Hydroxycut recall as FDA says one person died from liver failure

Gymnema Sylvestre
Another promising supplement is an extract of gymnema sylvestre, a woody climber that grows in tropical forests of the central and southern parts of India.

Although this product has been used for the treatment of diabetes in India over many centuries, the first scientific demonstration of its anti-diabetic properties in humans was made about 70 years ago when it was observed that leaves of gymnema sylvestre reduced glycosuria (glucose in urine) in individuals with diabetes.

(3) Although in vitro studies to examine the effect of this extract on insulin secretion remain to be performed, gymnema sylvestre use appears to enhance insulin secretion and the functional viability of the endocrine pancreas in vivo.

This supplement represents a unique and interesting product because it is one of those few agents that may have beneficial effects on both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

(4) Gymnema sylvestre extract appears to be particularly effective when administered as an adjunct to oral antidiabetic agents. For instance, in a study in India, gymnema sylvestre extract (called GS4) was administered as an adjunct to conventional oral agents at a dose of 400 mg. per day in 22 type 2 diabetic patients for 18-20 months. During the GS4 supplementation, the patients had the dosage of their conventional drugs reduced and still showed a reduction in blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin and other proteins. Five of the 22 patients were able to discontinue their conventional drugs and maintain adequate blood glucose control on the GS4 supplement action alone.(5)

May 18, 2005

HCA slows glucose uptake

A sudy published in the June 2005 issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology (http://ajpgi.physiology.org/) revealed that hydroxycitric acid (HCA), the active ingredient in the fruit Garcinia cambogia used in traditional Indian medicine, helps slow glucose uptake after a meal, which reduces insulin output.

Researchers in the Netherlands administered HCA to rats before infusing sugar into their stomachs to mimic a meal. A control group of rats received no HCA before the infusion. The rats that received HCA were found to experience a much slower elevation in blood glucose after the sugar infusion than rats that did not receive the compound. HCA was also found to lower the rise in glucose following sugar administration after the compound was administered directly into the stomach or small intestine, which excluded the possibility that HCA had effected gastric emptying.

Lead author Peter Y. Wielinga elaborated, "Sugar that is normally absorbed rather quickly -- within about 20 minutes -- took over 2 hours after HCA ingestion. This delay is good because it reduces the high peaks of glucose, which otherwise would require the body to produce a lot of insulin to deal with the 'meal."

Dr Wielinga stated that the next step is to discover HCA's mechanism of action. He speculated, "If we can reduce the peaks and valleys of insulin with HCA, then it might have some application in diabetes, both in slowing progression to diabetes 2 and since these people have an obesity problem, it could potentially have an additional benefit in the therapeutic field. "

Dr Wielinga, who will be conducting research at the University of Zurich, also plans to investigate HCA's effect on reducing food intake, a phenomenon that has been observed in rodents.

Fighting For Health Freedom Worldwide:
A Report From the Battlefield

Challenges to the public's freedom to seek out and buy health care products of their own choosing are under attack around the world. The crisis is particularly acute in the U.S. and Canada.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just done us all a huge "favor" by openly announcing its intention to "harmonize" U.S. domestic law with the international reference standards expected to be set by the United Nation's Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex). This represents a significant threat to free access to high-potency dietary supplements. With this announcement, consumers in the U.S. and abroad need to band together to fight back.

The FDA's announcement was posted on the agency's website, http://www.fda.gov/ola/319.htm. It should be viewed against the backdrop of the FDA's June 2 proposal for strict dosage limits for the herb ma huang (which contains natural ephedra), but not for synthetic ephedrine drugs.

A Medline search shows no deaths attributed to ephedra/ma huang, and 57 deaths attributed to OTC drugs containing ephedrine. This proposal is an example of the double standard the FDA is applying to the regulation of nutrients and herbs.

The FDA's harmonization efforts also can be seen in its Commission on Dietary Supplement Labels draft report, in which it advocates OTC drug status for herbs and botanicals. This report threatens to undermine the gains made through the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). While this report does not carry the force of law, it could be used as a prelude to legislation.

These FDA actions are part of an international movement. Moving with deliberate, almost glacial slowness, which makes it hard for consumers to catch on, the trans-national pharmaceutical industry is working through the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Use to attempt to restrict our access to dietary supplements.

An International Movement To Restrict Access To Dietary Supplements

There is, for example, a German proposal that threatens to reduce consumer access to dietary supplements to no higher than recommended daily allowance levels, as well as a Canadian proposal that threatens to ban the international sale of many safe herbs.

It is through herbal products, which do not have RDAs, that the pharmaceutical industry is making its biggest takeover bid. The Canadian Codex proposal to create a negative list of herbs for the purpose of banning their sale from international commerce was first proposed at a North America/Southwest Pacific meeting in Vancouver in 1994, but it is still on the table. Mary Cheney of the Canadian Health Protection Branch (HPB) initially agreed to back off from the proposal in deference to public opinion, but later reversed her position at the Codex meeting in Bonn, Germany, last October.

Currently the HPB has a list of more than 104 herbs it intends to ban, and people all over the world had better take notice.

The German Codex proposal could be enacted by September 1998. This may seem like a long time from now, but given what we must do to stop it, it's not! In addition to the long-range threat posed by this proposal, immediate efforts are being made worldwide by drug companies to take over the natural supplement market. Consider the efforts of German pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and Canada: