“Be careful when you take supplements because they are not well studied and they can be dangerous.” This was a quote given to one of my patients by their doctor when they asked about taking a supplement I had suggested. This started my thinking about the total and complete hypocrisy with which the media and medical community treat the topic of taking supplements versus pharmaceutical drugs. The most frustrating aspect of this situation is that the vast majority of people living in the U.S. do not recognize this hypocrisy and, worse yet, accept the hypocrite’s view as valid.

As Americans, we hate hypocrisy to the core. This is especially true when the hypocrite is someone who is in a position to influence us; like doctors and the media. The true problem here is that the general population does not recognize the hypocrisy because they do not know the cold, hard facts when it comes to supplement safety as compared to that of drugs. In this article, I am going to give you some surprising facts that will leave you asking how any doctor could ever spew out the “Be careful when taking supplements…” statement.

Defining The Hypocrisy

Imagine if you went to a Travel Consultant to help pick out the safest route to follow for a trip you were going to take with your family. You had the choice of one of two routes and you were not sure which would be safer to follow. So, the person you expect to be the expert in this area told you to take Route A because, in their opinion, Route B was not as well known to them and was potentially more dangerous. You, of course, decide to take Route A because of the recommendation.

Now, just by chance, you come across information from the U.S. Department of Transportation that summarizes the number of serious accidents and deaths reported for Routes A and B. You find out that Route A (the one suggested by your travel expert) had over 275,000 accidents with over 7,500 serious injuries and deaths. Route B had only 4,000 accidents with no deaths and only 8 serious injuries. You also find out the amount of cars driving on these two roads did not differ all that much. The alarming thing is that you find out that your Travel Consultant gets all of his information from companies who profit from you taking Route A and they lose money when you take Route B.

Would you be outraged? You are darn right you would be!

Now, consider that you are evaluating the safety of taking a certain herb for a condition as compared to taking a pharmaceutical drug that would be utilized to treat the same condition. You consult with an alternative health doctor who endorses the use of the herb over the pharmaceutical. You then become aware of information published by a government agency exposing that the herb caused 70 hospitalizations for every 1 for the pharmaceutical. The herb caused almost 950 life-threatening events for every 1 for the pharmaceutical. The number of doses taken for the herb and pharmaceutical were similar. Not only had your alternative health doctor endorsed the use of this herb, but they had also insinuated that using the pharmaceutical was much more dangerous when the facts prove just the opposite to be true.

If you would not be outraged you are reading this article without a pulse. You would absolutely feel like you had been wronged in each of these cases and I all but guarantee that you would call this travel consultant and alternative health doctor and give them a piece of your mind. You would most certainly ask for a refund of the money you spent and you would never consult with them again. You would inform as many of your friends and family of their incompetence. Heck, some of you would even seek get their professional licenses revoked!

The above two examples illustrate situations where we would feel like we had been wronged. And, rightfully so! You would, at least, want to expose the hypocrisy and would more than likely be motivated to take action against the wrong-doer. What if the person in each of these examples had been your medical doctor?

As you may have guessed, the hypocrites in each of these examples represent the vast majority of medical practitioners. Route A represents the actual numbers for pharmaceutical dangers and Route B for supplements. The dangerous herb in the second example actually represents the numbers for pharmaceuticals. Let me give you the facts.

The U.S. National Poison Data System has published the results of reported poisonings which included supplements and pharmaceutical drugs (http://www.aapcc.org/dnn/Portals/0/2008annualreport.pdf).  These results represent cold, hard facts about the dangers represented by the use of these two categories of substances.

The results show that there were absolutely ZERO deaths from multiple vitamins, ZERO deaths from any of the B vitamins, ZERO deaths from vitamins A, D, E, or C and ZERO deaths from any other vitamin, amino acid, mineral supplement, or herbal product! The same was certainly not true for pharmaceuticals. Here are some of the numbers:

So, how in the world could even one doctor, let alone almost all doctors, tell their patients to be worried about natural supplements, but to completely ignore the dangers from taking drugs? For example, your doctor will encourage you to give your children Tylenol or Motrin as if they were equal in danger to giving them a glass of water. But, ask them if you should consider giving them something natural and you will be immediately warned about the potential dangers of doing so. Look at the numbers for Analgesics vs. Vitamins and determine which you think is more dangerous to give your child.

No one reading this article should be surprised by the fact that pharmaceutical drugs are much more dangerous to take than any natural supplement. Just take a look at the insert included with any prescription you get and read the side-effects and warnings sections. Find the equivalent dangers for any supplement. You cannot!

But, the fact remains that doctors consistently tell their patients to take Route A versus Route B. How can this level of hypocrisy have almost completely permeated the medical community? (I say almost because I know of a handful of doctors who are very fair in their approach to supplements.) Why do doctors not look at the facts and change their recommendations? I believe that there is a two-fold answer to these questions.

First, doctors get almost 100% of their information from the pharmaceutical industry. This is an industry that has one goal in mind and that is to sell as many drugs as is possible; no matter what. Thus, anyone taking anything natural hurts this bottom line as does any negative information about their drugs. So, they consistently down play any drug negatives while highlighting the negatives for anything natural. They emphasize any drug positives and marginalize any positive results for supplements. Doctors hate the suggestion that they are influenced by the drug industry because this truth implicates them as being biased instead of being neutral evaluators of health information. The evidence against their being neutral evaluators is pretty profound. Would you not agree?

The other reason has to do with the fact that most doctors have not pursued any independent study regarding topics that fall within the category of natural medicine. Thus, they have no sense of comfort with treatments within this realm. Add to this the fact that the average doctor’s day is hurried and hectic, and you will realize that they will not be pursuing any independent study in the near future. Couple these facts with the knowledge that the only information doctors receive comes from an industry with a vested interest in highlighting supplement negatives and the mystery of why doctors develop negative attitudes towards anything natural is solved.

The Bottom Line

Hold your breath because what I am about to write may sting a little. Most of the readers of this article should be very careful about pointing their finger at the medical community's pharmaceutical versus supplement safety hypocrisy. I say this because I have little doubt that the Travel Consultant and the Alternative Health Doctors would have tasted your wrath had you been the consumer in these illustrations. However, you would NEVER have the same reaction towards your doctor for fear of hurting your relationship with them. Would you not also end up being a hypocrite in this situation? Will you confront your doctor next time they spew out something you know to be grossly untrue as you would with anyone else?

It is time for you to awaken to the truth and to bury the unquestioning faith you may have in anything produced by the pharmaceutical industry. The bottom line is that the safety of natural supplements is illustrated by the total lack of bodies being buried each year. Next time you are told to be careful of taking supplements due to the supposition that they are dangerous, you have one of two choices. You can just smile knowingly at the hypocrite and feel sorry for them since they are stuck in a system that encourages their bias. Or, better yet, challenge their statements and make them back them up with the facts as you would if the medical doctor was an alternative health doctor.

I realize that it will be much more comfortable for you to silently recognize their hypocrisy and I fully understand why. The good thing is that you may be coming to understand that you should not fully trust anything anyone tells you as being absolute truth…me included. Formulate questions…get answers…evaluate those answers…then make decisions! Most of us have gotten into the habit of skipping the first three steps.