By now the list of man made toxins and chemicals infesting virtually every living organism on the planet must be staggering. In fact the struggle to avoid poisoning ourselves is better served through realization that the word “natural” affixed to most items serves little beyond the salve of self deception.

Just remember natural =/= good.

Also remember that all those “natural” cures, even if they’re not controlled by the ominous “Big Pharma” are still marketed by people with a profit motive. They have your best interests in mind no more so than “Big Pharma” does.

It’s best to read up on anything anyone ones takes, prescribed or otherwise.
A friend of mine has a habit of blindly trusting anything with a “natural” label on it.
That and blindly trusting everything a doctor tells her to take.
I have even told her that arsenic is all-natural too.
She recently had a bad reaction to hibiscus due to other medications she was taking,
Regarding tea trees, I read that they grow at a rate of 2’ per year so I imagine they are a sustainable crop.

Just remember, hundreds of years ago when people relied on so-called “natural” remedies the average life expectancy was 30–40 years old.

Actually “natural” is a meaningless word, and manufacturers put that word on their label because they know people are more likely to buy it. When I see that word I usually think, “ What’s the catch?” maybe I’ll buy it maybe I won’t, but I’ve never cared for sneaky tactics.

I use natural remedies. And just like anything, some work and some don’t. I make a point to research the heck out of anything before I try it. I also make a point to research anything a doctor tells me to do.

Some natural remedies work like a charm. Years ago my podiatrist told me to get some quality tea tree oil and rub it on my big toenail every night. He said that eventually it would cure the fungus that was causing the nail to thicken and curl. He said it wouldn’t work overnight. It might even take a year or two, but if I stuck with it it would cure the fungus. He knew what he was talking about.

The past several years I have made my own laundry detergent, and the results are excellent.

The FDA doesn’t do any approving or inspecting of the supplement industry. Supplement industry won that decision a long time ago.

Basically, you have to do your own research on every item, because no one is protecting you, money is everything, and yes, some things can be very harmful.

Considering that the FDA approves all kinds of things (drugs, etc) that later on cause cancer or otherwise turn out to be a bad plan, I don’t trust a thing they have to say. They don’t have any integrity at all!

ok, that is irrelevant because the FDA has no jurisdiction here, as I already stated. I’m just saying there is literally no one watching your back with supplements.

@Smashley Right. But if you watch TV at all, if you read the news at all, you know that nobody’s watching your back with drugs either. Just because a doctor prescribes a drug doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be good for you.

As for the original question, I’m not sure what “tonics” mean. Kombucha could be called a tonic, I suppose, and it does have a lot of benefits to offer the average person. But kombucha is fermented, and I’m allergic to anything fermented, so for me it’s a big no-no.

My medical doctor never even suggested that I might have food allergies that were making me feel so bad. A naturopath had me tested for food allergies, and I had to pay out of pocket for a specific test to learn this.

Bottom line, the supplement industry, the tonic industry, the drug industry, are all profit oriented. We are the consumers, and it’s not only our right, it’s our responsibility to research what we put into our bodies.

Doing my own research is how I discovered that big pharma is quietly sliding into the supplement field!!!

iF you watch what’s going on in your doctor’s office, the pharma reps place drug samples in the doctor’s office & the doctor receives kickbacks for prescribing specific drugs to their patients. The doctors also receive kickbacks for every MRI that they schedule. When my Mom was dying, the doctor ordered 7 MRI’s on her in less than a week & with my dad, it was 4 MRI’s in 6 days. In BOTH cases, the diagnosis was the same with the last MRI as it was with the first.

@LadyMarissa yep. Now play “follow the money”, and it’s easy to see why. To them, it’s just business as usual, or maybe they’ll tell you, “it’s the industry standard.” But we all know it’s BS. Your folks sure didn’t benefit in any way, did they?

@snowberry NO they didn’t!!! I used to have a WONDERFUL doctor that understood my desire to go the more “natural” route. So, whenever I went to her with a problem, she’d give me a checkup, disappear for 30 minutes or so & when she returned, she’d tell me what she thought my problem was. Then she’d hand me a sample to take home with me…just in case I needed it…& she followed that with a list of “natural” ingredients that would give me the same outcome…jut in case that was the solution I preferred to follow. I cried when she retired as I’ve NOT found a decent replacement for her. ALL the current doctors have been brainwashed in school that they MUST jump in bed with big pharma!!!

Ok. This question was about the safety of so called natural products. Say what you will about the government, they do maintain standards for what’s actually in a product you are buying. You can argue all day about how evil pharmacists are, but when they give you a bottle for your infants seizures that says levetiracetam it damn well contains levetiracetam, at the dosage prescribed. In the natural everything industry, there is no one protecting for that.

The answer to the original question is no. It is not safe to trust the “natural” products out there just because that’s what the label says. Use other forms of research. Certification groups are important, but verify the group as well. It’s easy enough to BS that stuff. Generally, a specialty grocer will have done some research on the line of products that they carry, but you can’t rely on that every time, as they are often pushed to stock what will sell, which isn’t always what works or what is safe.

