# Are Your Store-Bought Herbal Supplements Really Herbal?



## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Guess what I just learned. I learned why some of my "herbal" supplements make me claw my skin off.

I am allergic to wheat, it seems.



> Bottles of Walmart-brand echinacea, an herb said to ward off colds, were found to contain no echinacea at all. GNC-brand bottles of St. John's wort, touted as a cure for depression, held rice, garlic and a tropical houseplant, but not a trace of the herb.
> 
> In fact, DNA testing on hundreds of bottles of store-brand herbal supplements sold as treatments for everything from memory loss to prostate trouble found that four out of five contained none of the herbs on the label. Instead, they were packed with cheap fillers such as wheat, rice, beans or houseplants.
> 
> ...


Study: Many Herbal Supplements Aren't What the Label Says - ABC News

Mystery solved.

A bit pissed, I am.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Sounds like a class action lawsuit to me.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

The question I have is, how do I know if my supplements are real.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

I buy my herbs in bulk from a local herb store. We prefer natural remedies (when possible) and homemade teas for warding off illness and staying healthy. 

Yes I live in CO but not that kind of 'herb' store.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

Denton said:


> The question I have is, how do I know if my supplements are real.


After reading your post, I would suggest that you assume they aren't.


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Denton said:


> The question I have is, how do I know if my supplements are real.


That's a great question, I would like to know the answer as well. Notice how most of the bottles say 100% xyz and satisfaction guaranteed. Guess they lied. Only way to really know is to grow it yourself or buy from an herb store like auntie.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Auntie said:


> I buy my herbs in bulk from a local herb store. We prefer natural remedies (when possible) and homemade teas for warding off illness and staying healthy.
> 
> Yes I live in CO but not that kind of 'herb' store.


I am just hoping my echinacia is the real stuff. A quarter of the mechanics on the airfield are out with the flu. All tested positive for it, not just bad colds.


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## Dubyagee (Nov 9, 2012)

Im allergic to soy. They use soy in almost everything as a filler so I understand your frustration.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

Bulk herbs are the way to go. Get some echinacea, rose hip and hibiscus flowers and make your own tea or get the capsules and fill them yourself. I don't buy anything premade because I have no idea of the ratios they used. The amount of fillers is insane IMHO. Find a good herb store they will help you, that is what they are there for. If you don't know much about herbs then I suggest the book Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James Balch. It is full of good information in easy to understand terms. I am not trying to infer that people here need easy to understand, however, who needs a bunch of medical terms you have to look up. 

Please do not stop taking medicines etc without talking to your doctor and please do not take herbal supplements if you have been told to avoid them (i.e. if you take blood thinners)


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

Many of the herbs are perennials...should any of you be looking for a long term solution when ordering from distant sources is not an option.

One big difference between dietary supplements and drugs is that the former are treated legally as foods. There's far less testing (no need to test how much active ingredient is really in there, for example) and far fewer repercussions for mislabeling. Reputation of the seller can help, if you can't do as Auntie suggests. Jack Spearco (a podcast survivalist guy we listen to sometimes) has a person he thinks highly of on his supporters list.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Denton said:


> The question I have is, how do I know if my supplements are real.


You got to go to places like whole foods, sprouts or other similar outlets. Most of what these guys sell really are what they claim to be. One thing is for sure....if you got it at Walmart, Kroger or Albertsons you probably wasted your money.


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## Spice (Dec 21, 2014)

LunaticFringeInc said:


> You got to go to places like whole foods, sprouts or other similar outlets. Most of what these guys sell really are what they claim to be. One thing is for sure....if you got it at Walmart, Kroger or Albertsons you probably wasted your money.


Lunaticfringe....How do you know? Not trying to be a jerk; I'm really curious if you've got some data about the brands sold at these places as opposed to the outlet junk. Since in many other instances generics and name brands come off the same assembly line into different packages, I'd want to be sure this wasn't the case here.


