More on China
Added July 3, 2007
An addition to "Vitamins and China" below.
Since this all started we are learning more and more about China. Let me start by telling you the last time we were there we could not drink any water other than the special water prepared by the hotel or beer. With that in mind let me continue on the new revelations.
Today's press says that seafood from China raises alarms. The FDA is restricting the sale of certain seafood products because the regulators are finding carcinogens and excessive antibiotics. Many of the seafood products are raised in the Pearl River Delta which is well know for the dumping of industrial chemicals, farm runoffs and I believe human and animal waste. The reason for the excess antibiotics is they have to keep the fish alive.
One company, Xulong, is the worlds largest processor of eel and claims to be the cleanest food processor in China yet on occasions they cannot pass muster with our regulators. If they can't understand what is required than not many others would be able to. China is the leading producer of seafoods, garlic and apple juice concentrates imported to the US who imports 80% of our seafoods. China is gaining market share of processed vegetables and frozen foods.
Last week the FDA banned some of China's biggest imports including shrimp, catfish, eel and a type of Carp.
They are presently third behind Canada and Mexico in food imports to the US. As this increases out regulars are not staffed to properly inspect that much food coming from China.
In a sense this reminds me of the early 1900s where we had no regulation on foods and they were coming to us in any form and with any dirt they picked up along the way. The big difference is the dirt that is picked up today from China comes along with industrial chemicals, human waste, farm runoffs, and the never ending air pollution (sometimes you can't see the ground from a tall hotel the pollution is so bad. By the way much of the pollution from China ends up along our West coast and we have no control over reducing that pollution. The same pollution may be effecting our own California grown food products over time.
We buy far more things from China than China buys from us. They are loudly protesting the problems their products are causing in this country and the little we do in restricting their imports. Food exporting is a very large business in China and if the word gets out and we stop buying - they have a real problem.
To me the present scare is far worse than the "Mad Cow Disease" scare of some years ago.
Showing posts with label Vitamins and Supplements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vitamins and Supplements. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Vitamins and China
There has been information lately concerning contaminated Chinese imports of vitamins, supplements, prescription drugs, pet food, fish and various other food products.
The Chinese government has recently closed 160 contaminated food producing companies - probably only a small part of the total picture - the tip of the iceberg if you will. Unfortunately, I suspect these companies will soon be replaced by thousands more.
It is common knowledge that a large percentage of herbal products imported from China have contained other products including both prescription and non-prescription drugs. Some of the products have contained anywhere from zero percent to a far greater percent of the particular product listed in the contents.
For example, millions of dollars have been made on the sale of PC-SPES, which was sold to men to treat prostate cancer and found to have as many as 4 prescription drugs contained in the product. This was proved in numerous lab tests and the product was removed from the marketplace. We know the drugs _ would, in fact, treat prostate cancer whereas the herbal products included have no effect on prostate cancer. This was represented as a Chinese herbal medicine - it was not. According to expert Chinese doctors, none of the herbal products included would ever be used for prostate cancer in traditional Chinese medicine. It is believed many men have died as a result of taking this product. Currently there are million dollar lawsuits in the courts against this product.
Now, with the above in consideration, recall the recent publicity about the use of multiple kinds of vitamins which leads to a higher incidence of prostate cancer. It is as if the vitamins may be feeding the cancer. You can read more about this at Are Vitamins Killing Us? . I would suggest that you take the time to read it if you have not done so.
This is one time that I am looking for an answer that may not be forthcoming - certainly the two subjects above raised some red flags, at least to me.
Could it be the men in the study who were taking a large number of vitamins, etc. may well be using contaminated products from China and may well be contaminated with something that caused them to have a higher incidence of aggressive cancer?
Could the men, not in a study, be experiencing the same thing? Is it the mega vitamins we may be taking that is causing cancer to begin and causing more aggressive cancers of all kinds? Are these Chinese manufactured products contaminated with products that are causing the problem prior to diagnosis?
Is there a direct link to the above two findings? Is two and two adding up to more than four?
Maybe just maybe these two findings are something each of us should consider and perhaps not take vitamin pills or other Chinese products until the Chinese fix their system (which probably will not happen in our life time). Actually there is very little (if any) scientific evidence created in long term double blind studies that taking vitamins has any beneficial effect on our bodies.
Perhaps the vitamins we think we need are better supplied in natural food products and maybe it is in that food product where the combination of _ vitamins and other things that make the difference. The vitamins alone, in pill form, leave out many other benefits that may be from the combinations of ingredients in the foods themselves.
Something to think about!!!!
The Chinese government has recently closed 160 contaminated food producing companies - probably only a small part of the total picture - the tip of the iceberg if you will. Unfortunately, I suspect these companies will soon be replaced by thousands more.
It is common knowledge that a large percentage of herbal products imported from China have contained other products including both prescription and non-prescription drugs. Some of the products have contained anywhere from zero percent to a far greater percent of the particular product listed in the contents.
For example, millions of dollars have been made on the sale of PC-SPES, which was sold to men to treat prostate cancer and found to have as many as 4 prescription drugs contained in the product. This was proved in numerous lab tests and the product was removed from the marketplace. We know the drugs _ would, in fact, treat prostate cancer whereas the herbal products included have no effect on prostate cancer. This was represented as a Chinese herbal medicine - it was not. According to expert Chinese doctors, none of the herbal products included would ever be used for prostate cancer in traditional Chinese medicine. It is believed many men have died as a result of taking this product. Currently there are million dollar lawsuits in the courts against this product.
