Menopause Hormone Therapy and Breast Cancer Concealed

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Supreme Court Says Wyeth Must Pay $60 Million Prempro Verdict

Wyeth failed to conduct appropriate studies on breast cancer and concealed material facts about its products' safety (p. 35)

– The warnings provided by Wyeth were misleading and “reassuring.” (p. 39)

– Internal Wyeth documents showed that Wyeth responded to studies suggesting a possible breast cancer risk by downplaying the risk through public relations campaigns and its sales representatives' interactions with physicians. pg. 8

–  Wyeth engaged in extensive ghost-writing of scientific articles in order to influence prescribing physicians.  Published under independent doctors' names, at least 51 ghostwritten medical articles touted the benefits of hormone replacement therapy while minimizing the breast cancer risk. (p. 11)

– Wyeth implemented a policy to dismiss scientific studies that showed any link between breast cancer and hormone therapy drugs and to distract the public and medical professionals from the information. (p. 40)

–  Substantial evidence was introduced that Wyeth acted with malice, conduct that supports a punitive damage award. (p. 41)

 

Dedicated to all the women who have died of breast cancer and to those who have fought cancer and those who unknowingly trusted their doctors menopause treatment suggestions and were told HRT was safe. Now we know good doctors were lied to by pharmaceutical companies like Wyeth.

Source: Nevada Supreme Court      http://www.nevadajudiciary.us/index.php/oralarguments/720-wyeth-vs-rowatt

Pfizer Owes $58 Million to Women With Breast Cancer

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Breast Cancer awareness is an important part of breast cancer prevention“Wyeth refused to accept responsibility for what it did to these brave women,”  Zoe Littlepage,  a lawyer for Rowatt, Scofield and Forrester, said in an e-mailed statement. “Wyeth can’t hide any more. These women will finally see justice.”

The worlds largest drugmaker, Pfizer, has been denied an appeal by the U.S. Supreme Court for it’s drugs Premarin and Provera, both still on the market.   The Nevada Supreme Court  concluded jurors properly held Pfizer’s Wyeth responsible for hiding the breast-cancer risks of Premarin and Prempro in 2007.

Pfizer has been punished for creating an atmosphere of false promises and hiding the evidence that showed significant risks factors for breast cancer for women taking Premarin and Provera.

Annual sales of Wyeth’s Hormone Replacement Therapy for menopause symptoms exceeded $2 billion before a 2002 study, sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, suggested that women using the medicines had a 24 percent higher risk of breast cancer.

Until 1995, many patients combined Premarin, Wyeth’s estrogen-based drug, with progestin-laden Provera, made by Pfizer’s Pharmacia & Upjohn unit. Wyeth then combined the two hormones in Prempro. The drugs are still on the market.

If you are taking these drugs consider a natural herbal alternative to HRT, Hormone Replacement Therapy that has withstood the test of time.

Flax Out – Chinese Herbs In For Hot Flashes

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hot flashes gone with Chinese herbsWe understand women are looking for natural products for as menopause treatment options.  Unfortunately,  flax seeds do not significantly lessen hot flashes according a study done at the Mayo Clinic and reported today in the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.

Researchers enrolled 178 women who had at least 28 hot flashes per week.  About half were breast cancer survivors.  

The women were given snack bars with or without flax seed to eat once a day. After six weeks, only a third of each group reported 50 percent fewer hot flashes, and all reported more bloating, diarrhea and nausea.”This we suspect was due to the fiber content in the bars,” According to Dr. Sandhya Pruthi of the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis.

If flax seeds don’t help hot flashes what does help? Chinese herbs have been used for over two thousand years successfully throughout Asia and help women naturally go through the change in life without severe hot flashes and night sweats.  

Chinese herbs such as Rehamniae, Discorea, Horny Goat Weed, Moutan and others have a long history of helping women balance their energy and bring their bodies back to homeostasis.  Herbal medical products for the treatment of menopausal symptoms have been studied and used continuously throughout Asia. Most American’s are familiar with a few Chinese herbs such as Ginseng, Dang Gui and Ginger.  Yet, hundreds of herbs have been  time tested and are safe and effective. These Chinese herbs may be new to the Western woman for menopause treatment, but Asian women have known the power in natural herbs by being raised in a culture which accepts and treasures their history, culture and learned knowledge that has been pasted down through generations.  

For more information on Chinese herbs for menopause hot flashes click here.