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## oddapple (Dec 9, 2013)

Spice said:


> Lunaticfringe....How do you know? Not trying to be a jerk; I'm really curious if you've got some data about the brands sold at these places as opposed to the outlet junk. Since in many other instances generics and name brands come off the same assembly line into different packages, I'd want to be sure this wasn't the case here.


Well all you've got is your confidence in your provider so best wishes.
I have to spend hours going through farms and leads for acceptable crops to keep quality assurance and everyone has to admit, trusting 
<<GNC, Target, Walmart and Walgreens - demanding that they immediately stop selling adulterated or mislabeled dietary supplements.>>
Was a bit naive, not so much gnc (that's surprising) but ealmart/Walgreens are like the moral majority "not" and are snotty about it too.

You either know plants and Apothecary or you pick someone who does. Glad to see the big phonies making the personal handlers look better than they are often treated.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Spice said:


> Lunaticfringe....How do you know? Not trying to be a jerk; I'm really curious if you've got some data about the brands sold at these places as opposed to the outlet junk. Since in many other instances generics and name brands come off the same assembly line into different packages, I'd want to be sure this wasn't the case here.


Exactly.
The ones that have caused me the most trouble are the ones I have bought from a local "nutrition" store. The store owner swears the supplements he sells are as-advertised and that he knows and trusts the manufacturer.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

I would think that the lower price, volume places would be more susceptible to this sort of practice. Just goes to show unless you do it yourself, who knows what you get as oddapple pointed out.


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## oddapple (Dec 9, 2013)

We sell the surplus of what we don't use ourselves. My snobbery knows no bounds and we only bring in what we don't produce or harvest ourselves.
That's about all I got.

It is true that one of the biggest clearing houses in the country has poor quality control, but good about rejected lots. If the doctors won't take it, to the company pile, if the company's reject it, then it gets passed out to the health food stores and the ones that will can return it. If it goes to the end and remains unwanted, lots of extractors and industry will take it because they can re-handle it so to speak.
What I enjoy in a cynical way is how people go to buy natural things from a fern bar fairy. An expert of bottled products is not what you are looking for.
Ask if they eat it. That's easy enough.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

OK, just back from a doc's office. This particular doc and his assistant are both big-time natural cures over pharm-chemicals type people. His assistant is like me, wheat is not his friend, either. He takes only Swanson vitamins and herbal supplements.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

I don't, but I do have serveral homeopathy books that are quiet detailed and back a lot of their writings up with references and stuidies and unless I am having a heart attack I go to a natural doctor vs the convential Big Pharma Brain Washed convential doctor that will often prescribe meds that have more and worse side effects that what they are supposedly trying to cure. Its your money buy where you want...


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Oh and I will be the first to tell you that not everything someplace like sprouts sells is all its cut out to be, but your probably a lot better off than at Walmart.


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## oddapple (Dec 9, 2013)

Denton said:


> OK, just back from a doc's office. This particular doc and his assistant are both big-time natural cures over pharm-chemicals type people. His assistant is like me, wheat is not his friend, either. He takes only Swanson vitamins and herbal supplements.


I have given the Swanson catalog to people who had trouble affording much. Glad to hear it endorsed. 
Nobody wants asian or coastal now so all kinds of purveyors are scrambling to get the farms before others do. I just nabbed a good one ~

-----'----------------

".....We also harvest wild reishi in the summer, and depending on the conditions we can sometimes get significant amounts. I don't want to make any promises, but if it is a good year I would certainly......
I appreciate you giving us a try. We actually supply some of the bigger vendors, so you may have actually had our chaga before. Either way I'm sure you will be pleased, we keep very high quality standards.

Thanks,

Christopher
-------------------------

My job is snob - about what people eat and use for drugs

I am "all that" but basic quality is like any other produce. Can't be too old because it has to last a year after you sell/buy it, healthy plants look it, weedy looking plants still look dried or mummified to about anybody.
Learning to do quality for yourself any monkey can manage. From the capsule it can be hard to tell without a microscope and some reagents.
But, you learn by doing and the "oh it's gross weeds" of today turns into "my gold!" Once you get the knack...


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