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[...] The use of various OTC drugs and dietary supplements is highly prevalent in Europe and patients are often not willing to disclose this information to laboratory staff and the ordering physician as a survey published in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, published by De Gruyter in association with the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM), shows.
The study reports on the results of a survey of patients in 18 European countries which shows that those taking OTC products and dietary supplements are not aware of the potential effects on laboratory test results they may have. In addition, patients do not believe that they need to disclose this use to medical and/or laboratory staff.
The study shows that dietary supplements and OTC drugs are more frequently used by middle-aged patients -- especially women -- with the most common being multivitamins, multiminerals, cranberry and aspirin. All of these compounds, if consumed shortly before blood sampling, may cause changes in lab test results, thus leading to interpretation difficulties and possibly incorrect diagnoses.
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180810091520.htm
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @11:37AM (9 children)
As in the fruit?
The others make sense, and patients are fools for not telling their doctors. But dried cranberries? If that's a concern they need to put it on the damn forms. Unless people are taking something extracted from it in absurd doses which wouldn't normally occur, in which case "cranberry" seems a poor name for it.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday August 12 2018, @12:07PM (4 children)
Well, one of the first links I found in a quick search was this [raps.org], where the EU apparently ruled last year that a cranberry is not a "medical device" (even though marketers apparently had been claiming so for several years in marketing various cranberry products, mostly for supposed prevention of UTIs).
Cranberry juice, pills, extracts, etc. are quite popular and some people take it in quite high doses. Perhaps the odd separate category in TFA here is because there's been debate in the EU over whether cranberries can be a "health supplement," a " medical device, " or something else..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @12:19PM
Thanks for the info.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday August 12 2018, @08:16PM (1 child)
Perhaps so, and makes perfect sense.
From a realistic perspective, however, if you eat a lot of cranberries...if you eat a lot of dried or juiced cranberries...if you eat dehydrated cranberries in lorry-load lots sixteen times a day...then I would say you have perhaps an unusual amount of the food "cranberries" in your diet, but cranberries are a food and as such by definition if consumed, are part of your diet--they can't be a dietary "supplement" because that's by definition something beyond or in addition to your "diet", your diet being by definition "the foods you eat", in this case, mostly cranberries.
An advertising pitch to increase the consumption rate of a certain food in a certain food in your diet by calling it a "health supplement" is probably just a play on the word "supplement" and its sometimes-healthy connotations.
Attention health nuts: You cannot add your diet to your diet.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday August 13 2018, @03:41AM
Note that TFA doesn't say "cranberries"; it says "cranberry." To me, that sounds like an adjective describing things like supplements, not necessary literal cranberries in their original form. And perhaps my previous post was unclear, but I'm pretty sure those trying to market cranberries as a "medical device" aren't predominantly selling raw cranberries, but likely concentrated supplements made from them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 12 2018, @11:21PM
In the UK, fruit is a weapon [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Sunday August 12 2018, @12:45PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit–drug_interactions [wikipedia.org]
https://www.pharmacist.com/juice-interactions-what-patients-need-know [pharmacist.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday August 13 2018, @12:12AM (1 child)
It's a popular tool to flash out magic grass residue before a drug test. Takes a week (as opposed to at least a month naturally). I imagine other chemicals are flashed from ones blood stream at unusual rates as well.
Good for hangover too.
P.S. It's not a fruit, but a berry.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @03:49AM
It is not a rectangle, but a square.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @01:49AM
I've had a painful toe for years, x-rays showed osteoarthritis and the painful joint is enlarged. After going through several "home remedies", with little success I stumbled on tart cherry juice. Drinking a half-cup before bed every night makes a huge difference. Before, walking a quarter mile turned into a painful limp, now a mile or more is possible. Suggested this to a friend with similar problem a couple of years ago and he still thanks me every time we meet, worked even better for him--and he had tried many different things before as well. He's found a source of dried tart cherries, eats a few like candy throughout the day.
Obviously, only anecdotal, but if I forget for a few days, my toe tells me with a return to the previous level of pain.