New Health Tips for the Consumer
So what is science? If you pick up a highly recommended vitamin, supplement from your health store, nutraceutical company, etc. how do you know what's in there? Does it work? How does it affect my body? If you are at a retail store they will tell you to look at the label. Some natural food stores actually train their staff and they have a good idea of what does what. When you ask them, how do you know it works? Some will say science, my next question is what science? Usually I get a blank stare. Some will cite science based on one of the ingredients What happens when they are mixed with other ingredients? Is there science behind THIS particular product you are recommending?
I thought I purchased a really good supplement and had been taking it for awhile. I didn't notice much but with the way I eat sometimes, I figured something is better than nothing. Then a friend challenged me, "how do you know it works?". Well I didn't I went online and emailed the company and asked, especially since it had SCIENCE all over their website. Backed by SCIENCE, Proven Ingredients, etc. You get the picture. They emailed me back:
****** has not done the research so we are not able to send out this information. The studies have been done with to the ingredients. Try doing a search with the name of the ingredients not our product name.
Ok so if the ingredients are mixed with other ingredients (like a recipe or even a pharmaceutical company changes the formula it has to be re-tested) yet they want me to think that if i research the individual generic ingredients stuffed in their product that it will show what the mix will do as a whole? I can tell you from being a not so good cook, that if I mix up the ratios or leave an ingredient out or put an extra one in, it can taste different, cook different, well, mine turn out horrible really. So they like us to believe if you look a one ingredient on the label and there is science tests behind it the mix or that ratio in their product will have the same result. It must be true. REALLY? Well guess what? My blood work said otherwise. Good grief what a waste.
I have found that there are products out there rooted in real science. I can check them out by name on pubmed.gov or google scholar. They are tested in whole and by product name. I have to say my blood test were near perfect this last month, well I need to eat more protein and get out in the sun a bit more, but by golly when I took something that had real science from independent science resources like pubmed.gov, it worked.
To get on pubmed.gov and/or be published in a medical/science journal you need to have it peer reviewed. That's scary. If I had to hand my masters thesis over to the best students in the class before I could submit it, I would still be waiting on my masters. Dig folks, don't let the labels fool you. They can look pretty and say many things, but check out the science before you waste your money!
