Here you'll find the answers to a wealth of health and wellness questions posed by Healthy Talk fans. Listen in because what you know helps ensure healthy choices you can live with. Today on Healthy Talk, you wanted to know:
I'm trying to explain to my friend that some of the research against the use of supplements is biased and not always conducted in a fair method. Can you help me educate her on the consistent flaws on anti-supplement research?
Dr. Mike wants you to be sure you're getting the right information when you're looking into supplements (or any health news). It's unfortunate, but not all headlines and news sources are honest and true. When it comes to researching supplements (or any other kind of health study), you need to be sure you're looking at the right information, and doing your own research. You always want to ask yourself who is doing the study? What are the researchers studying? How are they conducting the study?
Are nutrient testings reliable?
Well, yes and no. The idea of being able to test your body through blood, urine, and hair sounds like a great way to find levels of vitamins and nutrient deficiencies.
However, there are limitations. Let's say you have a nutrient test that's looking at magnesium levels. Whether the doctor collects that data through your blood or urine, they are only looking at the sample in a particular moment in time. At that time, your magnesium levels may appear to be low, but does that mean that they are always low?
If there's a way doctors can look at your magnesium levels when you're stressed, fatigued, or feeling normal, it would give a better understanding of your levels over time.
Nutrient testing is great, but you must understand the tests limitations.
How much Benadryl is an overdose that can kill?
Benadryl is often used to fight allergies, but lately there are well documented cases of people accidentally overdosing. High levels of Benadryl can cause confusion, sleepiness, sedation, and thickening of bronchial secretions.
When taking Benadryl, you must read the label and follow instructions carefully. The amount of Benadryl you can take depends on your weight and age.
If you have a health question or concern, Dr. Mike encourages you to write him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
so he can provide you with support and helpful advice.
Selected Podcast
Ask Dr. Mike: Supplment Research Bias, Nutrient Testing & How Much Benadryl Should You Be Taking?
Transcription:
RadioMD Presents:Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: February 16, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Alright. Again, 877-711-5211 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
I’m going to skip the first question and go to the second one I had listed here because I’ve talked about this, I think, a couple times in the recent past. So, I don’t want to, you know, go over this over and over again too many times, but I think it’s a good question. So, I just want to quickly address it and we’ll move on to the next one. “I’m trying to explain to my friend that some of the research against the use of supplements is biased and not always conducted in a fair method. Can you help me educate her on consistent flaws of anti-supplement research?”
Well, sure. And I’ve talked about this before. I think I listed it as the “who”, the “what” and the “how” of research. Who is being tested? What’s being tested and how is it being tested? If you just keep track of those three questions, that will help you to analyze pretty much any publication that’s put out there—good or bad. By the way, there are some legitimate anti-supplement studies out there. I think that’s another issue, actually. I don’t always believe that supplements should be studied in the exact same way as a drug simply because of how they work differently in the body. But, that’s maybe a whole other segment. But here, specifically, when you see a headline, you know, “Fish Oils are Bad for the Heart” or “Fish Oils Don’t Help Heart Patients”, you know, whatever it might be, just ask yourself, the “who”, the “what” and the “how.”
The “who” in most of these studies are unhealthy Americans or sick people. People that are already sick. The reason that I brought up that fish oil one, there was a study that talked about how fish oils were not beneficial in heart patients even though that goes against all kinds of great, positive research with fish oil and heart patients, but, in this particular case, these were patients in this study who had already had one heart attack. I mean, we’re already kind of stacking the odds a little bit against the nutrients. So, in many of the cases, where you ask, “Well, who are they studying?” you’ll find that the answer, in many of these research studies, is they’re studying sick people—people who have already had a disease and they’re just simply trying to prevent another attack or, you know, a progression. So, you’re kind of stacking the odds there.
Number two is the “What are they studying?” What nutrient? So, in that case of the Omega-3s, turns out they were using a nice quality Omega-3, but they were using a low dose. So, they were using a low dose Omega-3. I think they were given, in that study, 500 mg and I’ve always talked about at least 2 grams a day of Omega-3 oils. If you’re dealing with something like a heart issue, you probably want it to be higher than that. You know, maybe 4 grams a day. So, in that particular study, the “what”—fish oil—was low dose. That’s what you’ll often find. That it’s either a low quality, it’s the wrong form of the nutrient, or it’s a low dose. That’s the “what.”
And then, the last one is the “how.” How are they actually collecting the data? You’ll find, in many cases, it’s with surveys. Now, surveys are okay. I mean, we use surveys ourselves here at Life Extension but we understand that we should never draw any absolute conclusions off surveys because they are somewhat unreliable, especially if you’re only asking the person one time in a ten-year timeframe, “Did you ever take fish oil?” Based on that one answer at that one time, if you put them in a fish oil group and you never ask them again, “Are you still taking fish oil?” that’s not a good way to do it. So, surveys are unreliable, especially if you don’t have proper follow up. So, that’s the “who”—usually sick people; the “what”—usually low quality, low dose supplements; and the “how”--surveys. And that’s usually what’s wrong with these anti-supplement studies.
Okay. So there you go.
