I agree with the need for some sort of unbiased but brand/manufacturer-oriented guidance.  I guess my question would be, if this content is not based on your specific experience, what criteria would you apply to determine how to assure some level of credibility?  With advertising, the criteria is generally willingness to pay the price of the advertising.  If you want to maintain higher standards than that, won't it require someone with either understanding or technical expertise or direct experience to assess whether the producer is credible and trustworthy?

As it stands, I am looking for someone whose opinion I can trust regarding which supplement suppliers to turn to.  I have been impressed and surprised by the degree of your willingness to tell it the way you see it, including naming names of product manufacturers that you have found to supply products that seem to work for your patient population.  I hope you'll keep that up no matter what.  And I'm interested in how this idea develops.

Thanks for the helpful thoughts.

I wonder if a user comment method would work. In other words, say a product manufacturer makes a claim and sells their product to you (Track Your Plaque would not sell it), there will be comments from people who have tried the product and their supplier before.

Such a system would not be as certain as providing our own stamp of endorsement (which we could still do, of course), but it would encourage an open conversation. Hopefully, any undesirable products would be rapidly identified as such.

My concern is that, with hundreds or thousands of products out there, we end up saying "We've never tried it" all too often.

Dr. Davis for as much time and effort that is put in the TYP program, why not i'am sure the snake oil salesman would not want his product under the gun like people on this progran would do, frank discussions on supplements is not a bad thing as a example i'am the person who asked you about PGX fiber, its called WellBeX and is marketed by Natural Factors, one more example would be i use a insulin mimetic R-alpha lipoic acid with biotin (also a very good antioxidant) i can buy the brand name Insulow or i can use a different brand (Glucophase),for less money that does the same thing, being a type 2 i test all of the time and sometimes go days eating the same thing at the same time i know that i can get between 10 and 12 points with either one.  i know their are a lot of supplements but we only talk about a few, and like i said before why not, my biggest concern on buying supplements are they selling what they say they are selling or is it different item that will not work, or is made up with a different material than is is advertized. why not get some add revenue, their are good products out their, Upsher-Smith Slo Niacin, Endurance's Endur-acin SR both are good nicotinic Acid products, Insulow makes a good product, one more example would be the Vitamin Shoppe sells a  good Vitamin D softgel under their store brand this is a good product, but they also sell under their store brand a no flush Niacin in their heart supplement area , this product is worthless for the TYP program, I would say start with the products, that we know, and expand a little at a time, also how about Direct access testing for blood work, i use Lab Corp to get my NMR lipoprofile i'am sure that their are others full speed ahead, I think increased revenue could have some good outcomes
Eugene

Great thoughts.

I think, if and when we proceed with such a process, that we:

1) Have some sort of checklist for approval of quality, price, availability, purity, etc. and provide our stamp of approval.

2) Convey our comments in addition to info provided by the manufacturer or distributor.

3) Permit all the Track Your Plaque participants to leave their own comments, much like Amazon does with books.

A record holder in plaque reduction has now been acheived.  What brand of supplements was the member using? What brand of fish oil? This is when a recommendation would be welcomed!!

Nothing magical: He used Sam's Club fish oil.

Margarine and Phytosterolemia

Stephan Wholehealthfoodsource also has a recent interesting blog on this topic.

The more I read about processed foods, the more I stick to whole foods. I was part of the trans fat experiment. I am not willing to take part in the sterol test.

Most medical blogs, though useful, give us a "Choose your guru" kind of model. This post exemplifies an approach that can be summarised as: "Here's what I think, and why; you can follow my recommendations, or you can do your own research; and what's more I'll give you some pointers to get you started." Great stuff. Thank you.

On the issue of plant sterols, the standard argumentation appears to be: "Cholesterol is bad. Anything that displaces cholesterol must be good. We're not interested in what the substances displacing cholesterol might be doing." Unfortunately, the argument is usually tacit; otherwise, it would be immediately obvious how misguided this line of thought is.

Here they go again.  They try to solve a non-existant problem and just make things worse.

There's big $$$$$$ in cholesterol and this is all about $$$$$, not health.

I rarely shop in regular supermarkets anymore (farm subscription for veggies, meat bought in bulk for the freezer, eggs from a local individual, fish from a fish market, freshly roasted coffee from a local coffee place, etc.).  What little else I need comes from quirky Trader Joe's (dark chocolate!), the fish market, farmer's markets, a small natural foods store, or mail order.  

