Are banned supplements necessarily dangerous?

Do you like being told what to do? Do you like someone else making the decisions for you and telling you that's the way it is, even when it doesn't make any sense to you?

As a society, most of us live by rules and go about our business with the realisation that somebody has to make the decisions or else there would be chaos. Well, do you ever wander just who is making some of the decisions?

The supplements industry is a maze of thousands of different supplements. On the one hand it is hardly regulated, yet at the same time, it is under constant scrutiny and under many watchful eyes.

It is a little-known fact that the pharmaceutical industry is not benefiting from this massive surge in supplementation. As a result of using supplements, many people are getting sick less often and living healthier lives. This means only one thing and that's less profit for the pharmaceutical industry which heavily relies on you getting ill!

You can read articles on the power of the pharmaceutical industry elsewhere on this site. However, here we are addressing the question of are banned supplements really dangerous, or is there another issue here?

DHEA was recently considered to be a medicinal product in the UK. Up until a few years ago, you were able to obtain DHEA from supplement companies. Now you cannot get it and any supplier selling it will be in trouble. Why? Is DHEA dangerous?

DHEA is a naturally occurring hormone which is produced by your adrenal gland. This abundant hormone is found in your bloodstream and begins to decline as you age. An 80 year old will have around 15% of the DHEA they had when they were 20 years of age.

It is a known fact that the healthier older humans have higher DHEA levels than those who are sicker. THINK ABOUT IT. The more DHEA, the healthier you will be. Low levels of DHEA can make humans susceptible to breast, prostate and bladder cancer. DHEA helps nerve function and can improve memory, treat lupus, osteoporosis and help diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Known as the "Mother of all hormones", DHEA is the backbone of progesterone and male hormone. Over 4000 medical papers show that DHEA can do a great deal of good for many people.

Following 12 yeas of research, in a 1986 study of 242 men, aged 50-79 it was stated that a small supplementation with DHEA (100 mcg/ml) corresponded to a 48% reduction in death from heart disease and 36% from other causes.

In various studies, DHEA has been shown to:

• Reduce fat by blocking the enzyme known to produce fat tissue
• Reduce fat by 31% with no change in bodyweight
• Increase well-being by up to 75%
• Inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells by blocking the G6PD enzyme
• Increase life-span by 50%
• Enhance the activity of the immune system

Like anything else, over-use or over-dosing on DHEA can have negative effects. But what would you rather have: be able to get it and use it wisely or not be able to get it at all?

Well, guess what, in the UK, you can't get DHEA at all! Yet this product is sold widely all over the world but you can't get it here! So is it banned because it is dangerous or is it banned because it was doing too much good?

Did anyone ever die from using DHEA? Has anyone died using pharmaceutical, medically prescribed drugs? The figures will be shown below.

Now let's look at another "banned substance", Melatonin.

Guess which country doesn't allow you to buy Melatonin over the counter any more? The UK has decided that Melatonin should not be available to the general public.

Melatonin is a powerful immune-boosting hormone which is produced by the pineal gland in your brain. Melatonin is known and used widely as s sleep-promoter. It is also used by thousands of travellers to get over jet-lag. Melatonin seems to also posses powerful cancer-fighting abilities. It stimulates T-Helper Cells and stimulates the tumour-killing abilities of natural killer cells by increasing the white blood cell production of cytokine Interleukin-2 (IL-2).

Melatonin has strong sedative properties and helps reduce anxiety, panic attacks, migraines and helps with sleeping problems. It is also a primary regulator of your immune system and a strong anti-oxidant.

Certain things do tend to reduce your own natural Melatonin production. These are:

• Over-eating
• Chronic long-term stress
• Alcohol
• Drugs
• Many medications
• Tobacco
• Caffeine
• Lack of natural light
• Sleep deprivation or irregular sleep
• Electromagnetic fields
• Sleeping in a room with light

Once again, if you over-dose on Melatonin, you could see side effects like sluggishness and fatigue. Most people are not stupid and stick to recommended dosages and cycles for most supplements.

How many people died from Melatonin supplementation? None that we know of. How many people have died from correctly prescribed drugs? Estimates put it at between 90,000 to 160,000 per year in the USA alone! Think about this one for a minute, it's crazy!

Is Melatonin dangerous? Does it sound dangerous to you? Normally the human body produces melatonin to regulate our sleep-wake cycles. The amount produced seems to lessen as we get older. Scientists believe this may be why young people have less problem sleeping than older ones. Studies suggest that Melatonin can hasten sleep and ease jet lag, without the hazards or side effects of prescription sleeping pills.

Melatonin may have many other uses and has been reported to make people feel better, strengthen the immune system, and reduce free radicals in the body. Current research is underway to determine Melatonin's effect as an anti-oxidant, immno-modulator in cancer, delayed sleep-phase disorders, and jet lag.Why is such a supplement not allowed to be sold in the UK, yet it is sold widely all over the world including the strict FDA-governed USA?

Trying to reason with those who make the decisions for you is not an easy task. For every doctor that agrees with supplementation, there are 10 who disagree. After-all supplementation is going against the very reason why they are there in the first place. If you are not ill, you will not go to your doctor. If you will not go to your doctor, your doctor will be out of a job. If your doctor is out of a job, there is no one to prescribe (SELL) the drugs from pharmaceutical companies. If you can get Melatonin from your local health food shop, why should you go to your doctor for sleeping pills?

This brings us to the initial point about whether certain soon to be banned supplements are dangerous and whether that is the reason why they are getting banned. We think not, but then we do have a vested interest.

Are microwaves safe? Are you sure? How do you know? They haven't been around for hundreds of years, so how can you be sure? The answer is that there came a certain point when all the research said that microwaves are safe and should (according to all the research available at the time) be OK to use. So then you make your own decisions as to whether you want to use microwave. At least you can get hold of one!

If you over-cooked all your foods in the microwave day in day out, you may well do your body some kind of harm, but how many people do that? Is it fair to make all microwaves be sold under s strict licence to select people just in case someone was stupid enough not to be able to use microwaves as instructed? Has licensing guns in the USA reduced gun-crime and murders in that country?

Make your own mind up. In the meantime don't forget that nothing has changed. Your decisions are being made for you. Whether "you" think something is dangerous or completely safe has no bearing on whether you will be able to purchase it. We do need lawmakers, but they should be independent from major players like pharmaceutical companies.

The banning of certain products is not hype by supplement companies. It is as real as what happened to DHEA and Melatonin.