health supplements waste of money?

[RonnyT Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RonnyT]

Looking for ways to waste your money? Study shows: Half of the pills in the supplement catalog of the company that tries so hard to present itself as savior of the human race qualifies.

100 mg of resveratrol, a complex of 800 mg each of green, black, and white tea extract, 250 mg of pomegranate extract, 650 mg of quercetin, 500 mg of acetyl-l-carnitine, 600 mg of lipoic acid, 900 mg of curcumin, 1 g of sesamin, 1.7 g of cinnamon bark extract, and 1.0 g fish oil

That's the whopping supplement regimen 1/2 of the 65 non-obese healthy men and women, aged 38 to 55 yr have been taking for six months with the following results:

# ZERO effects on arterial stiffness
# ZERO effects endothelial function

# ZERO effect on body fat measured by DEXA,
# ZERO effect on blood pressure,
# ZERO effect on plasma lipids,
# ZERO effect on glucose,
# ZERO effect on insulin,
# ZERO effect on IGF-1, and
# ZERO effect on markers of inflammation and oxidative stress.

So, the scientists rightly conclude: "In summary, supplementation with a combination of popular dietary supplements has no cardiovascular or metabolic effects in non-obese relatively healthy individuals."

And you know what: The supplements did not even have the guranteed money-depleting function. After all, the subjects got the whole cocktail for free!

Reference: Soare A, et al. Multiple dietary supplements do not affect metabolic and cardio-vascular health. Aging. September 2013; 5(9).

[manonmac1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close manonmac1]

I've always heard that most health supplements were a waste of money. I actually read one study that stated every supplement with the exception of protein and AA's did nothing for the user but give them a false sense of well being. It's funny when you think about it. Science and studies can prove a product useless but people still swear it works because of what the package says. Crazy!