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Want to know more about the product and why I support and promote it?  Here is my original post:

The Examine.com Supplement Goals Reference Guide

Alternative Medical Ethics?

Disclaimers:

1.  I want to make it clear up front that I am not making light of those who have health conditions for which they cannot find solutions, be it through the medical establishment or alternatives.  This post is not about that, except to highlight how unfortunately such circumstances can make people susceptible to being taken advantage of.

2.  I'm not saying mainstream medicine has all the answers or the only answers, and I'm not saying that all treatments that would fall under the umbrella of "alternative" are ineffective or woo woo.

So, with that said, I laid out a scenario in my Medical Ethics post to highlight some practices in the alternative medicine realm that would be questionable (and in some cases illegal) were they engaged in in a traditional practice.

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July 18, 2013 Over the Hump Bump: What's with all the supplements, and Primal hypocrisy

Since I totally forgot to do a post bump last week, I'll have a two-fer for you today of examples of the few posts I've done concerning Mark Sisson here at the Asylum.  I did so few, and tried so hard to build my readership by trashing him that I even had to update the labels on this post to include the man's name.  Yet I thought I'd use these bumps to shed some light on Mark Sisson's career as a disappearing artist of sorts -- making criticisms disappear.  This is an opportunity to address Point 8-of-12 of Mark's email to Charles Grashow as pertains me.  

8.       I find it more than ironic that a person who would continuously try to take me down, criticize my business, question my ethics and motives and generally use my site and my products as fodder to build her own traffic would then beg me to disassociate with and publicly denounce others to whom she does the exact same thing. On that principle alone I wouldn’t  be seen supporting her (Ev) in any way.

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Drugs vs. Supplements II and a JimKKKins Moore Update!

Jimmy Moore was a relatively healthy, 230 lb man circa 2005-2006.  Despite his repeated lies to the contrary, he didn't just see his weight creep up a pound or two per month for 15 lb increases per year in the intervening years.  Still, whatever his path, he ended up back over 300 lbs in 2012 and went on his extreme nutritional ketosis fat fast diet.  He is now teetering at the brink of his former 230 lb goal.   Someone ought to remind him that he was a mere 3 pounds more than he weighs now in 2009, but he's clearly entered the pathological state where he believes his own lies.  He's currently on hiatus from podcasting to co-write a book with Dr. Eric Westman (who I can only think has taken leave of his senses) on cholesterol.  This would appear to be an effort on Jimmy's part to convince himself and others that his levels are peachy keen and perhaps even healthful.

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Berberine -- Supplement or Pharmaceutical? Does it matter?

I have commented a few times before on supplement usage in "The Community".  For example, here. It always amazes me the litany of pronouncements on the macro/micro nutrient superiority of one's chosen diet that are side-by-side accompanied by an even longer litany of supplements.  It is pervasive, and dare I use the "a" word, addictive.  When I first found the LC web in 2009 I was rather astounded by the amount of supplements some were taking.  At some point, if one is supplementing their diet with a handful of pills, one needs to take a step back and recognize that it may well be those pills responsible for effects in spite of the diet.

But another thing that's rather pervasive in the community is the use of supplements often accompanied by sanctimonious braggadocio regarding how the "diet" enabled a person to come off of all medications!

Berberine has been making the rounds in LC/diabetic circles, and for good reason.  It works!  There's been a veritable sheetload of legit scientific studies on the stuff.   So ... this then begs the question of whether it matters that someone takes, say, prescription Metformin or buys a supplement such as the berberine containing Glycosolve.  

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Random thought on Sun, Tanning & Vitamin D

As I changed races in Me-hee-co last week something I read in Stephanie Seneff's blog post on VitD and sunscreens, etc.  that got me thinking about my negative vitamin D experience a few years back.  For those who haven't read me drop a comment on it, here's the Cliff's Notes version.  I rather foolishly decided to jump on the megadoses of VitD bandwagon a few years back and began taking somewhere in the 5000-10000 IU/day range.  I started getting weird "dizzy spells" but only when lying down and shifting positions (like rolling over).  I also had my first ever "high" BP reading at my "well woman" doc visit.  So I figured I should stop taking all supps and sort that out.  I've since added back in the other supps and identified it was the D.  I now only take 1000 IU and no more than 2000 IU, definitely not daily (currently I'm experimenting with whether the Estroven is doing anything at this point and it has D in it).  

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