Let’s go to the next question: “Is nutrient testing, like for neurotransmitters or minerals, reliable?” Yes and no. Don’t you love it when a doctor answers a question like that? “Well, yes and no. Maybe.” The idea of being able to test your body, whether through blood or urine or hair now—whatever it is--being able to test what’s in your system as far as vitamins and minerals and neurotransmitters--it sounds great. No doubt about that. You know, if I really want to know, if I really want to personalize my suggestions for people…Matter of fact, I just wrote a whole book on how to personalize nutritional regimens. It’s called The Supplement Pyramid. Yeah. I need to know that kind of information. So, I do rely on some of this type of testing but there’s a caveat in that and, you know, there’s a disclaimer that I have to throw out there that we haven’t really figured out perfectly how to use a lot of that data.
Let me give you an example.
You take a nutrient test that’s looking at minerals. You know, magnesium, manganese, copper, you know, etc. You know, when I collect that data from you, whether it’s from blood or urine—whatever it is—I collect that data, you know, and ultimately, I’m just looking at a one-time little snapshot of what’s going on in your system at that particular moment in time. So, it does bring in this question. “Well, how reliable are these really?” Let’s say in that snapshot picture, at that moment in time, your magnesium levels were low. Well, does that really mean you have a magnesium deficiency and I should be suggesting more and more magnesium? I mean, you see where some of the questions come in. I mean, if I could test your blood and your urine and your hair throughout the entire 24-hour period when you’re sleeping, awake, stressed, not stressed, and look at all of that data, that might be a little bit more helpful because I’m going to see the peaks and the valleys and I could average it out more. Maybe someday, with technology, we’ll be able to do something like that, but right now, we’re not there. We’re not able to do that, so we have to do the best we can and so we have to take these snapshot pictures. So, nutrient testing is awesome. It gives me a lot of information. It helps me to personalize my suggestions for people. It helps me to tailor my regimens that I build for people and even myself. So, yeah. It’s awesome. But, we have to understand the limitations and we’re just getting these snapshots. So, I do think it’s worth it, especially if you’re willing to get tested on a continuous basis and watch. You know, get a baseline and see where you are a few months later and just keep following it and build that kind of database. If you’re willing to do that and you have the money, that’s great. That gives a lot of information. But, just one mineral test? There’s some issues there. Some reliability issues.
Okay. So, again, my answer. Is nutrient testing reliable? Yes and no.
Okay. Let’s go to the next one. I think. Oh, this is a big one. I’m going to skip that one. I’m going to go to one about Benadryl. The one I’m going to skip was about MS and about family risk and I’ll do that at another one because that’s going to take some time.
“How much Benadryl is an overdose? How much Benadryl is an overdose that can kill? Does taking large quantity damage organs?”
Benadryl is the brand name for a drug called diphenhydramine. It’s a histamine blocker, works against allergies. Yes. Listen. There are well-documented cases of people overdosing with Benadryl. Of course, that’s going to depend on how big you are and how often you’ve taken it, but, you know, high doses of Benadryl can cause blood pressure issues, lots of confusion, delirium. I know, working in the emergency rooms at a big county hospital in Dallas, Texas, they were often abused. You know, drinking with these types of histamine blockers can cause acute toxicity, make you feel high, that kind of stuff. So, yeah, you definitely can overdo it, but there’s no one dose or answer because it’s really based on how often you use it and so I would just stick with the suggested dosing on the packaging.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I’m Dr. Mike. Stay well.
RadioMD Presents:Healthy Talk | Original Air Date: February 16, 2015
Host: Michael Smith, MD
Alright. Again, 877-711-5211 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
I’m going to skip the first question and go to the second one I had listed here because I’ve talked about this, I think, a couple times in the recent past. So, I don’t want to, you know, go over this over and over again too many times, but I think it’s a good question. So, I just want to quickly address it and we’ll move on to the next one. “I’m trying to explain to my friend that some of the research against the use of supplements is biased and not always conducted in a fair method. Can you help me educate her on consistent flaws of anti-supplement research?”
Well, sure. And I’ve talked about this before. I think I listed it as the “who”, the “what” and the “how” of research. Who is being tested? What’s being tested and how is it being tested? If you just keep track of those three questions, that will help you to analyze pretty much any publication that’s put out there—good or bad. By the way, there are some legitimate anti-supplement studies out there. I think that’s another issue, actually. I don’t always believe that supplements should be studied in the exact same way as a drug simply because of how they work differently in the body. But, that’s maybe a whole other segment. But here, specifically, when you see a headline, you know, “Fish Oils are Bad for the Heart” or “Fish Oils Don’t Help Heart Patients”, you know, whatever it might be, just ask yourself, the “who”, the “what” and the “how.”
The “who” in most of these studies are unhealthy Americans or sick people. People that are already sick. The reason that I brought up that fish oil one, there was a study that talked about how fish oils were not beneficial in heart patients even though that goes against all kinds of great, positive research with fish oil and heart patients, but, in this particular case, these were patients in this study who had already had one heart attack. I mean, we’re already kind of stacking the odds a little bit against the nutrients. So, in many of the cases, where you ask, “Well, who are they studying?” you’ll find that the answer, in many of these research studies, is they’re studying sick people—people who have already had a disease and they’re just simply trying to prevent another attack or, you know, a progression. So, you’re kind of stacking the odds there.
