Friday, August 29, 2008

Vitamin Supplements

There is currently controversy over whether vitamin supplements are good. Recent studies show that American's waste millions of dollars yearly on over the counter vitamin supplements that are not absorbed by the body. Basically, we are paying to have expensive urine. Certainly, some patients have specific deficiencies in certain vitamins because of absorption problems but for the normal American---we can get all that we need from the food that we eat. That is --whole grains, fruits, veggies, and lean meat.

Weight loss

Are you wishing you could lose weight? Are you wondering about the over the counter weight loss products and if they are safe? My patients are always asking me if they can try ALLI and if it works. My answer is sure---you can try it but you will be setting yourself up for some public embarrassment. Alli causes alot of gas and oily messy stools---at times, it can even make you incontinent. I have never had a patient lose weight on this product--even when it was a prescription drug. Currently, there are not any safe otc weight loss products---there is evidence that green and black tea do speed the metabolism though.