Magnesium Stearate is absolutely useless to your body; a metal derivative that your body has absolutely no conceivable use for. Supplement companies have been intentionally misleading their customers for some time now, making it sound like the inclusion of this additive is helpful to your general welfare. The truth is much more frightening and a substantial bit more dangerous.
Magnesium Stearate or Stearic Acid is basically a toxin; a combination of hydrogenated oils that gets into your body and starts killing cells almost immediately. The worst part is that there is Stearic Acid in over 90% of the pills currently on the market. Sometimes it is because of the age of the equipment being used to produce pills; other times it is because supplement companies are trying to milk every last bit of profit out of their machines.
So, how does Stearate make its way into your supplements so often? It is a manufacturing tool, used to lubricate the machinery and produce more pills, faster. To be more accurate, Stearic Acid is the byproduct of the hydrogenated oils that are used to lubricate the machinery, having accumulated the metals that saturate these highly dangerous oils. Because they are used to lubricate every aspect of pill production, these hydrogenated oils have saturated every ounce of your supplements, making up as much as 5% of a 1000 mg capsule. Not only does this waste valuable supplement space just so a company can make more pills and more money, it reduces the effectiveness of the pills you are taking.
In addition to weakening your pills, Magnesium Stearate may be loaded with pesticides that are used on the Cottonseed Oil that has been hydrogenated. In addition, with the chemical structure of the fatty acids in Stearic Acid having been altered through close contact with various metal catalysts at extremely high temperatures, the risk of toxicity increases dramatically, introducing countless toxic compounds into your body as a result.
While the companies that produce Vitamins and Supplements may want you to believe that the use of Magnesium Stearate and Stearic Acid in your pills is safe, they are not fooling anyone. You owe it to yourself and your future well being to go to the cupboard right now and remove any pills in there that might contain anything with either of these highly dangerous supplements in them. The market has supported this shoddy, irresponsible production for too long and the health of the industry's consumers should not need to suffer for it.
The Truth About Vitamin Supplements Check your vitamin labels. Do they contain Magnesium Stearate or Stearic Acid? Studies by the University of Texas Health Science Center and the East Carolina University School of Medicine reveal that these toxic excipients cause a rapid collapse of T-cell membrane function and cell death; therefore suppressing the immune system. (Immunology, 1990, Jul.)
It is estimated that 90% of the vitamin and mineral products consumed today contain stearates. Stearates are used as binders in tablets and in the processing of gelatin capsules. Consumers often take handfuls of capsules and tablets to get vitamins, minerals and other key nutrients from supplements that contain stearates, and instead, in reality, get a powerful immune suppressive treatment. Quantum Nutrition Labs' nutritional supplements are 100% free of toxic excipients, including magnesium stearate or stearic acid.
"The public must be more aware of nutritional products that initially bring a good vitamin or mineral but hurt you in other ways." (Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, Commissioner - Texas Department of Health, speaking before the Texas Strategic Health Partnership,
University of Texas, Sept. 25, 2003)
Widespread Cheating
The FDA reports widespread cheating in the supplement industry. At Quantum Nutrition Labs, the belief is that only careful testing of each batch and source of herbal ingredients will guarantee the most premium quality. Recently when the QNL laboratory tested one source of asparagus extract being offered by a new supplier, it was discovered that 90% of it was hay! Just cheap hay! