Snake Oil Supplements - What is the Evidence?

Think twice before burning your cash for the promises that some supplements may not deliver.

Like in many cases, you are dealing with an entity (the supplement industry) that exploits your gullibility. Ok, let's stop for a second so I set some things clear.

I currently do not believe in conspiracy theories. Industries (all) are up for profitability. This doesn't inherently imply honesty. As long as they play/twist it legally, they can benefit from your lack of education, without having any ethically-related remorse.

That being said, I used to consume a lot of supplements, testimony for that is the 'supplements (I used)' page from my blog.

Reading scientific studies and self-educating in cognitive biases made me slowly and gradually stop using most of these supplements. Plus, what I'm about to present here may plead my case...

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Supplements and Evidence

David McCandless and his team at Information is Beautiful have created a wonderful graphical depiction of the data they collected (from research studies) on the scientific evidence behind different supplements.

The infographic is interactive - if you click on a bubble, it displays a short description of the evidence related to the supplement and a link to the study on which the claim is based. So make sure to check it out here.

The spreadsheet behind this infographic is big data. They sourced their data from Pubmed, Cochrane and Examine and they focused on randomized controlled trials, large trials, and meta-analyses as much as they could.

McCandnless and his team included 192 supplements (vitamins, minerals, enzymes, plants/herbs, compounds, etc) for a total of 205 health conditions. I filtered the data in descending order on the evidence score a supplement/compound received:

As you may see, there are only two that make up the category for strong evidence (6):

• St. John's Wort for depression:

"St. John's wort has been shown to be equally as effective as conventional medications in treating depression."

• coffee with respect to heart disease:

"A metastudy found that the more coffee a person drinks, the lower their risk of cardiovascular disease. The optimum amount of coffee for this benefit was 3-5 per day."

Caffeine for memory is between strong and good evidence (5).

Similarly, there are only a few supplements in the 'good evidence' (5) category:

• egg shell membrane for joint health/arthritis:

"Egg shell membrane eases joints by increasing cell production and decreasing inflammation. 500mg a day gives rapid results."

• feverfew for migraines
• folic acid to prevent birth defects
• peppermint oil for IBS:

"Peppermint oil relaxes muscles, which relieves IBS-related muscle spasms. Peppermint oil might be more effective than conventional anti-spasmodics and fibre treatment."

• probiotics for diarrhea from antibiotic use:

"Lowers the risk of diarrhoea as a side-effect of antibiotics by 42%. More research needed to see which strains are most effective."

• vitamin D:

"In a review of 18 trials, it was found that vitamin D supplementation reduced the risk of all-cause mortality."

• Zinc

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The rest of them - hundredsomethin' - make the categories of 'promising' (a few), 'inconclusive', 'slight', 'none', and 'harmful' (the bulk).

They are too conservative in their labeling. I'd simply put all these under 'snake oil'.

Plus, you have to understand that the supplements and compounds that make the categories of 'strong', 'good' and 'promising' have been analyzed in the context of adults on a healthy diet.

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Ending Thoughts

I'd recommend you visit the interactive infographic page and explore this information further.

Personally, my current use of supplements includes fish oil, magnesium, alpha lipoic acid, and creatine.

Interestingly, there's a lot of data behind the use of metformin, which is not a supplement but a drug usually administered to people with type 2 diabetes. The data behind metformin shows that it confers protective effects with respect to cancer development and progression, as well as with respect to other health conditions that appear as we age. One of the main molecular mechanisms through which metformin elicits such benefits is the activation of AMPk pathway, which I will probably discuss in a future post. Metformin is relatively safe from what I've seen and I'm looking forward to read more research on it.

To conclude, each of us is privileged to believe whatever we want with respect to supplementation. Whether or not such beliefs are supported by good science is another thing...

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To stay in touch with me, follow @cristi

Credits for Images: [David McCandless via Information is Beautiful]

#research #supplements #science

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Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author