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questor wrote:From a NYTimes article this morning, I guess we should all be aware of this, I make pretty heavy use of supplements these days:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/22/us/sp ... h_20131222

NY Times wrote:The new research found that many of the products implicated in liver injuries were bodybuilding supplements spiked with unlisted steroids, and herbal pills and powders promising to increase energy and help consumers lose weight.

“There unfortunately are criminals that feel it’s a business opportunity to spike some products and sell them as dietary supplements,” said Duffy MacKay, a spokesman for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a supplement industry trade group. “It’s the fringe of the industry, but as you can see, it is affecting some consumers.” More popular supplements like vitamins, minerals, probiotics and fish oil had not been linked to “patterns of adverse effects,” he said.

The F.D.A. estimates that 70 percent of dietary supplement companies are not following basic quality control standards that would help prevent adulteration of their products. Of about 55,000 supplements that are sold in the United States, only 170 — about 0.3 percent — have been studied closely enough to determine their common side effects, said Dr. Paul A. Offit, the chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an expert on dietary supplements.

“When a product is regulated, you know the benefits and the risks and you can make an informed decision about whether or not to take it,” he said. “With supplements, you don’t have efficacy data and you don’t have safety data, so it’s just a black box.”

Since 2008, the F.D.A. has been taking action against companies whose supplements are found to contain prescription drugs and controlled substances, said Daniel Fabricant, the director of the division of dietary supplement programs in the agency’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. For example, the agency recently took steps to remove one “fat burning” product from shelves, OxyElite Pro, that was linked to one death and dozens of cases of hepatitis and liver injury in Hawaii and other states.

The mechanism of the toxicity of green tea extract is unclear. A study looking into the cytotoxicity of green tea extract on rat hepatocytes was unable to determine whether EGCG has toxic effects at plasma levels considerably higher than those achieved in human pharmacokinetic studies.13 Therefore, the possibility of an allergic reaction to the green tea itself—or, more likely, a component of the extract—or contamination during the growth of the leaves or during production of the extract has also been suggested. It is extremely unlikely that the modest weight loss induced by the green tea extracts plays a role in causing severe hepatotoxicity.

Green tea extract 120, Vitamin E 6, Wheat germ oil 10, Excipients in each capsule, Soy oil 154, Beeswax 13
Glycerol esters of fatty acids 13
Composition of the capsule
Gelatin 180
Glycerin

Consumption of between 700 and 2,000 milligrams per day led to toxic liver effects in nine anecdotal case reports, according to an article published by researchers from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in the March 2007 issue of “Chemical Research and Toxicology.”

“People who take less than 500 mg [of green tea concentrate or preparation] per day and spread the dose out over the course of the day are unlikely to have toxic side effects,” says Yang.

PointsNorth wrote:Do you wrestle with spasticity? If so, does Ampyra help relieve?