Herbal Viagra

Be careful if you are taking any herbal viagra that gives you an instant effect. ie. within 30 minutes.

It is most likely to have been adulterated with Viagra, Cialis, Levitra etc.

Herbs, fruits and plants products are not meant to work instantaneously. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but not after the first apple. I keep telling people this but somehow the message does not get through in Malaysia. In other countries the consumers are less gullible.

The other day I was given a bottle of P____n registered with the Malaysian DCA. It contains Saw Palmetto, Pumpkin seed and Ginkgo and imported from the USA. After 20 minutes I began to see blue and felt funny (these are the symptoms of Viagra). I am sure there are more such products out in the market. Imported from USA does not mean anything. The manufacurers don't sell any of the products there locally and just export. Usually they are Asian immigrants from Taiwan.

I remember a friend's Singapore company that imported something similar in Singapore from taiwan. I won't name the product. The first few batches were negative for adulterants, but once the commercial lots came in, the adulteration came in.

Manufacturers these days are also being smarter. They add in the adulterants into the soft or hard capsule. This is because most laboratories only test the inside content and not the capsule.

Some manufactuers adulterate say 50% of a certain batch. Thus some may feel some effect, some won't. But those that finds it effective will spread its effectiveness, while those that take the unadulterated batch are those non-responders (even Viagra only work in 70% of cases) or labelled to have something wrong with them (i.e gone case).

COLLAGEN

I remember a few years ago a collagen product was launched by a MLM company. All the old ladies with joint pains and aches were buying it as it gave them pain relief. Collagen does not give you an instant effect, "if at all". Only antiinflammatory drugs and steroids do.

COLOSTRUM MILK

Another MLM company in the last few years has been selling colostrum in sachet nicely packed in a box. Be careful as users says it gives them much extra energy and fell very alert and filled with vigor instantaneously.

They call it IgG milk and in the nutritional facts state the amount of IgG it contains. If you check with the Food Labelling Division, you cannot state the IgG levels on the nutritonal facts. This misleads the public as IgG or any other antibodies can never be absorbed by the gut as it is too big. An IgG antibody comprises of more than 2,000 aminoacids long. It is digested into aminoacids and peptides. The intestinal tract can only absorb peptides of 15-30 amino acids long.

In medical school, we were taught the only useful antibody in milk is IgA, a mucosal antibody that protects the lining of the gastrointestinal tract.


Problem

Most of the companies that promote these kind of products are in for short term financial gain. They may get caught, but they have made their millions. So they will lie low for a few years, and then start a new company and do something similar again.