Carrots and pumpkin might reduce your risk of cancer, but beware taking them in pill form

[AussieNeil]

'The value of the global vitamins and dietary supplements market is predicted to reach US$59.6 billion by 2020;

:

Yet, the vast majority of this mass consumption, often helped along by celebrity endorsement, is just generating oceans of very expensive urine; relatively few people have medical conditions requiring specific nutrient supplements.

So why do so many people waste their money?'

Simon Chapman, Emeritus Professor in Public Health, University of Sydney explains: theconversation.com/carrots...

And in his reply to a comment claiming complementary medicines are an important and valuable contributor to preventative health: 'There’s a huge amount of evidence that supplements are mostly useless nccih.nih.gov/health/provid... Many would argue that that in itself means they are harmful to people’s wallets.

Not hard to find examples of harm either. consumerreports.org/cro/201... and nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/N...

The last paper concludes that: 'An estimated 23,000 emergency department visits in the United States every year are attributed to adverse events related to dietary supplements. Such visits commonly involve cardiovascular manifestations from weight-loss or energy products among young adults and swallowing problems, often associated with micronutrients, among older adults.'

Food for thought?

Neil

[wroxham-gb]

A good read Neil.

Sue

[ballyhoo]

I love to eat those small carrots, I share them with my 2 dachshunds. They love most all fruits and vegetables, peanuts, a little yogurt to .I don't use supplements. Best wishes to all.

[wroxham-gb in reply to ballyhoo]

I used to have 2 mini dachshunds, 1long and 1 short hair, both tan.

Sue

They never ate carrots though.

[BeckyLUSA]

Great reading. Especially love the list of supplements and ailments and the documentation for each. I will admit that my diet is lacking in a lot of areas. I will admit that I take some vitamins and supplements. I will admit that I am probably flushing some money down the toilet. The vitamin and supplements that I take have been prescribed by my GP ( vitamins B and D, and Calcium). I don't know if they help or not, but my levels are where they should be now on these three. The only other supplements that I take are a glucosamine/chondroitan combo and MSM. There has been a lot of studies done on the glucosamine/chondroitan and most of the studies I have read says there is not enough evidence to warrant the use of it. However, in my case it appears to work. When I don't take them, my aches and pains in my back get worse. Placebo effect? Could be, but it works, and I don't spend a whole lot of money for them. I do not encourage others to take my supplements. It is a personal choice. I hate it when people find out you are sick and they say, take this or that and the CLL will go away. It worked for their great uncle Bob, so it must work for me as well. I understand when something works for you, you want to share it with others, and this is great. Just don't be obnoxious about it and try to force it down my throat (pun intended). Thank goodness it does not happen very often on this site. I don't like to be preached to unless I am in church. Hope I did not offend anyone, as it was not intended. Now I will go and drink a cup of green tea (I like green tea - if it helps, great, if it doesn't, I still like it).

BeckyL

[mutamer]

Thank you for posting this, Neil. I take massive amounts of supplements and this has challenged my thinking.

[Wordmonger]

It is fine to cite statistics on the number of hospital visits caused by adverse effects of dietary supplements, but really, to balance out such an article you need to post about the number of hospital visits and DEATHS in the U.S. directly caused by the adverse effects of prescription drugs and medications! It is by far higher, and those numbers are available.

By now, the medical profession has come around to the need for Vitamin D supplements, for example, and CLL and other cancer patients can benefit by taking appropriate minerals and vitamins where they are deficient, prescribed by knowledgeable professionals such as naturopaths.

No one wants to flush money down the toilet in their vitamin-enriched urine, I agree, and the supplement industry is big business (so is big pharma) but let's please distinguish between the snake oil salesmen and the prudent use of nutrients to help our bodies fight cancer!

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to Wordmonger]

While deaths from prescription drugs is a big and growing problem, I'm not sure of its relevance to this discussion. Prescription drugs are by definition prescribed by a health professional for an existing medical condition, whereas supplements are most commonly bought by an individual with the belief that they will improve health without the risk of adverse effects. From Table 3 of Who takes dietary supplements and why: sciencebasedmedicine.org/wh... 'This suggests that over 75% of supplement decisions are being made without (or despite) the recommendation of a health professional.'

That entire article is pertinent to this discussion.

Sadly, our community isn't healthy, having a chronic health condition and there's general recognition by CLL specialists that we may benefit from vitamin D3 and vitamin B12 supplements. I've regularly encouraged members who are fatigued to have their vitamin D and B12 serum levels checked by their doctor and many report an improvement by getting these into normal levels.

Given the typical age our membership, other supplements might also benefit our quality of life - again, ideally managed via a health professional, rather than just buying and taking supplement X based on the recommendation of friends or marketing.

