Dietary-Supplements Books

Meyer lists more than two hundred natural medicines and their properties, as well as common ailments and a natural medicine-based plan for the healing process.

I found that this book does contain appropriate recommendations, when using natural medicine. There is some information that I have not found in other " Natural Health" books.

On the down side, I found that the amount of information on each topic, should have been a lot more in-depth, and some information;that is, herb recommendations for a particle illness was incomplete.

The author correctly points to the lack of solid research going into the development of nutraceutical products. There are several reasons for this including the different regulatory regimes governing nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. Regulations compel pharmaceutical producers to undertake lengthy clinical trials and other research activities. But nutraceutical producers are not faced with the same requirements. Should nutraceutical producers face the same regulations as pharmecutical producers? I would like to have see more examination of this issue, including a balance of arguments for and against. Nutraceuticals have been developed primarily in response to market demand for healthier food. This raises the question of whether or not they are simply a substitute or additive for food. If they are simply a food or food substitute then why regulate them into oblivion, where they would certainly end up if confronted with the same regulations as pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, regulations of nutraceuticals might simply switch demand for healthier basic foods like fruit and vegetables. I would like to have seen more discussion about where nutraceuticals fit into the food supply chain viz. the drug supply chain. Nevertheless, as we showed in our 1999 publication on "Nutraceucticals, Pharmaceuticals and New Industrial Product: The Potential for Agriculture", the nutraceutical industry is worth billions of dollars and still growing fast, so it's surprising more resources are not going into research before product development.

David Michael

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A somewhat disjointed history of Australian policing in the 1980's. A sequel will show that a supect has now been convicted.

I have always been of the oppinion that drugs were not the way to acheive good health. After consulting with conferring with my Primary care practitioner, I began a regimen of vitamins based on the reccomendations of this book and am experiencing something amazing - Excellent Health! The common sense that Dr. Ingram writes should be law, instead of outlawed.

The appendixes are the main useful parts of this book. According to this book any and all ailments that we have, (which we all in sometime have) according to this author we all are greatly deficient in any and every nutrient possible. To some extent he is true, but I think he is overdoing it here to get us on his side. The useful information here I think can be gleaned from some other book without being banged over the head by the authors agenda. If you live in central Florida, you can watch Cass Ingram on channel 14 on the show "Know the Cause" which comes on twice Mon-Fri at 12 and 12:30pm. But I do not at all recommend buying into the shows falseities. You can get more vitamins not by a supplement, but by juicing fruits and veggies daily and getting some sun and exercise.

I liked this book, he also has a website on this. He does go overboard overall with the claims on oreganol p73, take it in stride. This book is great to get a starting point on your health and well being. It will help you on what suppliments to take and what to ask your doctor. I have never seen such a great book of such detail before and thought it was a great, insightful book!

IOWA BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS
PRESS RELEASE
For release, April 9, 2003


Cassim Igram, D.O., a 47 year-old physician from Batavia, Illinois, entered into a Settlement Agreement
with the Board to resolve pending disciplinary charges. Dr. Igram was charged with being disciplined by the
Illinois Medical Board. The Illinois Board accused Dr. Igram of engaging in unprofessional, unethical and
dishonorable conduct in his care and treatment of several individuals who sought nutritional consultation.
Dr. Igram was fined $4,000 and his Illinois medical license was placed on permanent and irrevocable
inactive status. Under the terms of the Iowa Settlement Agreement, Dr. Igram must provide the Board 90
days written notice and fully comply with any and all requirements established by the Iowa Board prior to
beginning the practice of medicine under his Iowa medical license.

Wow, pleased to see that I'm not the only person who is skeptical of Ingram's baseless claims. While I agree that a natural unprocessed food diet is very important, his constant recommendations for his own products (without declaring his interests) is unethical and unprofessional indeed. He makes incredible claims, invents his own disorders: "Blood Sugar Collapse Syndrome" and "Inappropriate Estrogen Syndrome", and does not properly scientifically reference his work. The 2004 edition claims to have been "expanded and revised", when in fact the bibliography holds nothing published after 1993. He states that NutraSweet in small doses causes complete blockage of pancreatic enzymes, when the study in his bibliography pertained to saccharin - not aspartame! He doesn't even know the difference between aspartame and saccharin! A medline search on oregano oil yields 20 studies carried out on meat and bacteria - not one single human study has been conducted! Alcohol, coffee and tea are listed as a "cause" in every deficiency listed on the basis of one paper on each. Did he develop "sudden illiteracy syndrome" in 1993 which has prevented him reading any further papers?
He should really be considered a laughing stock, but for the fact he is whipping unsuspecting people into a state of nutritional hysteria with the intent of relieving them of their hard-earned dollars. Shame, shame, shame on Cass Ingram. I give the book minus 100 stars.

This book did not give a description of all supplaments I was looking for. The buying guide was good but I wanted a complete vitamin supplament listing

This book doesn't supply the results of its tests. If you want the results you still need to subscribe to consumerslab.com. I suggest skipping this book and just subscribe to www.consumerslab.com.

