Here’s a great way to save money: stop buying multivitamins and anti-bacterial soaps.
These two top selling products used by everyone and advertised extensively worldwide, have just been dumped as total waste of money by scientists and the American government.
JUST LIKE OTHER SOAPS – A few weeks ago, the U.S. government announced that it found no evidence that ordinary anti-bacterial soaps prevent the spread of germs.
Studies indicate that triclosan, found in soaps and sanitizers, can interfere with hormone levels in laboratory animals and encourage the growth of drug-resistant bacteria.
The Associate Press reported that under a proposed rule released Monday, the USFDA will require manufacturers to prove that anti-bacterial soaps are safe and more effective than plain soap and water. Products that are not shown to be safe and effective by late 2016 would have to be reformulated, relabeled or removed from the market.
“I suspect there are a lot of consumers who assume that by using an anti-bacterial soap product, they are protecting themselves from illness, protecting their families,” said Sandra Kweder, deputy director in the FDA’s drug center. “But we don’t have any evidence that that is really the case over simple soap and water.”
The government’s preliminary ruling lends new support to outside researchers who have long argued that the chemicals are, at best, ineffective and at worst, a threat to public health.
“The FDA is finally making a judgment call here and asking industry to show us that these products are better than soap and water, and the data don’t substantiate that,” said Stuart Levy of the Tufts University School of Medicine.
A spokesman for the cleaning product industry said the FDA already has “a wealth of data” showing the benefits of anti-bacterial products. “We are perplexed that the agency would suggest there is no evidence that anti-bacterial soaps are beneficial,” said Brian Sansoni. “Our industry sent the FDA in-depth data in 2008 showing that anti-bacterial soaps are more effective in killing germs when compared with non-anti-bacterial soaps.”
Triclosan is found in an estimated 75 percent of anti-bacterial liquid soaps and body washes in the U.S. More than 93 percent of anti-bacterial bar soaps also contain triclosan or triclocarban, according to the FDA.
In March 2010, the European Union banned the chemical from all products that come into contact with food, such as containers and silverware. A spokesman for the American Cleaning Institute, a soap cleaning product trade organization, said the group will submit new data to regulators, including studies showing that company products do not lead to antibiotic resistance.
SKIP MULTIVITAMINS – Three new studies have found that multivitamins don’t boost health, help extend life or ward off heart disease and memory loss; experts behind the research are urging people to stop using the supplements.
The studies, published in the Dec. 17 issue of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found that multivitamin and mineral supplements did not work any better than placebo pills.
Dietary supplements are a multibillion-dollar industry and multivitamins account for nearly half of all vitamin sales, according to the U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements. But evidence suggests that multivitamins offer little or nothing in the way of health benefits. Some studies even suggest that high doses of certain vitamins might cause harm.
“We believe that it’s clear that vitamins are not working,” said Dr. Eliseo Guallar, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In a strongly worded editorial on the three studies, Guallar and his co-authors urged people to stop spending money on multivitamins.
Even a representative of the vitamin industry asked people to temper their hopes about dietary supplements. Duffy MacKay, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade group that represents supplement manufacturers, said in a prepared statement that the two main reasons people take multivitamins are for overall health and wellness and to fill in nutrient gaps,” MacKay said.
However, Guallar said, it’s not clear that taking supplements to fill gaps in a less-than-perfect diet really translates into any kind of health boost.
“It would be great if all dietary problems could be solved with a pill,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case.”
The results of the studies are so clear and consistent, the editorial writers said, that it’s time to stop wasting research money looking for evidence of a benefit.
source: Manila Bulletin
http://www.mb.com.ph/multivitamins-anti-bacterial-soaps-are-a-waste-of-money-studies/
