I am a big fan of supplements, herbs, and vitamins. I take about 15 different “supplements” daily and have for many years.
At age 25, very shortly after my mother passed away at age 61 of complications from a rare disease, I started doing serious research into just about every aspect of diet and health - including immunology, virology, herbology, pharmacology, homeopathic therapy, a list of various diseases, and food. I especially looked at the studies and research.
I spent many years experimenting. I took various herb and supplements. I juiced for many years. I had access to leading edge pharmacological research and anti-viral drugs. I also had access to the studies and research being performed by top scientists in immunology and virology from multiple countries.
There are basically three things I discovered and to this day I still go by.
First, I discovered that that most of the claims were entirely unproven. If there were published research studies, they were not peer reviewed and omitted critical data.
Two, the ingredients in the claimed miracle “herb” or whatever name they used, was almost always never described. Our body is basically a mass of chemistry.
And three, there are almost no regulations, testing, or monitoring of many herbs and other supplements. So.. how do you know what exactly you are getting? There is a potential high risk factor.
What are the specific chemicals in bay leaves?
How much of each chemical is contain in a bay leaf?
What will those chemicals do inside our body?
Will those chemicals interact with other chemicals in our body?
How long will those chemicals remain in our body?
Will those chemicals break our brain barrier?
For example:
https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-bay-leaves#1Where does it state how much of each of those “small amounts of many vitamins and minerals”? Where does it state in what chemical form the iron is? Is the iron in bay leaves ferrous sulfate, ferrous gluconate, ferrous fumarate, ferric citrate, or ferric sulfate? Why is that critical? Like most minerals - Iron toxicity – too much iron - can be very dangerous.
So what’s my point?…. I highly recommend that anyone considering taking supplements to do their own homework, do their own research, and be very careful with taking any supplement or herb without thoroughly understanding the specific chemicals you are going to put in your body.
That’s just my opinion – it may be worthless.
Gnarls.
