12 beyond beauty benefits of collagen

MANILA, Philippines — When it comes to health, the big C’s are usually Vitamin C, cancer and lately, medicinal cannabis.

Often, people forget another important C: collagen.

This summer, increased sun exposure leads to aging and depletion of collagen, the building blocks of protein and the skin’s main structure that is also found in the eyes, heart, kidneys, tendons, ligaments, liver, and even in stomach and hair, said esthetics and rejuvenation expert Dr. Cecilia Catapang.

“At a certain point, the body stops producing collagen,” the doctor warned during the recent launch of food supplement Novuskin Lift, claimed to be the first in the market to have 18 natural ingredients, including marine fish collagen.

Collagen comprises 80 percent of skin, but due to free radicals, when one reaches 20, one loses collagen at the rate of is 1.8 percent per year, and 20 to 25 percent annually by age 30, said Catapang.

If you are feeling sluggish and having many wrinkles by age 40, that is because collagen has rapidly depleted in one's body, she said.

Since collagen is in over 100 parts of the body, 14 of which are the most important. Catapang stressed the value of taking collagen supplements not only for beauty but also for health.

According to her, here are other beyond beauty benefits collagen can give:

    Bone healing
    Anti-aging
    Wound healing
    Increased protein intake
    Antibacterial
    Collagen has aspirin-like properties that can prevent heart attack and stroke
    Marine fish collagen and peptide are widely used as supplements because of their similarity to human collagen. These have a good safety profile and high bioavailability through the gastrointestinal tract, promoting skin repair. The intake of this must be combined with antioxidants.
    Marine fish collagen is absorbed up to 1.5 times more effectively into the body and has superior bioavailability over bovine or porcine collagens, thus, fish collagen is considered the best collagen for medicinal purposes.
    When completely digested, fish collagen stimulates cells in skin, joints and bones, leading to collagen synthesis through cell activation and growth.
    Other fish collagen benefits include anti-aging, bone healing and rejuvenation, wound healing, increased protein intake and antibacterial properties.
    Fish collagen is high in essential and non-essential amino acids.
    Every 10 grams of fish collagen has protein, potassium, sodium and iron

White sugar, said Catapang, weakens collagen, so she suggested using other healthier sweeteners like muscovado or brown sugar.

“To effectively slow down aging, do measures that will have a lasting impact not only to skin but the entire well-being,” she noted.

source: philstar.com

Supplements blamed for 23,000 ER visits in US each year

MIAMI -- Over the counter supplements, including vitamins, sexual enhancements and weight loss aids, are being blamed for 23,000 visits to US emergency rooms each year, according to a decade-long study this week.

The findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine are based on reports from a nationally representative sample of 63 emergency departments from 2004 through 2013.

The study raised new concerns among experts over the safety of an industry that critics say is largely unregulated and yet highly popular among consumers -- bringing in $14.8 billion in 2007, or one third of the out-of-pocket expenditures for prescription drugs, according to background information in the article.

More than one quarter (28 percent) of visits were by adults aged 20 to 34.

Weight loss aids were a leading culprit in this age group, causing more than half of emergency room visits, commonly for heart related symptoms including palpitations, chest pain, or irregular heartbeat.

More than one fifth (21 percent) of emergency visits were due to children swallowing supplements.

"Child-resistant packaging is not required for dietary supplements other than those containing iron, and despite such packaging, iron supplements were the second most commonly implicated type of supplement in unsupervised ingestion by children," said the study.

When it came to people, swallowing problems caused nearly 40 percent of emergency department visits for supplement-related adverse events.

Just 2,000 people are hospitalized annually after taking supplements.

The research did not track any deaths that might have been linked to supplement use.

The study pointed out that although the US Food and Drug Administration is tasked with overseeing supplements, "neither safety testing nor FDA approval is required before the marketing of dietary supplements."

The researchers also said their estimates are likely lower than the actual number because patients do not always report using supplements.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition, an industry group, said the findings should be viewed in context, and defended the safety of supplements.

"The results of this study reinforce that dietary supplements are safe products, particularly when put into context with the number of people -- over 150 million Americans -- who take dietary supplements every year," said Duffy MacKay, senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs.

"To put this projected number of 23,000 annual emergency room (ER) visits into context, we estimate that far less than one tenth of one percent of dietary supplement users experience an emergency room visit annually."

source: interaksyon.com

New study questions vitamin D supplements in pregnancy

PARIS (AFP) - Taking vitamin D supplements in pregnancy seems to make no difference to a child's bone health, in contrast to guidelines in some countries, research published in The Lancet on Tuesday says.

University of Bristol investigators in western England looked at vitamin D levels throughout the pregnancy of nearly 4,000 British women.

They then measured the bone mineral content of the women's children at the age of nine.

They found no association between the mother's vitamin D levels and the health of the children's bones.

source: straitstimes.com

Panel questions value of calcium, vitamin D pills

WASHINGTON (AP) — Popping calcium and vitamin D pills in hopes of strong bones? Healthy older women should not bother with relatively low-dose dietary supplements, say new recommendations from a U.S. government advisory group.

Both nutrients are crucial for healthy bones and specialists advise getting as much as possible from a good diet. The body also makes vitamin D from sunshine. If an older person has a vitamin deficiency or bone-thinning osteoporosis, doctors often prescribe higher-than-normal doses.