You may also be interested in this blog post: A Natural Alternative to Hormones and Hot Flashes.

Acupuncture for Menopause Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

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By Jennifer Dubowsky

A new study shows the benefits of acupuncture for relieving menopausal symptoms. The report, published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, found that acupuncture reduced the psychological and physical effects of menopause.

The research included 53 postmenopausal women and assigned 27 of them to a five-week course of acupuncture, twice a week. The rest of the women got sham treatments. Those who received acupuncture showed more relief from their symptoms than the placebo group. Both their hot flashes and mood swings were less severe.  Plus the estrogen levels were significantly higher for the women in the acupuncture group compared to the control group.

The researchers suggested that acupuncture may offer an alternative for women who can’t or don’t want to use hormone replacement therapy to ease menopause symptoms.

Check out Menopause Relief Herb Tea for a healthy way to bring your body back into balance and be free from those annoying hot flashes and night sweats. 

Is Your Menopause a Hormonal Nightmare?

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Ever heard of bed time aerobics? It’s a night class nobody would purposely sign up for, but you just may have experienced it.

It goes something like this.  “I fall asleep comfortably wrapped in my comforter in my flannel PJ’s when it’s cold.  After a few hours I shed the top comforter layer.  Then I’m down to the sheet which eventually gets soaked in sweat.  At this point the chills set in and I’m back to pulling up the comforter, shedding the PJ’s for a dry cotton t-shirt and then the process starts again.”

If you are in the peri-menopausal or menopause years you know it as “night sweats”.

There is also the day time version which most women know as “hot flashes”.  Western medicine says this is all caused by the hypothalamus that gets confused by fluctuating estrogen levels and sends the message for blood vessels to dilate to heat you up, and then release sweat to cool you down.

Night sweats can go on for years and interrupted sleep can lead to a host of other health problems.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), night sweats and hot flashes are due to an imbalance in the yin and yang energies in the body. As we age, everyone, males and females become deficient in both yin and yang.  Night time is yin time, and when a person is yin deficient, the symptoms tend to manifest at the height of yin (night) time.  Night sweats are considered very debilitating in Chinese medicine because sweat is considered a fluid of the heart. Therefore, sweating at night while sleeping (not exercising) can also be accompanied by heart palpitations, insomnia, fatigue and paleness,

The appropriate treatment is to boost the yin and the yang with foods and Chinese herbs. 

Asian women experience much fewer hot flashes and night sweats and very few of them are ever put on hormone replacement therapy.  Interestingly, only about 10% of Asian women experience noticeable menopausal symptoms, compared with 75% of the women in the United States.

The use of food as medicine is a basic idea in Asian culture, and a fundamental principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Herbs are commonly used in Asian cooking to help supplement the yin energy as people age.  Chinese herbs are made into teas and commonly served as a daily drink to supplement health concerns  often before symptoms get seriously out of control.  This early “preventative” approach helps many women avoid the dreaded night time aerobics we commonly see in the U.S. population.  Our Menopause Relief Herb Pac will boost both your yin and yang energy to reset your body’s natural thermostat and eliminate the night sweats and hot flashes in just a few short weeks, guaranteed.

A Natural Alternative To Hormones and Hot Flashes

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Natural Menopause treatments I was so thoroughly impressed with Carolyn's article below I had to re-post it.  If you're one of the millions that suffer from menopausal hot flashes and night sweats you should know there is a natural solution.  Traditional Chinese Medicine has been using combinations of herbs, (herbal formulas) for over one thousand continuous years successfully.   Our Menopause Relief Herb Pac  is based on  one of these formulas.  Written originally in 1113 AD, it's the synergy of the herbs working together that makes the difference.  The 12 herbs in our Menopause Relief gently restore your body's natural "thermostat".  The tea taste delicious and results are guaranteed.  There is a better, safer answer for menopause symptoms than HRT  and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has embraced it for centuries.  Just because you live in the West does not mean you can't experience the healing power from the East.  We didn't recreate the wheel here, we just repackaged it for you.  Now for the Nag!

By:  The Ethical Nag – Carolyn Thomas

How is it possible that half of all gynecologists are still prescribing hormone replacement therapy to their patients for uses that are clearly unsupported by evidence – despite the alarming warnings of the largest randomized, placebo-controlled trial of HRT ever performed?

This reality is “curious”, according to Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman at Georgetown University Medical Center, in a new study* examining 340 medical journal articles about HRT. Her research was published yesterday in the journal, Public Library of Science Medicine.