There are a lot of guides to Vitamins, Minerals, and Herbal preparations on the market today. What makes "Guide to Buying Vitamins and Supplements" different? For each vitamin, mineral, or herb they gathered samples from multiple brands and put them through a rigorous laboratory analysis. Results of the analysis included products that contained toxic chemicals, had no measurable quantity of the active ingredient, had more of the active ingredient than the acceptable safe levels, and many other surprises. Although many brands were often tested only the ones that passed the laboratory analysis are listed. This is the only place that I have ever seen a listing of product brand names that pass laboratory analysis. Without this guide you really don't know what you are getting when you buy vitamins and supplements. This is a highly recommended read that should be on the shelves of anyone who purchases vitamins and supplements.

This book provides basic knowledge @ vitamins & herbs, but not very helpful with comparing brands of supplements and potency values.

Also had a reference to herbal suppliments. Infos a little old as far as name brands go, but herbal sups are herbal sups no matter the year.

Final word: Handy reference book.

I recently bought this book because I'm interested in Nutirional Supplements and Nutrition in general. When the book arrived, i was quite dissapointed. Instead of in-depth information, I found pretty much what you could read on the label of the drug or supplement: Pictures of the drug, the ingredients, and the warnings. Don't buy this book unless you want to pay for information that is already free.

I just finished reading Vitamins Minerals & Herbs from front to back and am really pleased with the information in it. It is easy to read and distinguish the properties of each Vitamin Mineral & Herb. It reviews each supplement by common uses (per ailment), available forms, what it is, what it does, how to take each form and at what dosage, alerts or side affects and cautions. It also goes on to tell you what the likelyhood is that you could be deficient in an item and that some items should only be taken at a doctors request. It is a great starter book for anyone looking for information to treat themselves naturally. With things I have learned from this book, I will read into certain items more, because you should never just base your information off of one book. The only thing I would have liked to see was even more types of Vitamins Minerals & Herbs. I have never read their previous book "The Healing Powers of Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs".

What's wrong with Reader's Digest?

"Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs" looks like nothing more than an abbreviated version of their previous book "The Healing Powers of Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs" - and a lousy version at that.

This book contains such little useful advice on how to actually use supplements to prevent / treat specific health problems. And because it does NOT contain any new information, what exactly was Reader's Digest's reason for publishing this vastly inferior version of "The Healing Powers......"?

This is one of the absolute WORST books on nutritional supplements I've ever seen!

Reader's Digest had a chance to make up for one glaring mistake with "The Healing Powers of Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs" - and did they ever blow it big time!

The aforementioned book failed to tell readers one immensely important fact - that many nutritional supplements come in numerous different forms (i.e. calcium, vitamins C and E, for example). When buying nutritional supplements, people need to be aware that buying the right FORM of a nutrient is perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT factor in deteremining whether or not the supplement will provide the desired result(s).

The fact that the author(s) of this supposedly "updated" version
failed to mention this is totally inexcusable.

As someone who is involved in the nutritional supplement business, I must say this is a poor excuse of a book, and I am appalled at Reader's Digest for putting out such an inferior book that trusting readers are going to rely upon to help them solve health problems.

If you want a book that will give you EXCELLENT & RELIABLE information on nutritional supplements, read "Dr. Atkins' Vita-Nutrient Solution" - the BEST book ever written about nutritional supplements.

Shame-on Reader's Digest!

Well, after reading this book (some sections more than once), and taking numerous practice exams on the accompanying cd (and passing them consistently), I took the MPJE. I am not sure, but I doubt I passed. While the book was quite readable, and better than nothing, there are errors and omissions. Some exam questions were clearly incorrectly graded. Some info in the book was clearly wrong, and answering questions on the MPJE based on erroneous information is a dangerous thing. There may be errors beyond the ones I was able to identify myself, and these errors may have cost me points (I need EVERY one!!!!). Assuming I failed, I have ordered and will read the Barry Reiss book next and try again.

I have been using this book and the Reiss/Hall pharmacy law book and have to say, this one was not as useful. The questions in the back are not really similar to the kind of questions you get on the MPJE (in my opinion) and there was an entire section in the CSA section that was completely contradictory to the information on the DEA's website...for example, this book says that oral prescriptions are permitted for schedules III-V ONLY in emergency situations...then goes on to cover the same thing that CII oral "emergency" prescriptions require. When I looked this up in the other book and on the DEA's website of prescription requirements, it is stated that all III-V substances may be communicated orally, in writing, or by facsimile to a pharmacist, and may be refilled if so authorized on the Rx or call-in, without the stipulation of an "emergency situation." Due to this type of misinformation I would not recommend the book to anyone. They even have some answers in the back that are completely incorrect.

Dr. Shane-McWhorter does a good job of reviewing most of the major supplements people with diabetes sometimes take. Unfortunately, her concluding comment and recommendation for many of them is to proceed cautiously and avoid most of them. This isn't to say she's wrong; the research on the use of supplements with diabetics is thin at best. Even so, her review of the research focuses almost exclusively on diabetes and fails to take into account the ways various supplements have been shown to assist with different conditions. The book does offer good food-for-thought, but it falls along the lines of those doctors who say, "Just take your medication and maybe a multivitamin, but nothing more."

A good overall introduction to the topic. Up to date and informative. The only downside is that its a bit thin and would be a great reference on the shelf if it were bundled into a book with the other antioxidant vitamins.