Supplement Studies Reviewed by American Acupuncture Center

Recently, there have been several studies regarding the efficacy of three of the most popular supplements: Echinacea, glucosamine/chondroitin and saw palmetto. The studies suggest that these alternatives to pharmaceuticals are not effective. Let’s look at these studies.

First, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study stating that echinacea, a member of the daisy family, is not effective at stopping the common cold. The dosage administered in the study was 900mg/day. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) monograph, and the Canadian Natural Health Products Directorate lists a therapeutic dose at 3,000mg/daily. This is nearly 300% larger than the study dose. This would be like taking 30% of an aspirin when you have a headache. Also, echinacea comes in three varieties. The variety used in the study, echinacea angustifolia is known to be least effective. Echinacea pallida and pupurea are the effective forms of this immune enhancer and are the types recommended by the German Commission E, a highly-respected authority on natural and medical products.

Second, a study on glucosamine and chondroitin complex suggests that the supplement is not as effective at relieving the pain of osteoarthritis as Celebrex, a pharmaceutical COX-2 inhibitor. The Celebrex group showed a 70% improvement while the glucosamine/chondroitin group showed a 67% improvement. However, in the category of moderate to severe pain, the glucosamine/chondroitin group was 10% better than the Celebrex group. Since the results are so similar, why wasn’t the headline “Supplement as Effective as Celebrex But Without Side Effects”? If the two are very similar in the result numbers, wouldn’t you rather take a supplement that has little or no side effects instead of a category of drugs responsible for the hospitalization of over 100,000 Americans every year? And who paid the researchers for this study? Pharmaceutical giants Merck (makers of Vioxx), McNeil Consumer and Specialty Pharmaceuticals (makers of Tylenol) and Pfizer. Pfizer manufactures Celebrex.

Third, saw palmetto (serenoa repens, serenoa serrulata, and sabal), a palm that grows on the south Atlantic seabord and Southern states was targeted in a study on benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). The preponderance of evidence for the effectiveness of saw palmetto is directed at men with mild symptoms of BPH. This is accepted by WHO, the German Commission E, the Canadian government’s Natural Health Products Directorate and the monograph by the European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (ESCOP). This study never negated the effectiveness of saw palmetto for mild to moderate symptoms of BPH.

Studies are often complex to understand, especially if you have not been trained to read them. Unfortunately, many of the studies being done now on natural and alternative supplements are sponsored and paid for by pharmaceutical corporations that would like nothing better than to see these natural products discredited. This is obviously a huge conflict of interest regarding these studies; I still recommend the above products to my patients when appropriate and believe they can be helpful.