Links to Blogs I follow on Improving Consumers Health

If you are looking for more helpful information regarding other ways to improve your health you can check out the blogs that I am listed as being a follower of. They are blogs from other classmates who are working on the same topic. Each blog contains useful information on products such as weight-loss strategies or supplements, exercise tips, healthy diets and much more on how to improve your overall health! If you cant get to those websites from my blog you can click on the links below which will also direct you to those pages.


http://consumerhealthtoday1.blogspot.com/

http://lauramhed209.blogspot.com/

Both perspectives on using the product, Alli

Here are two easy resources on the product, Alli from both perspectives one that it is supposed to improve your health with weight loss, and then another article on the disadvantages of using this product for improving health with serious side effects for certain consumers. Alli is an over-the-counter weight-loss supplement. So here is some helpful information from both articles that every consumer should know about this product:

The first article is going to be on the disadvantages of using the product Alli. You can find the article, “The Disadvantages of Wonder Weight-Loss Drug Alli,” at news.softpedia.com or by clicking the hyper link in the title of the article.

In this article it goes over how some of the supposed health benefits that Alli markets can be also very threatening to consumer’s health. This article was written by Elena Gorgan, Life and Style editor. Some of the disadvantages of using Alli is the very cost of the product being pricy for a weight loss pill, it can target all fat whether it is your good fat or bad fat with stool urgency, and some research has shown that cutting your calorie count by 100 would just as effective as using the pill.

The second article will be on the benefits of using the product Alli. You can find the article, “Alli Weight Loss Aid gets FDA approval and is ready for consumers,” at supplementstogo.com or by clicking the hyper link in the title of the article.

In this article it goes over the FDA’s approval and explains that this is an over-the-counter product. In the article it states that Alli is healthy and effective in weight-loss and that it is better for consumers because it targets the digestive system and not other parts of the body like the heart or brain.

I hope that the consumers, who were able to read both of these articles on the product Alli, were able to make a healthy decision on whether this product is the right product for them in improving their health.

Weekly Post #3

Rating System For Products/ Methods On Improving Your Health

I have come up with my own rating system on certain products and methods for improving one’s health. My rating system will consist of five different criteria that will be judged on consumer’s satisfaction being offered. This is how my rating system will work:

Ratings will be based on a scale with a range of one to five. One will be considered bad/ does not improve health, unsafe. Five would be considered great, very healthy, and doctor recommended. In between one and five on the scale is just an average score either it being low average or close to being high average.

Five Criteria:

1) Health and Safety Information

a. Long-term health benefits

b. Short-term health benefits

c. Certification or FDA approval given

2) Health and Development Information

a. Harmful for consumers to consume

b. Harmful for consumers to rely upon for health improvement

c. Does improve health &/ or condition

3) Company Selling Product

a. FDA Approved

b. Certified specialists/ doctors are performing

c. Employees can be trusted with your health

4) Consumer Rating

a. Worked well, Made you feel healthier or better in general

b. Proven safe for improving health

c. Recommendations

5) Health Warnings/ Recalls

a. Product had Recall

b. Safety Hazard, worsens condition

c. FDA does not endorse



I wanted to test out my rating system and rate three different methods that I thought would be beneficial for improving consumer’s health.

Acupuncture: Used to relieve pain. Chinese method is most traditional, in which doctors or specialists insert thin needles into certain spots on your body to influence energy flow. In rare cases complications and bad side effects can occur (example: use of unsterilized needles).

My Rating:

Safety: Rating of 4

Development: Rating of 5

Company: Rating (depends on Individual Doctor) 5

Rating: Rating of 5

Warnings: Rating of 1

My overall Rating as a consumer for this product would be an average of score of 4. This product was beneficial for me and I would recommend consulting a doctor about proceeding to use this method to improve your overall health. There are not that many side effects and are rare when do occur the only thing that might need to be improved is being careful about using sterilized needles.

Massage Therapy: Used to relieve stress &/ or for pleasure and health. Have many different variations of ways in which to manipulate muscles, and soft tissues by applying pressures, movements and techniques to body. Massage therapists can be recommended by your health physician or you can simply pay to receive this health therapy. Therapists can use different methods when giving massages, such as, oils, lotions, and can last from five minutes to two hours.

My Rating:

Safety: Rating of 5

Development: Rating of 5

Company: Rating (depends on Individual Doctor) 5

Rating: Rating of 5

Warnings: Rating of 5

My overall average score for this method would be a score of 5. I believe that massage therapy can be a very useful way to improve your health. Stress and other conditions can cause harmful, painful effects on your body and massage relieves those issues. Many doctors and certified specialists recommend this way of improving health. I rated this method so high because there really are no side effects other than soreness after receiving this treatment.

Weight Loss Supplement, Creatine: Converts food into energy. Is believed to build muscle and enhance strength. There are many warnings that can be found online about using this product such as; causes water retention, diarrhea, nausea, and high blood pressure, ECT. There have also been warnings about its risks for consumers with kidney or liver disease and also for diabetics because of the amount of sugar it contains.

My Rating:

Safety: Rating of 2

Development: Rating of 2

Company: Rating of 3

Rating: Rating of 1

Warnings: Rating of 1

My overall average for this product is around 2. This product does not seem reliable, and definitely not very healthy. No evidence can be shown that this product actually does improve your health in any way and could be potentially harmful for consumers. I would not recommend trying this method of improving your health.

Weekly Post #2

Harmful Ingrediants in Nutritional Supplements

Can products contain ingredients that are harmful for consumers without them even knowing the effects it can have on their body until it is too late and the after math is more devastating than ever believed? Well, this statement is very true and the senate is going to make a stop to this and start looking for tighter regulations. When reading an article that I found on the New York Times website I found an article about the senate regulating on supplements that are believed to contain steroids in this thought to be nutrition supplement. This regulation is being backed by all big league sports teams throughout the nation because professional athletes have faced challenges on anti-doping for failing a mandatory drug test given by the league and the athlete having no idea that the nutritional supplement was steroid-laced.

An interesting, yet very scary statement about Jareem Günter, a former colligate baseball player who suffered bad consequences from a muscle building supplement, which he later found out was spiked with a designer steroid. He suffered liver failure after he ingested this over the counter product and was hospitalized because of this supplement. The senate wants professional sports teams to sign on to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency which would help screen for the human growth hormone urine screening. This policy would undermine the USDA’s testing on professional athletes which is one of the strictest screening tests.

Congress is hard on the line for making the supplement laws stricter to ensure athlete and consumer safety because these big corporations and businesses should not get away with adding these potentionally harmful ingredients to their products. As a consumer myself that sort of scam for consumers is very scary because our lives are at stake without us even knowing it because Congress believes the FDA is not regulation hard enough and testing every over the counter product to ensure that it contains only the ingredients listed.

If congress is successful in passing laws that are stricter and looked at more throughouly people like Jareem Gunter will not have to face life threatening consequences because they had no idea the product they were consuming was bad. I hope that consumers will begin to start using more natural ways of improving their health so that issues such as these don’t make scary, unhealthy changes to your life. To read further into this issue you can go to http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/2009/09/29/2009-09-29_senate_seeks_tighter_supplement_regulation.html and read more articles containing updates on these new regualtions being put in place.