Naturopathic physicians must keep their own medicinal
dispensaries since there is no natural equivalent to the corner drug store.
The state of Arizona's Naturopathic Medical Board has issued Doctor Uzick a certificate to Dispense.
Doctor Uzick only prescribes and dispenses natural
medicines from professional Nutraceutical companies.
Professional companies do not sell directly to the public and only supply physicians. The quality of
product is far superior than what is available over the counter.
What you
should know about over the counter (OTC) Supplements
OTC vitamin and herbal supplements
sold in the United States are largely unregulated. For example lets say a company decides
to sell 500 mg tablets of vitamin C. The company is not
required to have this product assayed (tested) in order to prove that the
substance in the capsule is indeed vitamin C, that the capsules contains 500
mg, that the product is free from contamination with solvents, bacteria,
pesticides or heavy metals. If a company even bothers to list an
expiration date, it's not required to prove that this date accurately
reflects the stability and potency of the product.
Almost all supplement
expiration dates are arbitrarily
assigned and have not been determined via testing for degradation and potency.
Vital Nutrients is one of the
professional supplement companies I use. This particular company has a level of proven quality no
other Nutraceutical company in the US can claim. All of their vitamins
and herbs are assayed by independent
laboratories. I had the opportunity to tour their facility in October of 2002. While in the office
of the companies president - Rick Liva, N.D. - I observed as the
quality control manager presented Dr. Liva with two new assays that had just been faxed.
On this day the
results were from assays of two popular herbs - Dong Quai and American Ginseng.
Samples from 2 different
raw material suppliers were analyzed. The Dong Quai sample was found to be free of
pesticides and heavy metals. However, only 50% of the sample was Dong Quai, the other half could not
be identified. The American Ginseng sample was 100% authentic, however the assay detected
extraordinarily high levels of Lindane
(a pesticide known for it's potent neurotoxic and carcinogenic properties). In addition, there was a second
pesticide whose long chemical name I can't recall.
This particular pesticide was
classified as illegal for use in the US. The levels were over 10,000
parts per million which is extremely
high.
I can guarantee you that the suppliers selling those
contaminated herbs are supplying dozens of OTC supplement companies.
Undoubtedly,
unsuspecting consumers are purchasing those products in the mistaken belief
they are doing something good for their
health!
To get a sense of the extent of
this problem, go to Consumerlab.com. This organization does
independent testing of OTC nutritional
supplements. The results of their findings are quite alarming.
For example they recently tested 15 OTC calcium
supplements. One of them happened to be Bob Barefoot's Corale Calcium
- the one with the info-mercial
claiming to be the cure of a variety of diseases including cancer. Two
calcium products failed to meet the
basic requirements set forth. The Corale calcium failed the assay because
it contained levels of Lead that
exceeded California's safe levels for
occupational safety! Tens of thousands of people have paid top dollar
for the cheapest form of calcium and
contaminated with lead to boot!
The bottom line is that I rarely
prescribe OTC supplements unless the company provides me with independent assays
of their products. I work very hard to stock my dispensary with the highest quality products available.
Lastly the dispensary is not a
store open to the public. The medicinal items it contains are only
available through prescription. Thus only patients have access to the
dispensary.
