Posted by Truth is hard to find on June 1, 2001, at 22:59:29
In reply to Re: Deb not rying to prove anything, posted by cole on June 1, 2001, at 21:14:04
It is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that there is any "resarch study" being done at Harvard University regarding the vitamin/mineral supplement being promoted by the Synergy Group of Canada (website "Truehope").
The supplement is marketed by them as "EM Power+"I state this because:
I attended a formal presentation by "The Synergy Group of Canada" (I shall refer to them as "Truehope")
on May 9, 2001 (as I stated in a note yesterday).
The "Truehope" speakers were Mr. Anthony Stephan and Mr. David Hardy (the company founders).
This presentation was at the McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching & research hospital.Also speaking was Dr. Andrew Stoll, Director of the Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory of McLean Hospital.
NO ONE mentioned or claimed that there had been, or is curently, ANY research being done or planned at Harvard on these supplements or the equivalent.
Dr. Andrew Stoll would almost certainly be aware if a study were underway at Harvard.
The Truehope representatives would certainly have mentioned such a study as part of their self-promotion.Dr. Stoll express interest in creating such a study.
HOWERVER, he stated that approval to conduct such a study may be denied for several reasons:
1. The Truehope daily dosage of 4 of the minerals are above what he noted to be the "Upper Limit of Safety"
Most significan is Magnesium, where their dosage is about 3 times what he noted as the "Upper Limit".
The others were Zinc (200% of UL), Selenium (200% of UL), and Copper (120% of UL).
2. He also expressed concern about his hospital approving a study requiring patients to stop their medication.Note: the context of this presentation was a meeting of the Boston chapter of the Manic Depressive and Depressive Association.
It was not sponsored or supported by the Harvard Medical School.
The nature of the presentation by "Truehope" was "promotional".
Of the audience (about 200 persons) some expressed HOPE for relief from their suffereing, but many expressed great dissatisfaction with the presentation.Dr. Stoll did not recommend or support use of the Truehope formula,
and among the problems he noted with the information presented by Truehope were:
a. Placebo effect not accounted for / desire of the participant to want the supplement to work
b. Lack of systematic diagnosis of persons taking the supplements
c. "Drop outs" were not counted
d. Lack of "double blind" nature of reporting of results
e. Questionable safety of long term use of the supplements
f. Expense of the supplements.
g. Reported gastointestinal side effects.I should note that Dr. Stoll did not dismiss the POSSIBILITY of the supplements having an effect
on manic-depression (the focus of his interest), but the basic "scientific summary" of the
presentation was "it will be great if it works, but we have no credible data, only SELECTED
testimonials, to support that conclusion".
poster:Truth is hard to find
thread:59082
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010530/msgs/65123.html