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Not Mine! 
What About Yours?

Well!  This information really knocked my socks off!

I received this email yesterday and was so disturbed that I felt I had to print it in my blog.  This is something that everyone who uses vitamins must be aware of.   I always try to make sure that when I post something that has negative connotations, I always include some possible alternatives and I have done so here as well. 

I hope this helps us to be more diligent in our choice of food supplement manufacturers and that if you are involved with a company now, to hold them to the same standard of testing for safety as well as efficacy.

Be sure to read below the email for information about the effects of PCB’s, Polychlorinated biphenyl

Laxity of Fish Oil Manufacturers Revealed

By: Dr. Stephen Chaney Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Hi Sandra,

It’s so tempting…

You’ve been getting your supplements from a company that you know and trust – a company that does clinical studies on their products and performs rigorous quality controls.

You know their products are pure, safe and effective…

BUT…

You’re shopping in your favorite drug store or discount store and you see the same supplements for just a couple of dollars!

You can’t help thinking…

”Wow! Here’s the same stuff I’ve been taking for a lot less money”…”Why not save my money?”…”They must have run some quality control tests on their products”…

”After all, how bad can they be?”

The answer is – pretty bad!

The events of last week illustrate just how bad.

On March 2nd, 2010 the makers and sellers of fish oil supplements were sued by the Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation in California for not telling consumers that their products contained toxic levels of PCBs.

I find it amusing and somewhat scary that the FDA did not initiate this action and force the manufacturers to take their contaminated products off the shelves.

Instead an environmental consumers group had to sue them for not including PCBs on the label! They sued them under California proposition 65 which requires a warning label whenever a product contains toxic  ingredients.

The defendants in this lawsuit were Omega Protein, a Houston-based company that is the world’s largest producer of omega-3 fish oil, and the many companies that they produced fish oil for – companies like Rite Aid, CVS, GNC, Now Health Group, Pharmavite, Solgar and Twinlab.  And those aren’t the only ones. The Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation only tested 10 omega-3
supplements manufactured by Omega Protein to date and have found PCBs in all of them. They plan to continue testing and to add other companies to the lawsuit if their products are also contaminated.

Even scarier is that many of labels on these products said that the omega-3 supplement was treated to reduce or remove PCBs. As a consumer you were lead to believe that they were safe!

The bottom line is that the manufacturer probably didn’t test for PCBs and neither did the companies selling their omega-3 supplements to the consumer

The alternative – that they tested the products, knew that they were contaminated with PCBs and sold them to the public anyway – is even worse.

As if that weren’t scary enough the FDA announced a massive recall of products containing textured vegetable protein manufactured by a company called Basic Food Flavors because of salmonella contamination.

The problem is that there are at least 56 different kinds of consumer products containing this company’s textured vegetable protein – including salad dressings, dips, packaged snacks, potato chips and soup mixes (Who knew that salad dressings contained textured vegetable protein?).

That means that this recall will be huge. It will affect many foods that most people buy and use every day.

Once again, the problem is that neither the manufacturer or the companies using the textured vegetable protein had run the basic quality control assays that would have detected salmonella contamination.

So what can you do as a consumer?

Here are my recommendations:

1) Get your supplements from an established company with a reputation for quality and integrity. I would recommend choosing a company that has been around for a number of years so that you know that their reputation is based on their track record over the years rather than just on hype.

2) Make sure that they run rigorous quality controls on their products. I would choose a company that requires pharmaceutical grade quality controls on their products.

3) Make sure that they have published clinical studies on their products that prove both safety and
effectiveness.  Again I would recommend choosing a company that has many published clinical studies on their products rather than just one or two.

To Your Health!
Dr. Stephen G Chaney
http://www.chaneyhealth.com
888.860.2075

P.S.** Xxxxxxx supplements are my personal recommendation because they insist on rigorous quality control tests on every one of their ingredients and on their finished products. For example, they import ultra pure, triple distilled fish oil from England and test it for PCB contamination after they receive it. They only use the oil of fish that were caught in the coldest, deepest and cleanest waters of the ocean so that there is far less possibility of contamination.  Even then, they still treat it to be sure.  They also have published over 70 clinical studies on their products in peer-reviewed scientific journals. They are unique in the industry.
P.P.S. If you are confused by all of the product choices that this company offers…

If you are unsure of which supplements you should use to dramatically improve your health and vitality…

You need to listen to my latest CD: “Four Products That Will Change Your Life”.

Dr. Stephen Chaney
http://www.chaneyhealth.com
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

** Sandy’s note:  I have removed the name of the company that Dr. Chaney recommends because he is recommending the company that I use as well.  The company has asked us not to use the name unless our site is password protected to guard against misuse of their name.  I will be more than happy to tell anyone who wants to know because I know the extent that they go to to make sure that their products always work are always green and are always safe.  In addition to the process used in producing the fish oil product, this company only uses the oil of fish that were caught in the coldest, deepest and cleanest waters of the ocean so that there is far less possibility of contamination.  Even then, they still treat it to be sure.

WHAT THEY ARE:  PCBs are a by-product of coal tar that was first synthesized in 1881.  It was first used commercially in 1927 in manufacturing explosive shells.  By the mid 1930s they were used in manufacturing electrical equipment.  

THEIR DANGERS ARE WELL DOCUMENTED:  The dangers include a variety of ailments, and they are documented.  Problems were noted as early as 1933, “Problems soon arose at the manufacturing plant. 23 out of 24 workers in the plant had acne-like pustules on their faces and bodies. Some complained of loss of energy, appetite and libido as well as other skin ailments. These symptoms are now known as classic first signs of PCB exposure.”  (The History of PCBs, Fox River Watch) 

Conference notes from a meeting at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1937reported that “the chlorinated biphenyl is certainly capable of doing harm in very low concentrations and is probably the most dangerous [of the chlorinated hydrocarbons studied].” (The History of PCBs, Fox River Watch)    In 1947 Westinghouse’s medical department noted that long-term exposure to PCB fumes “may produce internal bodily injury which may be disabling or could be fatal.” (The History of PCBs, Fox River Watch)  The list of reports of problems continues into the 21st century.

I recommend visiting the following web site:  http://www.foxriverwatch.com/monsanto2a_pcb_pcbs.html  You’ll see why I am more than indignant that any food supplement manufacturer can sleep knowing that their product could be laced with PCBs and they didn’t even bother to test for it.

A defense (?)  that some have raised for using PCBs is that it is often contaminated with dioxin, and we are not sure whether PCBs, dioxin or both are implicated.  In the meantime be careful whose Omega 3 fish oil you choose.  Also, I too, cannot begin to fathom why the FDA which is charged with protecting our health didnot step in to prevent this from happening.