When I do need to go into one of the many huge supermarkets near me, not being a regular shopper there, I never know where anything is, so I have to ramble a bit around the aisles before I find what I'm looking for (and I almost always can grab a hand basket, instead of a trolley cart).  

It's almost like being on another planet!  There's always so many new products (most of them I hesitate to even call food).   It's really a shock to the senses now to see how much stuff supermarkets sell that I wouldn't even pick up to read the label, let alone put in a cart or want to taste.  I'm not even tempted by 99% of the tasting samples handed out by the sweet senior ladies in at Costco anymore (only thing I remember tasting at Costco in at least 6 mos was the Kerrygold  Irish cheese, because I know their cows have pasture access and it's real food).

What's really shocking to me is how large some sections of the markets have become in recent years.  While Americans got larger, so did some sections of the supermarket (hint - good idea to limit the consumption of products from those areas).  Meat and seafood counters have shrunk, though.  Produce areas seem to be about the same size as always (but more of it is pre-prepped and RTE in packaging.

But the chilled juice section is h-u-g-e!  And no, I don't think there is a Florida orange grove behind the cases.  Come on, how much juice do people need?  Juice glasses used to be teeny tiny, for a good reason.  To me it looks like a long wall stocked full of sugar water.  Avoiding that section will put a nice dent in the grocery expenses.

The yogurt case is also e-n-o-r-m-o-u-s!   Your 115 yo Bulgarian "grandmother" wouldn't know what to make of all these "pseudo-yogurts"!  Chock full of every possible variety, but very little fit to eat.  The only yogurts I'll look at are made with plain whole milk, without added gums, emulsifiers, or non-fat milk solids, and live cultures (I mostly buy yogurt now and then to refresh my starter culture at home).  I can flavor them at home if needed.   The sterols are showing up in processed yogurts, too, along with patented new strains of probiotic cultures (I'll stick to my old fashioned, but time-proven homemade lacto-cultured veggies and yogurt instead).

I found the same "cooler spread" in the butter & "spread" section.  The spread options were just grotesque sounding.  Actually, the butter options weren't much better, as many were blended with other ingredients to increase spreadability, reduce calories or cholesterol/saturated fat, etc.  A few plain butters were enhanced with "butter flavor" - say what?  And on no package could it be determined if the butter came from cows that were naturally fed on pasture or on grain in confined pens.

Are sterols the same as plant stanol esters, as in Benecol (http://www.benecol.co.uk/new/light-nutrition-information.htm)?

Is beta-sitosterol, found in anti-BPH supplements in the amount of about 500 mg., okay?

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.


Joannah

http://myscones.com/

One of your articles cited concludes:

"However, the role of dietary plant sterols in the development of atherosclerotic plaque is not known."

Basically, there is no evidence that adsorption of sterols into serum did anything negative here. The presence of sterols is not a smoking gun.

I take your warning as a caution, but I am not sure I believe you any more than the opposite side of this story, and yet I am by example proof that sterols have reduced my bad cholesterol levels.

By the way, the Promise Active Supershots actually have 2 GRAMS of sterols, not 400 mg as you stated. Also, that product is being taken off the market at the end of August 2009 due to lack of market response (so I am told by Unilever).

This study, piled on top of the worrisome literature that precede it, are enough for me: No more tin cans (which are lined with BPA), no more hard plastics labeled with recycling code #7 or #3, no more polycarbonate water bottles (the hard ones, often brightly colored). Microwaveable-safe may also mean human-unsafe, as highlighted by this damning assurance from the Tupperware people that BPA is not a health hazard.

Wonderful!  

Unless they have some particular questions, I suspect that many regular readers of your blog wouldn't need a consultation with you, as they're already pretty well-informed and/or in good health.

However, I can see that someone's less-informed mother, father, friend, or whatnot might benefit hugely from such a consultation.  It might make a great gift for Mother's Day or Father's Day!

you should also give your email ID and some weekly diet plan to be sent through email

The Video Teleconference is not meant to replace the opinion of your doctor, nor diagnose or treat any condition. It is simply meant to provide additional discussion about your health issues that should be discussed further with your healthcare provider. Prescriptions cannot be provided.

I's a good ideea.