Now, with the above in consideration, recall the recent publicity about the use of multiple kinds of vitamins which leads to a higher incidence of prostate cancer. It is as if the vitamins may be feeding the cancer. You can read more about this at Are Vitamins Killing Us? . I would suggest that you take the time to read it if you have not done so.
This is one time that I am looking for an answer that may not be forthcoming - certainly the two subjects above raised some red flags, at least to me.
Could it be the men in the study who were taking a large number of vitamins, etc. may well be using contaminated products from China and may well be contaminated with something that caused them to have a higher incidence of aggressive cancer?
Could the men, not in a study, be experiencing the same thing? Is it the mega vitamins we may be taking that is causing cancer to begin and causing more aggressive cancers of all kinds? Are these Chinese manufactured products contaminated with products that are causing the problem prior to diagnosis?
Is there a direct link to the above two findings? Is two and two adding up to more than four?
Maybe just maybe these two findings are something each of us should consider and perhaps not take vitamin pills or other Chinese products until the Chinese fix their system (which probably will not happen in our life time). Actually there is very little (if any) scientific evidence created in long term double blind studies that taking vitamins has any beneficial effect on our bodies.
Perhaps the vitamins we think we need are better supplied in natural food products and maybe it is in that food product where the combination of _ vitamins and other things that make the difference. The vitamins alone, in pill form, leave out many other benefits that may be from the combinations of ingredients in the foods themselves.
Something to think about!!!!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Are Vitamins Killing Us?
I have held for a long time, as many may know, that there is scant evidence in long term studies that Vitamins, Supplements or Diet does much of anything once we have been diagnosed with cancer. My recommendations has been simply take one high quality multivitamin to supplement your diet, if your diet is lacking in these things. My recommendation has been to take the Vitamin pill with the largest meal of the day.
In the case of advanced disease it may be as much value to let the patient be happy with what he eats without restricting the diet or forcing pills down him. The happiness may give him just as long as anything else. Besides in this study giving a lot of vitamins may not be the thing to do.
There is some evidence that aspirin or ibuprofen might well be a preventative of prostate cancer if it is taken from the time of a young man until reaching the age that we see prostate cancer. There is some evidence that here may be other things that we can do along this line to prevent or delay prostate cancer. But even here we do not have a lot of long term studies to prove this and little to none where we use a double blind study.
Now comes a study at http://prostate-help.blogs.com/prostatehelp/2007/05/multivitamin_us.html with news articles at http://prostate-help.blogs.com/prostatehelp/2007/05/mega_multivitam.html and http://prostate-help.blogs.com/prostatehelp/2007/05/study_vitamins_.html that throws out the question that more than 7 doses of vitamins a week may well increase the number of deaths of men with prostate cancer. This is one rather well done study and we would like to see it verified by other studies and we will, in time, have these. With that said we have had previous studies showing that Vitamins and supplements have ltttle effect on this disease.
Some will say - listen to your doctor - but in this area the doctor may not be up on the latest studies and probably has no more experience than many of us in the use of vitamins. they have had little to no training in Medical School about diet and vitamins. In addition the thinking has changed so drastically in recent years the training they might have had is seriously out of date.
I believe it is of value to all men with prostate cancer to cut down on their use of Vitamins and supplements until we have more definitive studies in this field. We have had numerous studies that frankly has said that Vitamins are ineffective and a waste of money - but this is the first study that says we may be killing ourselves by taking large doses. I am not sure what the definition is for "large dose" but I would be very careful in taking more than what is needed to fulfill the minimum daily requirements.
Basically my thinking has not changed - but this study makes me more resolute to try to convince patients that Vitamins and Supplements do us any good and may, in fact, cause harm.
In the case of advanced disease it may be as much value to let the patient be happy with what he eats without restricting the diet or forcing pills down him. The happiness may give him just as long as anything else. Besides in this study giving a lot of vitamins may not be the thing to do.
There is some evidence that aspirin or ibuprofen might well be a preventative of prostate cancer if it is taken from the time of a young man until reaching the age that we see prostate cancer. There is some evidence that here may be other things that we can do along this line to prevent or delay prostate cancer. But even here we do not have a lot of long term studies to prove this and little to none where we use a double blind study.
Now comes a study at http://prostate-help.blogs.com/prostatehelp/2007/05/multivitamin_us.html with news articles at http://prostate-help.blogs.com/prostatehelp/2007/05/mega_multivitam.html and http://prostate-help.blogs.com/prostatehelp/2007/05/study_vitamins_.html that throws out the question that more than 7 doses of vitamins a week may well increase the number of deaths of men with prostate cancer. This is one rather well done study and we would like to see it verified by other studies and we will, in time, have these. With that said we have had previous studies showing that Vitamins and supplements have ltttle effect on this disease.
Some will say - listen to your doctor - but in this area the doctor may not be up on the latest studies and probably has no more experience than many of us in the use of vitamins. they have had little to no training in Medical School about diet and vitamins. In addition the thinking has changed so drastically in recent years the training they might have had is seriously out of date.
I believe it is of value to all men with prostate cancer to cut down on their use of Vitamins and supplements until we have more definitive studies in this field. We have had numerous studies that frankly has said that Vitamins are ineffective and a waste of money - but this is the first study that says we may be killing ourselves by taking large doses. I am not sure what the definition is for "large dose" but I would be very careful in taking more than what is needed to fulfill the minimum daily requirements.
Basically my thinking has not changed - but this study makes me more resolute to try to convince patients that Vitamins and Supplements do us any good and may, in fact, cause harm.
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