But for otherwise healthy postmenopausal women, adding modest supplements to their diet — about 400 international units of D and 1,000 milligrams of calcium — do not prevent broken bones but can increase the risk of kidney stones, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said Monday.

It is not clear if those doses offer bone protection if taken before menopause, or if they help men's bones, the guidelines said.

What about higher-dose supplements that have become more common recently? There's not enough evidence to tell if they would prevent fractures, either, in an otherwise healthy person, the panel concluded. It urged more research to settle the issue.

It's a confusing message considering that for years, calcium and vitamin D supplements have been widely considered an insurance policy against osteoporosis, with little down side to taking them.




"Regrettably, we don't have as much information as we would like to have about a substance that has been around a long time and we used to think we understood," said Dr. Virginia Moyer of the Baylor College of Medicine, who heads the task force. "Turns out, there's a lot more to learn."

The main caution: These recommendations aren't for people at high risk of weak bones, including older adults who have previously broken a bone and are at risk for doing so again, said Dr. Sundeep Khosla of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. Those people should consult a doctor, said Khosla, a bone specialist at the Mayo Clinic who wasn't part of the panel's deliberations.

Calcium and vitamin D work together, and you need a lifetime of both to build and maintain strong bones. Vitamin D also is being studied for possibly preventing cancer and certain other diseases, something that Monday's guidelines don't address and that other health groups have cautioned isn't yet proven.

For now, national standards advise the average adult to get about 1,000 mg of calcium, 1,300 for postmenopausal women, every day. For vitamin D, the goal is 600 IUs of vitamin D every day, moving to 800 after age 70, according to the Institute of Medicine, which set those levels in 2010. The nutrients can come from various foods, including orange juice fortified with calcium and D; dairy foods such as milk, yogurt and cheese; certain fish including salmon; and fortified breakfast cereals. Harder to measure is how much vitamin D the body also produces from sunshine.

Most people should get enough calcium from food, said Mayo's Khosla. But while he cautions against too high doses, he frequently tells his patients to take a multivitamin because it's harder to get vitamin D from food and during the winter.

While supplement science gets sorted out, the task force's Moyer advises healthy seniors to exercise — proven to shore up bones and good for the rest of the body, too.

source: philstar.com

Report: Some dietary supplements illegally labeled

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Dozens of weight loss and immune system supplements on the market are illegally labeled and lack the recommended type of scientific evidence to back up their purported health claims, government investigators warn in a new review of the $20 billion supplement industry.

The report, released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general, found that 20 percent of the 127 weight loss and immune-boosting supplements investigators purchased online and in retail stores across the country carried labels that made illegal claims to cure or treat disease.

In addition, many of those and other supplements lacked the scientific studies recommended to support their suggested uses.

Some products went so far as to state that the supplements could cure or prevent diabetes or cancer, or that they could help treat people with HIV or AIDS, which is strictly prohibited under federal law.

Consumers may not just be wasting their money on pills or tablets, but they could be endangering their health if they take a supplement in place of a drug thinking it will have the same effect, the report concluded.

"Consumers rely on a supplement's claims to determine whether the product will provide a desired effect, such as weight loss or immune support," the report said. "Supplements that make disease claims could mislead consumers into using them as replacements for prescription drugs or other treatments for medical conditions, with potentially dangerous results."

The market for dietary supplements - which can include anything from vitamin C tablets to capsules of echinacea - is a huge one with hundreds of products. The inspector general's investigation focused on one segment that officials said is booming.

Federal law doesn't require supplements to go through rigorous testing to prove they are safe or even that they work. The Food and Drug Administration can act only after consumers get sick or a safety issue comes to light.

The Office of Inspector General found that in numerous cases, when companies did submit evidence to back up their health claims, it fell far short of government recommendations.

One company submitted a 30-year-old handwritten college term paper to substantiate its claim, while others included news releases, advertisements and links to Wikipedia or an online dictionary, according to the report.

Overall, the review raises questions about whether the system is allowing companies to mislead consumers, investigators said, and recommended that FDA ramp up its oversight. The report did not name individual brands or products, and also did not estimate the total number of dietary supplements on the market.

In response, the food safety agency said in written comments it would consider asking Congress for more oversight powers to review supplement companies' evidence proving their products' purported health benefits. FDA agreed that the agency should expand surveillance of the market to detect spurious claims that supplements can cure or treat specific diseases.

FDA recognizes the importance of the concerns raised about industry compliance and will address the recommendations as its resources and priorities allow, FDA spokeswoman Tamara Ward said in a statement Wednesday.

Investigators also found that 7 percent of the weight loss and immune support supplements they surveyed lacked the required disclaimer stating that FDA had not reviewed whether the statement on the label was truthful.

Ashish Talati, a Chicago-based attorney whose firm represents about 350 dietary supplement and food companies from across the globe, said while the industry is currently well regulated it made sense for manufacturers to share the scientific evidence behind their claims with FDA.

"Supplements are very, very safe compared to other products," he said. "Yes, there are companies that cross the line and make specific claims, but that is the enforcement area that FDA focuses on where there is a public health issue."

source: asianjournal.com