But....it very obviously was!

Out of interest, do you actually have a subscription to Annals of internal Medicine, or did you just copy/paste your text from the website of the discredited celebrity alternative medicine anti-science quack Andrew Weil?

Aaaannnd now he's edited his post with a copy/pasted, cherrypicked study from 2009 that supports his argument and not the actual body of evidence.

*Slowclap*

Sorry - I just edited the end of my post. But for anyone interested, I had sarcastically said that I "was, you know, just being dense", after I had dismantled fatchance's argument and shown that he had, inadvertently, provided evidence for my own....

...and that was his comeback...

Is there really any need for that?

I'm glad you chose that particular example. The active component in red yeast rice is not stanols, as you state, rather it contains monacolin K, a compound that is identical to lovastatin. The slightly reduced risk of side effects when taking red yeast rice extract occur precisely because the dose of lovastatin/monacolin K is lower. At the appropriate therapeutic dosage, the risk of side effects from the red yeast rice monacolin K is exactly the same.

However, analyses of commercially available red yeast rice extracts have shown the actual dosage to vary wildly, with none of those tested achieving the therapeutic dose of 20mg, and several containing no active ingredient at all. So it's a significantly less effective, safe and predictable intervention.

Additionally, one-third of tested samples were shown to be contaminated with citrinin, a nephrotoxin.

I don't believe you have a particularly comprehensive knowledge of drug approval processes and economics. You do, on the other hand, seem to be displaying what is known as the "Appeal to Nature" fallacy.

I would imagine a substantial subset of the “pro-ana” community are so inclined.

For example?



So the supplement will have fewer side effects by containing more impurities and less of the actual medicine?

That is not a valid reason to choose a supplement over medicine.

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Joseph Mercola is a quack fraud. Supplements may also be safer than jumping out of third-floor windows, but that doesn’t make them effective. Actual medicine is bound to have a greater chance of unintended consequences simply as a result of its mechanism of action, or effectiveness.

Cyproheptidine. Available as a product called Apetamin/Tres Orix Forte and the antihistamine medication Periactin.

Yes. Crossfit addict.

Even vegetables, high starch vegetables in particular. I doubt it would be desirable or practically possible to create a calorie surplus with lettuce, however.

And you can drink all the water and sugar-free soft drinks you wish and they’ll not make you fat.