Balance Your Health

Do Glucosamine & Chondroitin Releive Your Arthritis Pain?

You don't read anything bad about them and they are still very popular nutritional supplements, but research continues to report that glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate do not work any better than a placebo to reduce the amount of pain from knee arthritis.

This was reported back in 2007 and a huge discussion ensued.  Some said the results were confusing and more study was needed. The original study, GAIT, was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes, and happened to confirm other findings with smaller numbers of people, which showed that the supplements had few or no effects.

This was back in 2006. For another 18 months, however, the researchers continued to watch 572 volunteers and found that the two supplements did not appear to slow the loss of cartilage either taken alone or together. In fact the arthritis worsened in 24 percent of participants taking both which was similar to the results for the placebo.

The supplement manufacturers argued that the results of the GAIT study were not conclusive. As it happened, the researches took a second look at patients from the original 1,600 who were classified as having moderate to severe osteoarthritis. These patients did record a significant improvement when using the combination of chondroitin and glucosamine.

Even with these results these two supplements remain popular, especially glucosamine. This supplement has gained such widespread credibility by the public and among health care professionals that it is often recommended for older people to help relieve pain from arthritic joints.

So what does all of this mean for you? I think the finding in those with moderate to severe pain is important but should be interpreted cautiously. The problem is that industry sponsorship of drug trails usually produces biased results and most of the earlier studies were underwritten by supplement manufacturers. They may not have fabricated the results of the study but publicly funded studies, such as Gait, are larger.

My opinion, the supplements aren't very effective and if you are reluctant to give them up at least they won't cause you any harm. However, it appears that you are tossing away your money needlessly.

I know several people will stop taking these supplements once they learn more about them.  Will you continue knowing what you know now?

To your success at balancing your life.

Ruthan Brodsky

Are Herbal Remedies Right For You?

Are Herbal Remedies Right for You?

 

According to archaeological finds people have been using leaves, barks, roots and seeds as medicine before there was a written language.  Egyptian writings from about 1500 B.C. describe 700 plant drugs. Chinese texts on herbs date back to 2800 B.C. and well known research facilities, such as Mayo Clinic, continue their research of the ancient formulas. Their goals are to collect, identify and study the potential for disease-fighting agents in plants used in traditional Chinese medicine.

 

The fact is that just about 100 years ago, plant medicine was just about the only kind of medicine throughout the world. As modern pharmaceuticals became available, drugs gradually replaced the herbal teas, tinctures and ointments. Even so, hopes remain high that the chemical basis for future wonder drugs remains locked up in other plants that have yet to be scientifically explored.

Herbal Remedies Are Controversial in Complementary Medicine

Herbal remedies or plant medicines are not witch craft. The fact is many of the over the counter and prescription drugs we use today were originally derived from plant sources.

Aspirin, for example, is a pharmaceutical descendent of salicin, a chemical found in the bark of the willow tree. Today, just about 100 years after aspirin first appeared on the drugstore shelf, many people are returning to the original source for headaches and taking a willow bark extract instead of aspirin.

If you are taking or thinking of taking herbal remedies you really need to understand what they are all about because not all of them are harmless just because they are derived from plants. They may be dangerous by themselves or they may interact with prescription drugs you are taking. Or worse yet, they may be doing you absolutely no good and causing you harm because you are delaying going to a physician for your particular condition or symptom. So read on!

First, the term herbal remedy applies to any plant or part of a plant that is used to make medicinal products. These parts can include the leaves, flowers, stems, roots, seeds, fruit or bark. They are most often used to alleviate disease, detoxify the system, maintain a state of balance, prevent disease from recurring, and to support the immune system.

Some people choose herbal remedies because they believe that a product that is not manufactured and is considered natural is better than a synthetic product. Others take herbal remedies because they tried traditional medications and they did not work, they had bad reactions to the medications, they or too costly, or they just did not want the side effects associated with the drugs. Still others use herbal remedies because they hope to prevent illness from happening in the first place.

Herbal remedies are a very controversial class of complementary medicine. First, there is no required quality control and little standardizing so that the same herb from different brands may contain different ingredients. Secondly, no government agency is responsible for providing a license to those who practice herbal medicine. However, the Food and Drug Administration or FDA can remove any herbal product from the market that it considers unsafe. What's more, herb manufacturers are not required to prove, to test just how safe and effective are the herbs. They cannot make claims that an herb can cure this or that but they can make statements about how an herb can impact a function or structure. For instance, some herbal products were found to contain prescription medicines but the label did not list the ingredient.

Even so, many, many people report success with herbal remedies.

My position for these next few posts is to do my best to educate you about herbal remedies because like most things in life, they are not all bad and they are not all good.

More on my next post.

To your success at balancing your health.

Ruthan

PS If you do take an herbal remedy will you share your story with us? How did you happen on that remedy and the before and after. Maybe your story will help others. Type your story in the comment box. Thanks

Echinacea: Can It Prevent Colds and the Flu?

 

It seems as if the flu season is all year round these days and colds happen when ever the weather changes. Echinacea has been among the top selling drugs in the US as a remedy to treat colds and to prevent colds and the flue. The thought is that the herb stimulates the immune system to help fight infections.

 

Science has arrived at another conclusion, however. Two recent studies funded by  NCCAM, National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine,  did not find a benefit from Echinacea either as treating colds in children or in adults.  What's more most studies indicate that Echinacea does not appear to prevent colds or other infections.  However, there is one study which reports that Echinacea may be beneficial in treating upper respiratory infections.

 

Then there is the word of caution about the side effects. Usually Echinacea has no side effects when taken orally. However, people allergic to related plants in the daisy family which includes ragweed and marigolds may have an allergic reaction. There is also some question to how effective it is because of the lack of regulation in the U.S. herbal market. In other words, you may not be getting what you paid for.

 

Research in German, on the other hand, reports Echinacea is effective when compounded in liquid formulations. Even so it should not be taken for more than eight weeks at a time.

 

Part of the problem in studying a botanical such as Echinacea is figuring out which part of the plant was used in the supplement and determining which species of the plant was used.

 

My conclusion: Save your money. Have chicken soup to help you get through your cold and adopt a healthy lifestyle which includes lots of hand washing to prevent a cold.

 

Let us know your opinion.  What do you think about Echinacea?

 

To your success at a well balanced life.

 

Ruthan

 

CAM: Placebo Effect or Cure?

The final portion of the U.S. News and World Report article on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) focused briefly on the placebo effect.

I wasn’t planning on writing about this aspect of CAM and then I had second thoughts. The placebo effect takes place when a patient is given a pill or a treatment which is not a viable medication (such as a sugar pill) but is told the pill will reduce his symptoms or cure his illness. He’s been given a medication that will make take care of his symptoms – pain, itching- and help him get well.

CAM Experts Don't Agree

It seems like everyone has their own opinion about what the focus should be when something is written about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Some view CAM with a narrow perspective only highlighting therapies that have been researched and there’s published evidence that the therapies work. These range from massage to acupuncture to TM (transcendental meditation) for lowering stress levels. Others call CAM "woo-woo medicine" because there’s often no serious research or evidence to back up claims of success – only qualitative descriptions- for many therapies such as energy medicine.

Even hospitals run the gamut of focusing on different alternative therapies. Based on my experience, it appears that the focus for hospitals is often determined by the funding. If a Foundation’s mission is to contribute millions to a hospital to study Chinese medicine, chances are very good that Chinese medicine will be a major portion of that hospital’s research budget. Of course there are times when there’s a match between hospital and foundation but that has to be unusual.