But even more curious are her findings that the majority of the doctors who have written pro-HRT papers for medical journals have been funded by the very drug companies that manufacture hormone replacement drugs.

These companies were financially hurt by 2002 results of the massive Women’s Health Initiative study, which meant an almost immediate catastrophic loss of sales revenue for manufacturers of all HRT drugs. Prescriptions dropped by 80% – a major blow to companies like Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, whose HRT drugs Prempro and Premarin had earned the company over $2 billion just one year earlier.

Dr. Fugh-Berman now explains how pharmaceutical companies may have successfully begun to address and even reverse this loss of income by attempting to influence what doctors are learning about HRT since the WHI findings went public:

“The pharmaceutical industry has supported publication of articles in medical journals for marketing purposes. For example, of the 10 journal authors we studied who had written 4-6 articles each:

* eight were found to have declared payment for speaking or consulting on behalf of menopausal hormone manufacturers or for research support
* seven of these eight were speakers or consultants for the drug company

In addition:

* 30 of 32 medical journal articles (90%) evaluated as promoting HRT were authored by those with financial conflicts of interest
* journal articles promoting the use of HRT were almost two and a half times more likely to have been authored by authors with financial conflicts of interest as by authors without conflicts of interest
* in articles from three authors with financial conflicts of interest, some of the same text was repeated word-for-word in different medical journal articles

We know that physicians read medical journals, and Dr. Berman reminds us that about half of gynecologists still continue to distrust the results of WHI while prescribing HRT for uses that are not supported by evidence.

She reported that common themes in journal articles, editorials and letters that were identified as “promotional” included:

* attacks on the methodology of the WHI
* arguments that clinical trial results should not guide treatment for individuals
* arguments that observational studies are as good as or better than randomized clinical trials for guiding clinical decisions.
* arguments implying that the risks associated with hormone therapy have been exaggerated and that the benefits of hormone therapy have been or will be proven.

WHI, a major independent 15-year research program begun in 1991, reported that the demonstrated risks of HRT outweighed benefits in asymptomatic women. Risks were so clearly demonstrated that the HRT study was stopped early. These findings on the use of estrogen-progestin and estrogen-only HRT drugs were alarming, according to Dr. Fugh-Berman’s team:

“Both therapies increased the risk of stroke, deep vein thrombosis, dementia, and incontinence; estrogen-progestin therapy also increased rates of breast cancer.

“Neither therapy reduced cardiovascular risk, and neither markedly benefited health-related quality of life measures.”

A follow-up study by the Canadian Cancer Society found there was a significant decrease of 10% in the rate of new breast cancers among post-menopausal women between 2002 and 2004 — coinciding with a huge drop in the use of HRT after the WHI study was published.

But the WHI results were no surprise to many women’s health organizations, according to Kathleen O’Grady of the Canadian Women’s Health Network:

“We have been following the questionable methods used to promote the prescription of HRT to healthy midlife women. Short-term use of HRT has been documented in a variety of studies as a useful treatment for alleviating the temporary symptoms associated with the onset of menopause, such as hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness. However, long-term use of HRT (more than 5 years), and the practice of prescribing HRT to healthy women—those not experiencing severe menopausal symptoms—is another matter.

“The WHI results are only the latest in a long series of studies demonstrating that longterm use of HRT should be considered only with extreme caution.”

If you’re like me, and you question even the term “hormone replacement therapy” – which somehow implies that, when diagnosed with the medicalized “disease” of menopause, our hormones need “replacing” in the first place – you’ll be interested in reading Dr. Fugh-Berman’s paper in the Public Library of Science Medicine. Or learn more on the Women’s Health Initiative FAQs page.

*Fugh-Berman A, McDonald CP, Bell AM, Bethards EC, Scialli AR (2011) Promotional Tone in Reviews of Menopausal Hormone Therapy After the Women’s Health Initiative: An Analysis of Published Articles. PLoS Med 8(3): e1000425. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000425

http://www.ethicalnag.org

Dr. Oz And Dr. Weil Talk About Herbs for Menopause

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Menopause treatment Dr. Andrew Weil, founder of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona  recently appeared on The Dr. Oz Show.  The topic of supplements and herbs was discussed, especially those for menopausal hot flashes and night sweat flair-ups. Dr. Weil suggested  eating fresh ground flax seed, which is high in omega-3 and fiber, sprinkled on cereal or otherwise taking 20 mg of black cohosh twice daily in supplement form or as tea.  I agree with Dr. suggestions but….

