nor a poisoning; it could simply mean that a person or a
doctor called up a poison center to ask about Arnica).

http://www.aapcc.org/Annual%20Reports/0 ... lsihed.pdf). Check
out page 908 where it lists Dietary Supplements and homeopathics
TOGETHER...and lists 2,298 number of exposures...and yet, on page 807, the
number of calls for this same combination is only 1,779 (only 0.13 of all
calls!). Strangely enough, on page 821, it lists the substances "most
frequently involved in pediatric exposures (under 6 years)," and for Dietary
Supplements/Herbs/Homeopathic Medicines (combined) there are to be 14,137
exposures, not reactions or poisonings (this number suggests that every
parent reported an average of SIX dietary supplements and/or homeopathics
per call!)(also, this number represented only 1.1% of exposures) .

homeopathics balloons to 7,049!

the NY TIMES has let him...
Dana Ullman, MPH
Homeopathic Educational Services
2124 Kittredge St.
Berkeley, CA. 94704
(510)649-0294
(800)359-9051 (orders only in the U.S.)
(510)649-1955 (fax)
dullman@igc.org OR dana@homeopathic.com
http://www.homeopathic.com

[Dale Moss]

Dana,

This would make a great starting point for an op-ed. Do you remember how the FDA spun the story of contaminated L-tryptophan back in the 90s? Rather than 'fessing up that the problem resulted from genetically-engineered bacteria used by Showa Denko to manufacture its L-tryptophan, the FDA made it sound as if the problem resulted entirely from its lack of power to control supplements. (Of course, the truth is it's the FDA's failure to regulate genetic engineering that's the real problem.)

Is Hurley playing stalking horse for another assault on supplements? If so, who's behind him? And why is the NYT doing such a deplorable job of checking their stories for bias? You'd think they'd have learned something from the Judith Miller fiasco!

Peace,
Da;e