On Useful Supplements . . .

Practically every supplement that some people say is helpful in certain disorders has other people who say “Be careful. Not scientifically proven.”

You may run into this is, for example, if you want to use
glucosamine to treat arthritis. A number of manufacturers make it, lots of people buy it and find it helpful, but many doctors say it is worthless. But few if any doctors say it is harmful.

What to do? What you can do in a situation like this is perform a simple scientific experiment. The experiment is very straightforward. You simply start taking the stuff, in a small quantity at first, to make sure it agrees with you, and then in the amount recommended by those who say it works, and pay attention to what happens. Does it relieve the condition? In my case glucosamine saved me an operation on my knees. If it does not relieve your condition after three to six months (most supplements work slowly), you can conclude either that it does not work for you, or that perhaps you should try a different brand or method of taking it. If it does work for you, you cannot be sure that it is the cause of your relief but you can say that it might be. You can then continue to take it as long as continue to get relief and no bad symptoms occur.

If you want to complete the scientific experiment aspect, you can stop taking it for awhile, see what happened, then start taking it again. But there are many variables: food, liquids, life styles, etc. The most you can say is that you have run a scientific experiment with a sample size of one, and can report positive results. The next person may get better or worse results but the odds favor better.

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