What if black cohosh worked better when combined with a few other herbs?  (Kind of like chicken soup.  You add the chicken but if you add spices, carrots and celery it just taste a little better.)

What if the herbs for menopause symptom relief had been proven effective by hundreds of clinical studies?

What if a herbal tea that relieved hot flashes and night sweats was available in the U.S.?

What if you knew this menopause relief herbal tea was completely safe to take long term and has been used my millions of people?

What if  you knew the herbs in menopause relief herb tea has been used for one thousand years, continuously throughout parts of the world. 

What if you knew this menopause relief herb tea was included as part of the health insurance prescription coverage in Japan?

What if  you could drink this blend of herbs as a tea that taste delicious?

What if this menopause relief tea cost  less than $1.00 per day?

What if all the was true and you could buy it right here?

For less than the cost of a cup of coffee you can stop suffering from night sweats and hot flashes. We guarantee it. As do the governments of Japan, Germany, and China which all include it as part of the national health insurance programs.  Why are these countries so far ahead of the U.S.?  I believe Dr. Weil and his team ask the same question.  

Thank you Dr. Weil and his team of doctors Russell Greenfield, Jim Nicolai and Victoria Maizes which have brought Integrative Medicine front and center stage on shows like Dr. Oz.   I whole heartedly applaud  them for embracing integrative medicine in the U.S.  In other parts of the world, particularly China, Taiwan, Germany and Japan and Australia, Integrative medicine is more universally practiced  and taught in the medical schools.

Dr. Oz went on to say that Dr. Weil had a secret supplement that he couldn’t live without. It turned out to be a supplement that Dr. Weil highly recommended taking once a day containing containing acetyl L-carnitine (1000 mg) and alpha-lipoic acid (300 mg) daily.  Dr. Weil said that the benefits of the supplement will also help reduce aging.

Menopause Treatments and Hormone Tips

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Chinese herbal remedies for menopauseIt is possible to live through the menopausal years without suffering from hot flashes, mood swings, night sweats and other symptoms.  Consider these  menopause treatment options,  when you are looking for a solution.

What was once standard therapy, Hormone Replacement Therapy, (HRT) has been proven much too risky because of the increased risk of breast cancer and heart disease.  Now what’s a women to do?

Today Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy, (BHRT) seems to be coming more accepted. The difference is hormones in BHRT are derived from plants such as soy and yams rather than from the urine of pregnant horses.  

But is taking unopposed estrogen a good idea?  Our bodies normally maintain a delicate balance of hormones to keep it functioning optimally at any age.  Today we have xeno-estrogens in our water, our cosmetics, our food and even on cash register receipts.  So how do we know when our bodies have too much or not enough hormones??  As our livers work overtime to process all this estrogen, is adding more really such a good idea?

Some doctors are speaking out on this subject, warning that unless estrogen is balanced with progesterone, women could be putting themselves at risks..”To say it’s bio-identical doesn’t mean it’s safe,” Dr. Richard Boroditsky, a professor at the University of Manitoba’s department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences. To avoid the risk of uterine cancer most women taking estrogen also need to take progesterone, he says. While most bio-identical therapies use progesterone creams, Dr. Boroditsky says women can’t be sure of the levels of hormones they’re absorbing. “We’ve known this for years – that if woman takes un-opposed estrogen, she increases her risk eight to 10 times over the normal chances of developing cancer of the uterus,” he says.

When you are looking for an answer carrying non of these risks, check into Eastern Medicine alternatives such as Chinese herbs and Menopause Relief Herb Pac.   These types of herbal remedies have been used for centuries safely and without side-effects.  The herbs we use do not mimic estrogen nor are they xeno-estrogens rather they gently reduce your body temperature by supporting adrenal function and nourish the dryness which occurs from the excessive heat.  In Eastern medicine the classic herbal formula called Zhi Bai Di Huang Wan or Anemarrhena, Phellodendron, and Rehmannia  cools the blood and nourishes the yin fluids. 

At Pac Herbs we strive to bring herbal remedies to women who want a safe and effective answer to the uncomfortable symptoms that can accompany menopause and peri-menopause.  Give our Menopause Relief herb tea a test run, you’ll see a noticeable reduction in symptoms with the first box of tea.  It taste delicious while fueling your body with the natural nutrients it needs to support your adrenal glands as you gradually adjust to reduced hormone levels. Menopause is a natural body function which arrives as we age and all bodies need a little support to manage the change. Herbs are a gentler, kinder, time tested method of supporting this natural change.

