Immunity Health News

A recent article on smh.com.au offers skeptics more reasons to be wary of functional/designer/nutraceutical food and beverage manufacturers’ health benefit claims. In some cases, the foods are being promoted as offering health benefits that even the active ingredients never claim to provide.

“Millions of people are consuming these foods and the people who make functional foods are trading on people’s insecurity and looking for an insurance [sic] to give them better health.”

The article also suggests that active ingredients in certain foods, once extracted, may not offer the same health benefit as they did when part of the food.

Read it all.

I have said many times already on this blog how important I feel it is to have empirical research to back up claims of product effectiveness. Apparently the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) feels the same way.

Their recent draft dossier guidelines make no reference whatsoever to ‘traditional use’ or ‘history of use’ for botanicals in food and food supplements. Instead,

data from intervention studies and observational studies in humans and animals must be used as evidence to make a health claim.

However, this appears to set up a double-standard, as those same botanical ingredients, when marketed as supplements, can continue to rely on ‘traditional evidence’.

Read more.

The days of the peanut allergy may be numbered.

Researchers at Britain’s Institute of Food Research have identified a missing molecule — interleukin-12 – which may be responsible for preventing food allergies.

The dendritic cells of mice bred to be allergic to peanuts did not produce this molecule.

If an allergen such as a peanut were taken alongside the Interleukin-12, Dr Nicoletti said that the allergic reactions might be brought under control.

Read more.

I came across this press release this morning — thinly veiled as news, as is often the case — for a “Wellness Index Test”. This test purports to measure isoprostanes, the byproducts of free radicals, in your system. This is ostensibly to check if your antioxidants are doing their job.

What arouses my suspcion is that if — or rather, when — the test indicates high levels of free radicals in your system, the very company that markets the test, and performs the testing,

“has an easy, verifiable solution: MeridiumXN(TM), an antioxidant antidote to metabolic stress.”

I would probably have more confidence in the test if it were somehow independent of the “solution”.

Did I mention you have to mail them your urine? The post office wanted me to remind you to be sure the lid is tight.

The evidence for and against echinacea’s effectiveness has probably left many consumers wondering whom to believe.

Now a new study, published Sunday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, is reporting that yes, echinacea does in fact boost the immune system to prevent and fight colds.

“We showed that patients who took echinacea could decrease the risk of developing a cold by 58 percent as well as decrease the duration of a cold by over a day and half,” said Dr. Craig Coleman of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy.

And it is apparently even more effective when taken with Vitamin C.
Read the whole article.

Here’s what is going out on just about every major newswire this morning:

Makers of vitamins, herbs and other dietary supplements taken by millions of Americans must meet new government standards to show the products are free of contamination and contain exactly what the label says, U.S. health officials said on Friday.

The full article of this particular version can be found here.

This is good news for consumers, who have sometimes had to contend with bogus ingredients from knock-off supplement producers.

But these regulations don’t come into effect until 2010, and the dietary supplement producers

“…will have significant latitude to determine what quality control measures are appropriate, and limited resources will limit FDA’s ability to follow up on complaints,”

according to Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat.

Furthermore, these regulations still will not ensure that the supplements are either safe or effective. And as other websites are starting to point out, the FDA will only be investigating high-risk companies, and that only every five-to-ten years.

So will it help? Perhaps. At least it is a beginning point for more stringent assurances for consumers.

While women still the main purchasers of supplemental and nutriceutical products, men are increasingly turning to supplements as well, and not just for the good old “protein shakes” of the past.

Watch the video.

Here is an interesting blog post about the health claims of food companies, in particular those with products like yogourt claiming to have “probiotic” properties. In light of the increasing notoriety of probiotics, it’s not surprising that companies are trying to capitalize on the public’s buying trends, even if their claims may be misleading or fallacious.

This is why I’m such a big proponent of empirical testing as opposed to anecdotal or “traditional” evidence for product efficacy.

In a recent study, women who got most of their daily calcium from food had healthier bones than women whose calcium came mainly from supplemental tablets. Surprisingly, this was true even though the supplement takers had higher average calcium intake.

“Only about 35 percent of the calcium in most supplements ends up being absorbed by the body,” says senior author Reina Armamento-Villareal, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Bone and Mineral Diseases and a bone specialist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “Calcium from the diet is generally better absorbed, and this could be another reason that women who got a high percentage of calcium in their food had higher bone densities.”

Read it all.

A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that seniors who take zinc supplements are at a significantly lower risk of infections, in part because of zinc’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, both of which improve immune function.

It should be noted that zinc inhibits copper absorption, and can cause anemia and bone-marrow suppression if taken long-term in large amounts without copper. People taking zinc more than a few weeks, with the exception of those with Wilson’s disease, should also take a copper supplement providing 2 or 3 mg per day.

Read the whole article.

I also note that the study appears to have been funded by Solgar, a vitamin manufacturer out of the UK. Hence the study’s constant reference not to zinc, but “Solgar zinc”.