Time and time again, studies shows that we can do more to improve our health by improving our diet to obtain nutrients from unprocessed foods, rather than taking supplements - as stated by the title of this post and the referenced article.

Neil

[MyCLLJourney in reply to AussieNeil]

I agree 100% with your comment "Time and time again, studies shows that we can do more to improve our health by improving our diet to obtain nutrients from unprocessed foods". That's why I have a large orchard and my own veggie garden. I eat what I grow as much as possible. We also hunt and raise our own chickens so we get free range eggs and home grown chicken meat and wild game too.

[JKDLED]

I must admit I am on the fence when it comes to supplements. I have taken certain ones switched to others and eliminated them all at times. It is easy to fall down the vitamin rabbit hole. Thank you for posting this. Definitely food for thought.

[Elliot43]

I would like to know if it's crucial to take vitamin D and b12 having cll at whatever stage were at.

I'm not sure where I got this advice either!!

Can you enlighten us Neil or point to a relavant topic

Sheila

.

[Elliot43]

Oops just seen your latest piece Neil I will read and learn

Sheila

[MyCLLJourney]

First, anyone using supplements to lose or not gain weight isn't doing their homework! The right way to do it is to eat healthy and with moderation. No processed foods. Period. I think people need to look at both sides of the coin here. Yes, there is some truth to some supplements dont contain what is advertised or contain many fillers that are questionable for ones health. But, Pharmaceuticals cause many issues too. I read an article about statins where 65% of the people who have been prescribed statins quit taking them. Why? Because of side effects. It's important to make sure you really research a supplement before taking one and also research what brands are the best, keeping in mind that everything you read on the internet isn't always true.

I'm currently taking a statin and have side effects too. Muscle spasms and cramps. However, I have chosen to try and battle the severity. I truly believe my body is manufacturing LDL to help heal my brain (from encephalitis). My HDL is high, so that's a good thing. But so is my LDL. I've been taking a supplement called Gaba which calms overactive neurons that can cause the spasms and cramps. It has helped. Spasms are gone and cramps are much better. They still occur, but not as often, and definitely not as severe.

[SofiaDeo Administrator in reply to MyCLLJourney]

IDK what type of statin you are taking, but research into the earliest one, simvastatin, caused Coenzyme Q10 depletion in a number of patients. And the recommendation for a number of years was to supplement with CoQ 10 in the older statins.

webmd.com/diet/foods-high-i...

Since it's fat soluble, I take it sparingly outside of food sources.

I had a patient with a sinusitis, who was having surgery because no one could figure out what the sinus problem was. I reviewed his chart, and recommended he discuss stopping his statin with his doc, to see if that was contributing to if not causing his sinus problem. It turned out it was. He was happy to avoid the surgery.

CoQ 10 may not be the reason you are having muscle cramps and spasms, but who knows, it might be.

Are you taking a hydrophilic or lipophilic one? There's some evidence that the low potency lipophilic ones may help apoptosis of old CLL cells:

aacrjournals.org/cebp/artic...

ashpublications.org/blood/a...

There's actually a study out to see if one statin helps potentiate Venclexta. 3D structure activity modeling software indicates statins may help Venclexta work better:

clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show...

I never had a dyslipidemia diagnosis until a few years into my CLL one. My diet hadn't changed significantly, only my exercise. I was expecting a change to my HDL and triglycerides with lack of exercise, but everything went haywire. I now take a low dose statin, simvastatin 10mg po QHS. Make sure you are taking it at bedtime; most cholesterol production occurs overnight. It is thought to be more effective when peak drug levels occur during times of highest cholesterol production.

[MyCLLJourney in reply to SofiaDeo]

Hey, thanks for the info. I am taking CoQ10 and have been since I've been on statins. I don't want to quit the statins so that's why I tried finding something that would help with the spasms and cramping. My HDL is good. But my LDL is high. I had a mild stroke a year ago and that is when I started the statins. They had me on 40mg lipitor, which brought my cholesterol too low. I cut it in half, but now my LDL is high again. My PCP switched me to crestor, but the muscle cramps are still occurring. I believe the reason my LDL is too high is that my body is manufacturing cholesterol to help heal my brain. I had encephalitis 2 years ago and have damage to my cerebellum. The Gaba does seem to help, as I no longer have the spasms, but I still do get cramps, although they aren't very bad.

[SofiaDeo Administrator in reply to MyCLLJourney]

If I were consulting on this case, I would look at trying out one that *does not* have an active metabolite, everything else being equal. With CLL in the mix, and lipophilic statins possibly helping apoptosis better than hydrophilics, I would recommend trying fluvastatin or pitorvastatin. And since you seem to have SE's from ones with a long half life, I would recommend the shorter half life fluvastatin to start. There may be reasons why this isn't a good idea, though.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...