Managing Menopause Treatment

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Menopause Treatment with Chinese herbsAn article recently posted in  Time Magazine has me a bit bent out of shape.  It's titled, "Why Those Agonizing Hot Flashes May Not Be All Bad".  It tells women having hot flashes is not a bad thing because it's going to reduce their risk for breast cancer. 

Yet,  if you take a look at the study, that is not what it says.  The researchers were examining associations between menopausal symptoms and risks of different types of breast cancer among postmenopausal women.  This is yet another study for media to latch onto a claim, even when it's a wrong claim, it hangs around like a deadbeat renter you can’t evict.

That's not the only part Time misrepresented. The researchers even stressed that the implications of their findings, are far from certain.  “This is the first study to look at this,” said the senior author, Dr. Christopher Li of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “We tried to do the best we could. We want to see a replication of the results to see if they hold up before we can make any strong inferences.”

Oops. the Time article failed to mention that! 

When you are looking for a menopause treatment for those hot flashes, night sweats and anxiety feelings, look at natural remedies that have stood the test of time.  Proven effective through centuries of use, Chinese herbal formulas have been used longer than any other herbal medicine in the world.

When it comes to research, Chinese herbs have been the most researched natural drugs.  In fact, many pharmaceutical companies use the plant compounds from Chinese herbs to create new drugs.  

Menopause Relief is a simple easy way to manage your hot flashes and other uncomfortable symptoms. Drink a cup of tea each day and start feeling the natural relief from this time tested menopause treatment.  It taste good and it works.  Thousands of years of history stand behind our natural menopause remedy.  But if you need studies to tell you it works, we have those too.


Link to the study published in the Journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2011/01/14/1055-9965.EPI-10-0998.abstract?sid=ea773297-c910-4e33-9878-bdc99b1d5da7

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References/Studies on Traditional Chinese Herbs in our Menopause Relief formula

1, Tsuda T, Sugaya A, Ohguchi H, et al. Protective effects of peony root extract and its components on neuron damage in the hippocampus induced by the cobalt focus epilepsy model. Exp Neurol 1997;146:518-25. 

2,  Chen LC, Chou MH, Lin MF, Yang LL. Effects of Paeoniae Radix, a traditional Chinese medicine, on the pharmacokinetics of phenytoin. J Clin Pharm Ther 2001;26:271-8. 11015   Guo TL, Zhou XW. [Clinical observations on the treatment of the gestational hypertension syndrome with Angelica and Paeonia powder]. Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 1986;6:714-6, 707. 

 3.  Xie HJ, Yasar U, Sandberg M, Rane A. Paeoniae Radix, a traditional Chinese medicine, and CYP2C9 activity. J Clin Pharm Ther 2002;27:229-30. 

 4.  He X, Xing D, Ding Y, et al. Effects of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion on pharmacokinetic fate of paeoniflorin after intravenous administration of Paeoniae Radix extract in rats. J Ethnopharmacol 2004;94:339-44. 

5.  Harada M, Suzuki M, Ozaki Y. Effect of Japanese Angelica root and peony root on uterine contraction in the rabbit in situ. J Pharmacobiodyn 1984;7:304-11.

 6.  Anon. Monograph. Peony (Paeonia spp). Alt Med Rev 2001;6:495-9. 

 7.   Liang Xiao, Wang YZ, Jing Liu, et al. Effects of paeoniflorin on the cerebral infarction, behavioral and cognitive impairments at the chronic stage of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. Life Sci 2005;78:413-20 . 

8.  Maeda T, Shinozuka K, Baba K, et al. Effect of shakuyaku-kanzoh-toh, a prescription composed of shakuyaku (Paeoniae Radix) and kanzoh (Glycyrrhizae Radix) on guinea pig ileum. J Pharmacobiodyn 1983;6:153-60.

9.  Ohta H, Ni JW, Matsumoto K, et al. Peony and its major constituent, paeoniflorin, improve radial maze performance impaired by scopolamine in rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1993;45:719-23.

10.   Okubo T, Nagai F, Seto T, et al. The inhibition of phenylhydroquinone-induced oxidative DNA cleavage by constituents of Moutan Cortex and Paeoniae Radix.