This is not my only source but it’s intriguing and it’s a good place to start researching.

https://blog.naturalhealthyconcepts.com/2016/06/24/natural-vs-synthetic-vitamins/

The above source does not give this information, but B12 comes in two forms: cyanocobalamin (artificial) and methylcobalamin (derived from food) Approximately 50% of the world’s population cannot absorb the artificial form of B12 (cyanocobalamin). That means if you’re buying a vitamin that says it’s got B12 in it, but you’re one of the 50% that can’t absorb it because it’s artificial, then you have thrown away your money.

Here’s why, and another little tidbit of not so delightful information: Cyanocobalamin carries an atom of cyanide for every atom of cobalamin. That means your body must break down the cyanide-cobalamin bond before it can make use of the vitamin. There’s no acceptable amount of cyanide in the human body, and certainly not in a supplement, but that’s just my opinion.

If you’re looking for a quick way to spot a quality made vitamin, read the ingredient list for the type of B12 it has. If it does not give the source, the default answer will be the cheaper (cyano) form.

Centrum (which Is put out by Pfizer, a big Pharma company) carries the artificial form of B 12. That’s no surprise, considering the source. I challenge anybody to show me a methylcobalamin B12 supplement made by big Pharma company.

Again, a bottle of b12 might say anything, but you need to find different metrics than labeling or existence on a shelf to decide to trust it. No one is checking that that is actually what is in the bottle, that that is all that is in the bottle, or that the concentrations match what is printed on the bottle. Maybe some independent group is checking, actually, but not before the products go onto shelves.

And before you just trust whatever is written on a blog, consider for a moment that the blog exists for the sole purpose of selling wellness products, and also has no oversight.

@Smashley right. One easy way to do this without a lot of strenuous work is to play follow the money. There’s a lot more money to be made by selling cyanocobalamin than Methylcobalamin.

Many years ago I had a serious ear infection. The pain was so excruciating that I could not sleep, and I could not hear out of either ear. I went to a doctor who kept prescribing increasingly stronger antibiotics each time.

I finally got smart and threw away the third prescription and went to a naturopath instead. After the first visit I was noticeably improved, and he sent me home with a bag full of remedies to help my recovery.

With that experience I learned how to find people to trust regarding supplements. You were right in saying you cannot trust the supplement industry. But that is true with anything. Here’s an example from another industry.

We purchased a car that had a clean history with Carfax. The windshield was old and pitted and needed to be replaced. No problem, we thought because it would be simple to fix that. we sure got a rude surprise when the windshield replacement fellow said he wasn’t sure that he could make the new windshield fit. Somehow the roof of the car had been damaged, and the previous owner had done a home repair job on the roof and windshield, so of course it didn’t show up on Carfax. Our windshield guy worked on it for several hours and finally managed to get it to seal, but if he had not, we would have had to junk the car.

The lesson is it’s always, always buyer beware. Forget Carfax. From now on when I purchase a used car, I am well served to take it to a body shop and ask them to go over it thoroughly and advise me of anything I need to know. This of course will cost extra money but it’s better than having to junk a new used car.

@Smashley I NEVER once said anything about pharmacists being evil!!! My complaint is with the big pharma corporations that are more than willing to sell pills that they KNOW will cause cancer when taken & still market it as a fix-all drug & bombard us with advertisements on how it will fix our problems!!! The reality is that it will fix the problem you have & give you a worse problem!!! That way they can sell you another pill that will fix your problem & the cycle continues!!!

@snowberry “There’s no acceptable amount of cyanide in the human body, and certainly not in a supplement, but that’s just my opinion.”

I hope you never eat apples, peaches or almonds then.

double posted

@Darth_Algar Cyanide is only found in the pits of peaches and in the seeds of apples.. And no I don’t eat the seeds or the pit. I don’t eat almonds. You obviously missed my point, or are you just being contrary?

The point is many substances are found in nature which, while toxic at certain levels or in certain forms, are perfectly safe at other levels or forms. Water (big scary chemical name – Dihydrogen monoxide) is a great example – it’s absolutely vital to life, and we must consume it, but consume too much and it becomes toxic. Cyanide is also used as an anti-caking agent in table salt (granted, that’s an additive), and is also naturally found in, for instance, cassava (and thus, tapioca).

Fine, Darth. You go ahead and have your cyanide snacks. I’ll stay my course thanks!

“There’s no acceptable amount of cyanide ” that’s not necessarily the case, it depends on the compound that it’s in. Crazy Glue, cyanoacrylate, is used routinely in surgery to close wounds. However it’s bound in cyanoacrylate it does not dissociate in the human body.

@dabbler I love your illustration!

The digestive system in the body has to be able to dissociate cyanocobalamin to be able to use the nutritional part of the vitamin. And that requires excellent digestion. And then of course it must process the free cyanide out of the body.

Anybody with poor digestive processes such as myself will have a difficult time pulling apart the molecule, and my body struggles enough with toxins as it is.

I rest my case.

Good point @dabbler. The cyanide in this form is safe in those quantities, as are the naturally occurring cyanide @Darth_Algar mentioned. Snowberry is misinterpreting all that has been stated.

Double posted. Sorry it’s not me, it’s my not so wonderful iPad.

And now it’s removed the original one. Whatever.