Category Archives: Herbs and Supplements

Few purported medical interventions have such wide appeal or such an entrenched reputation for being benign and beneficial as vitamin supplements. Vitamins are chemicals (yes, they are, though you can call them “compounds” or even “essential nutrients” if it sounds … Continue reading →

I came across an especially egregious example of veterinary quackery recently which I wanted to warn people about. Petwellbeing.com, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Natural Wellbeing Distribution sells a product call Supraglan, which it advertises as a treatment for … Continue reading →

Systemic Effects of a Commercial Preparation of Chondrotin Sulfate, Hyaluronic Acid and N-Acetyl-D-Glucosamine When Administered Parenterally to Healthy Cats M.R. Lappin; J.K. Veir; C.B. Webb This poster investigated an injectable nutraceutical containing glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid. I’ve written about … Continue reading →

For those who have read what I have previously written about probiotics, you’ll know that I am cautiously optimistic about their potential usefulness as a medical therapy, despite the tendency towards overstating the results of the limited clinical trials so … Continue reading →

Call it coincidence, confirmation bias, or a trend, but I once again ran into the issue of a specialist I refer to recommending a questionable therapy for one of my patients. I recently diagnosed a dog with a nasal cancer … Continue reading →

I’ve written before on the subject of probiotics, bacteria or yeast fed to people or animals with the intent of affecting health in some way. I consider them to be in a bit of a gray zone between mainstream medicine … Continue reading →

Some of the most popular forms of alternative medicine are the myriad herbs and “dietary supplements” (a faux category created by the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education [DSHEA] act to allow marketing of unproven drugs without regulatory oversight). These … Continue reading →

Proponents of CAM often claim that one major advantage to their methods is the absence of side effects seen with conventional medical treatments. This makes little sense since there is no “free lunch” in physiology, and an intervention that affects … Continue reading →