11.  Biol Pharm Bull 2000;23:199-203.  Wang H, Wei W, Wang NP, et al. Effects of total glucosides of peony on immunological hepatic fibrosis in rats.

12.  World J Gastroenterol 2005;11:2124-9.    Qi XG. [Protective mechanism of Salvia miltiorrhiza and Paeonia lactiflora for experimental liver damage]. [Article in Chinese].

14.  Zhongguo Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi. 1994;14:207-9, 195.  Liu C, Wang J, Yang J. [Study on activating blood and eliminating stasis of total paeony glycoside(TPG)]. [Article in Chinese].

15.  Zhong Yao Cai 2000;23:557-60.    Liapina LA, Ammosova IaM, Novikov VS, et al. [The nature of an anticoagulant isolated from peonies in the central zone of Russia]. [Article in Russian].

 16.  Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Za Zhi 1990;10:101-2, 70. Kumada T, et al. Effect of Shakuyaku-kanzo-to (Tsumura TJ-68) on muscle cramps accompanying cirrhosis in a placebo-controlled double-blind parallel study. J Clin Ther Med 1999;15:499-523. 

 17.  Hyodo T, Taira T, Kumakura M, et al. The immediate effect of Shakuyaku-kanzo-to, traditional Japanese herbal medicine, for muscular cramps during maintenance hemodialysis.

18.  Am J Chin Med 2003;31:445-53.    Liu J. [Effect of Paeonia obovata 801 on metabolism of thromboxane B2 and arachidonic acid and on platelet aggregation in patients with coronary heart disease and cerebral thrombosis]. [Article in Chinese].

19.   Zhonghua Yi Xue Za Zhi 1983;63:477-81. \  Yang HO, Ko WK, Kim JY, Ro HS. Paeoniflorin: an antihyperlipidemic agent from Paeonia lactiflora.

Sexy New Natural Products like Sleep Aids through Science

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We can create better nutrition through science, right?  We can isolate green tea extract and mix it into our processed cereal to create a heart healthy product, right?  We can remove the curcuminoids from curcumin (which originates in herbs like turmeric) and add it to a chocolate bar to help reduce cholesterol, right?  Through chemistry we can isolate every health polysaccarides, saponin, polyphenol and trace mineral and put them into a drink, a food bar or any other new product formulation and call it a "natural product", right?

Technically speaking the answers to the above questions are yes.  But are we missing the forest from the trees.  We have no long term historical use that eating chemically extracted and combined super foods is actually good for the human body. 

Scientists/product developers are continually trying to improve upon nature for new natural product formulations for sleep, energy, hot flashes, well being, or … you fill in the blank.    But maybe, just maybe, our bodies don't know how to handle this new nutrition.  Does anybody stop and consider this is the first time in the history of man's diet that people are eating this way? 

Do our genetics change overnight to process these nutritional supplements which we've never ingested before?

What's lost in the process is the human bodies response to this myriad of natural chemical components that maybe, just maybe were never meant to be together in the first place.  Maybe a blueberry was never meant to cross paths with a chemically created biotin because the chemical components would never be found together in nature.

What I love about Chinese herbal medicine natural supplements is the lack of artificially created chemicals.  Chinese herbs combined together with other Chinese herbs, have already passed the test of mans digestive system.  The record books on Traditional Chinese herbal medicine far exceeds anything Guiness Books can duplicate, Chinese herbs are proven effective sleep aids, energy boosters, immune enhancers, the list goes on.  They don't need science to extract their individual active components and marry them off to a vitamin supplement or other extracted ingredient.  They have already been proven effective, no need for science to tell us which individual active ingredient works best with another. Natural ingredients work best synergistically together as whole foods for the whole body.

Before the microscope and before chemistry could explain which flavonol worked best with which gingerol, Chinese herbal medicine perfected the marriage of combining whole roots, barks, fruits, seeds etc. through thousands of years of use. They learned which plants worked best with each other. Not as a single ingredient extract, because nature never intended for us to use just one small chemical in the apple. Nature provides us the whole apple to eat and enjoy as a whole. When we piece meal the phyto-nutrients from the juice or the skin, we no longer have what nature intended.  How can our bodies possibly know what to do with a single chemical when it's spent millions of years eating it whole.

The message here is easy, when your looking for a natural sleep aid, energy drink or hot flash natural treatment, look for ALL natural ingredients that contain plant names.. not chemical names.