Friday, January 05, 2007

A (weird) bleg

Some of y'all here at Flares are, IIRC, medically and/or chemically knowledgeable. I've put some research effort into this and it has not helped advance my understanding much. (Having said that, however, I've just recently discovered and begun exploring the ConsumerLabs site.)

The bottom line is that I'd be grateful for the help of those who know a bit about the use and, in particular, procurement of "dietary supplements".

As far as I can tell there is no good way to judge the quality of sources (or, for that matter, the particular chemical combos that various providers choose) for such items as CoQ10 (see also), Omega-3 (and/or EPA), glucosamine and chondroitin (our vet says he takes Cosequin) and EDTA.

The use of these has been discussed with the appropriate medical professionals and is either advised (or not specifically discouraged) and is not contraindicated in any detectable way. They are all pretty low on the bad side-effects scale (i.e, relatively harmless if not beneficial).

What I cannot get advice (beyond what I can discover for myself which is not satisfactory) about is from where to procure reasonable quality at reasonable price. These sorts of supplements are available most anywhere for a wide range of prices and there is no method I am aware of for determining price/performance.

5 comments:

Barry Dauphin said...

Hey Knuck,

I'm not in the expert category, but I have gotten supplements from Vitacost.com. I think it is reasonable, but I can't judge price/performance ratio as I lack a good metric for knowing the relative quality of supplements from various places. But I toss that in for what it's worth.

I read about some of those supplements in an article on Ray Kurzweil, who apparently takes lots of supplements (especially some of the ones you mentioned). Of course, he seems to be planning to live forever (or at least long enough until his parts can be replaced by various computer chips). Will you be blogging at Flares in the year 2525 (if man is still alive, if woman can survive)? :>)

Luther said...

Costco.

blert said...

EDTA ( Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid ) is most noted for bonding to heavy metal ions. Helpful if you're loaded down with Po, Hg, Fe or Pb.

However the body does need some metal ions.

Bob Hawkins said...

I buy mine at www.iherb.com and have for years. All I can say is, I know their stuff works, I can feel the positive effects almost immediately. (Long story, but I would not be a functional human being without L-carnitine.) Huge selection. And their prices are as low as anyone's, that's how I found them in the first place, searching for lowest prices.

Unknown said...

My mother-in-law is taking this CoQ10 supplement from http://products.mercola.com/coq10-ubiquinol/ I heard a lot of positive comments about it. Why not give it a try?