Number two is the “What are they studying?” What nutrient? So, in that case of the Omega-3s, turns out they were using a nice quality Omega-3, but they were using a low dose. So, they were using a low dose Omega-3. I think they were given, in that study, 500 mg and I’ve always talked about at least 2 grams a day of Omega-3 oils. If you’re dealing with something like a heart issue, you probably want it to be higher than that. You know, maybe 4 grams a day. So, in that particular study, the “what”—fish oil—was low dose. That’s what you’ll often find. That it’s either a low quality, it’s the wrong form of the nutrient, or it’s a low dose. That’s the “what.”
And then, the last one is the “how.” How are they actually collecting the data? You’ll find, in many cases, it’s with surveys. Now, surveys are okay. I mean, we use surveys ourselves here at Life Extension but we understand that we should never draw any absolute conclusions off surveys because they are somewhat unreliable, especially if you’re only asking the person one time in a ten-year timeframe, “Did you ever take fish oil?” Based on that one answer at that one time, if you put them in a fish oil group and you never ask them again, “Are you still taking fish oil?” that’s not a good way to do it. So, surveys are unreliable, especially if you don’t have proper follow up. So, that’s the “who”—usually sick people; the “what”—usually low quality, low dose supplements; and the “how”--surveys. And that’s usually what’s wrong with these anti-supplement studies.
Okay. So there you go.
Let’s go to the next question: “Is nutrient testing, like for neurotransmitters or minerals, reliable?” Yes and no. Don’t you love it when a doctor answers a question like that? “Well, yes and no. Maybe.” The idea of being able to test your body, whether through blood or urine or hair now—whatever it is--being able to test what’s in your system as far as vitamins and minerals and neurotransmitters--it sounds great. No doubt about that. You know, if I really want to know, if I really want to personalize my suggestions for people…Matter of fact, I just wrote a whole book on how to personalize nutritional regimens. It’s called The Supplement Pyramid. Yeah. I need to know that kind of information. So, I do rely on some of this type of testing but there’s a caveat in that and, you know, there’s a disclaimer that I have to throw out there that we haven’t really figured out perfectly how to use a lot of that data.
Let me give you an example.
You take a nutrient test that’s looking at minerals. You know, magnesium, manganese, copper, you know, etc. You know, when I collect that data from you, whether it’s from blood or urine—whatever it is—I collect that data, you know, and ultimately, I’m just looking at a one-time little snapshot of what’s going on in your system at that particular moment in time. So, it does bring in this question. “Well, how reliable are these really?” Let’s say in that snapshot picture, at that moment in time, your magnesium levels were low. Well, does that really mean you have a magnesium deficiency and I should be suggesting more and more magnesium? I mean, you see where some of the questions come in. I mean, if I could test your blood and your urine and your hair throughout the entire 24-hour period when you’re sleeping, awake, stressed, not stressed, and look at all of that data, that might be a little bit more helpful because I’m going to see the peaks and the valleys and I could average it out more. Maybe someday, with technology, we’ll be able to do something like that, but right now, we’re not there. We’re not able to do that, so we have to do the best we can and so we have to take these snapshot pictures. So, nutrient testing is awesome. It gives me a lot of information. It helps me to personalize my suggestions for people. It helps me to tailor my regimens that I build for people and even myself. So, yeah. It’s awesome. But, we have to understand the limitations and we’re just getting these snapshots. So, I do think it’s worth it, especially if you’re willing to get tested on a continuous basis and watch. You know, get a baseline and see where you are a few months later and just keep following it and build that kind of database. If you’re willing to do that and you have the money, that’s great. That gives a lot of information. But, just one mineral test? There’s some issues there. Some reliability issues.
Okay. So, again, my answer. Is nutrient testing reliable? Yes and no.
Okay. Let’s go to the next one. I think. Oh, this is a big one. I’m going to skip that one. I’m going to go to one about Benadryl. The one I’m going to skip was about MS and about family risk and I’ll do that at another one because that’s going to take some time.
“How much Benadryl is an overdose? How much Benadryl is an overdose that can kill? Does taking large quantity damage organs?”
Benadryl is the brand name for a drug called diphenhydramine. It’s a histamine blocker, works against allergies. Yes. Listen. There are well-documented cases of people overdosing with Benadryl. Of course, that’s going to depend on how big you are and how often you’ve taken it, but, you know, high doses of Benadryl can cause blood pressure issues, lots of confusion, delirium. I know, working in the emergency rooms at a big county hospital in Dallas, Texas, they were often abused. You know, drinking with these types of histamine blockers can cause acute toxicity, make you feel high, that kind of stuff. So, yeah, you definitely can overdo it, but there’s no one dose or answer because it’s really based on how often you use it and so I would just stick with the suggested dosing on the packaging.
This is Healthy Talk on RadioMD. I’m Dr. Mike. Stay well.