People get mad at me when I say totally ineffective, so I'll explain: They are totally ineffective ~for the purposes that they are sold~
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Most countries have some sort of regulation governing what exactly supplement manufacturers are allowed to say, but that doesn't really stop them from making claims
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For example things like "may prevent [x]" or "can help improve [x]" These are simply nonsense claims made to dodge regulation
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I do a thread on this every once in a while Supplements make vague claims for health benefits, but these are usually based on either "ancient knowledge" (i.e. nothing), or cherry-picked researchhttps://twitter.com/GidMK/status/1023031022290489344 …
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Milk thistle is a great example: some biological plausibility there, some success in rodent models, but the human trials found no benefit
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Also, it was tested for acute liver toxicity, which means that it hasn't even been tested for "liver health" or one of the thousands of other applications it's marketed for
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The issue repeats itself when you look at other supplements Lavender = mostly useless Garlic = similar Valerian = more of the same And on, and on, and on
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There is the rare supplement that actually works, but the funny thing is that when a product is discovered that has an actual benefit, we isolate the active ingredient and turn it into a drug because that's FAR safer
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The classic example is aspirin: if you want aspirin you can either boil up a batch of willow bark and choke down the tea, along with a bunch of contaminants such as cyanide, or take a small pill with no cyanidepic.twitter.com/zBsE0le3m4
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It's also worth remembering that many supplements are either misleadingly labeled - they don't contain what they say they do - or contaminated with adulterants https://theconversation.com/safety-of-contaminated-vitamins-and-nutritional-supplements-cant-be-left-to-consumers-39901 …
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(These issues are a bit less of a problem with the big brands, but are still there)
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On the one hand, supplements offer virtually no benefit On the other, there are real and persistent risks with taking them More tough choicespic.twitter.com/rvN2bFru1I
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Worth noting: THIS IS NOT TRUE IF THEY ARE PRESCRIBED BY AN ACTUAL, CERTIFIED MEDICAL DOCTOR If your GP (who is not a chiropractor) tells you to get a supplement, there is probably a good reason
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