Pau d’ Arco bark

It seems to cure whatever ails you. Can’t seem to find any information relative to heart or blood thinners.

Like most supplements, nobody really knows for sure what it does, but it might enhance anticoagulants. Good luck.

Catherine - There's a lot of info online... this report has related study links and in the text, indicates that those on blood thinners should check with physician before using... so that most likely means it's best to avoid that and any over-thinning or other interferences.
[www.globalhealingcenter.com]

Jackie

Thank you, Jackie for the link.

Carey said;

Like most supplements, nobody really knows for sure what it does

Not exactly true, if you go to a Holistic doctor he has experience with the different supplements which he prescribes.

Liz

Liz: Indeed Holistic docs have experience with supplements, particularly those they prescribe and probably sell from their office or private store. Frequently the contents are not listed on those products in other than at patented or trademarked names that may be nothing more than cheap ingredients available to anyone anywhere by their generic names.

To me, docs who do that are certainly unethical as many of the products they sell are some patented formulation that's price protected and only available at medical establishments so they get some income other than their fee for seeing you and prescribing them. Really, that's double profiting a practice for which anyone business like the securities industry would be fired or jailed.

Sort of similar to a physician prescribing tests at a facility in which he has an ownership interest or using equipment or drugs for which he's paid a fee by the manufacturer without disclosure. Even with disclosure, it's iffy.

Gordon

Gordon - Not all 'holistic' type doctors have their own brand of supplements but do offer supplements that are produced by bottlers who are considered to be a level or two above the commonly-available commercial supplement brands.
My Functional Medicine MD who is Board Certified in Family Practice medicine and certified by the IFM, offers a variety of these professional grade products for patients and many are discounted as well.

The key for patients is knowing whether they are truly professional grade or not...ie, is the quality assurance and formulation really there to justify the higher cost. Doctors who practice bonafide Functional Medicine know the various forms of nutrients that provide the most efficacious, predictable and reliable results for the target application. (And as you say, many others can just be pushing some random brand of supplements as revenue producers.)

The products produced by bottlers of "Professional-grade products" with specific quality control assurance and GMP standards have to meet certain elevated standards. They are more costly because of the thoroughness of the whole process to eliminate GMOs, heavy metal contamination, various screening for other criteria, specific raw materials, and the science behind optimal dosing, etc. And most importantly, the specific nutrient form known to offer the best or most efficacious bio-availability versus forms that may not be absorbable or assimilable.

Example... Vitamin B6 is an essential nutrient. To get the most benefit out of supplemental B6, it should be in the pyridoxyl-5-phospate or P5P form. A multi B vitamin from a professional grade bottler would have the P5P form; whereas, a generic form probably would not. Here's a description of why this is important....just one example out of many.

What is Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate?
Vitamin B6 can be found in three different forms. In order to get nutritional value out of these forms, they must first be converted into P5P in the liver. So P5P is the active night form of Vitamin B6. P5P is a coenzyme, meaning that it works with enzymes to help them accomplish their tasks more quickly and efficiently and thus is a crucial element of biosynthesis. P5P plays an important role in various functions in the body such as metabolism at the cellular level, muscle growth and repair, mood regulation, sleep regulation, and other executive functions. When P5P is taken in its purest form, it doesn’t have to go through the conversion process in the liver, meaning it’s possible people can then get more benefit out of the nutrient, especially when used with magnesium.
Source: [neurohacker.com]

A few of many such professional supplement producers are Designs for Health, Klaire Labs, Ortho Molecular Products, Advanced Bionutritionals, Metagenics, etc.

That said, there are also many OTC supplement producers that go the extra mile to offer a quality supplement backed up by nutritional science, GMP and other quality assurances. Many have stood the test of time... such as Natural Factors, Enzymedica, Allergy Research, Thorne and so on.....

Jackie

Gordon:

The supplements that I get from my doctor are listed on the container, made in Texas, U.S.A. not China, I have known my holistic doctor for about 20 years, he is very caring and does not overcharge. I go to him twice a year and he only charges me 125.00 and my blood draws are paid for by my Ins. When I go to a regular MD. they charge my Ins. 3 times more than what I pay my Holistic doc.

If my doc. sells supplements at his office, I see no problem with it, perhaps they cost a little more but what I have gotten they are good and I see nothing wrong if the doctor makes a little off the product. If you think that the securities exchange doesn't make money off of what they tell people, ho, ho. I am charged a monthly fee for having my stocks with Merrill Lynch, I buy and sell on my own, I could go with an online but like the security of ML. Everybody does things for money, one has to live after all.

Liz

Liz - These days, unfortunately, unless the supplement producer buys raw materials exclusively produced in the US, there is likely to be imported raw materials and that can include those from China. It's often a 'deep dive' to determine the facts about the source.

If the raw materials are assayed for purity to rule out contaminants before using in supplements, then, hopefully, the end-result is that we don't have adverse exposure. And, even US materials can have contaminants.

Jackie

On a related subject, what's your opinion of buying prescription drugs from other countries because they are so much cheaper?

I suspect many of us buy script from Canadian Pharmacies at less than half the USA price but when you look at the label you'll see they were manufactured in countries other than Canada. Indeed I've yet to get a prescription through a Canadian Pharmacy that was made in Canada..

For example, in the last couple of years my wife or I have received drugs from; Turkey, Singapore, Ireland, India and Israel. In each case the prescribing M.D. has known and approved using drugs from those sources, although they didn't recommend them.

Gordon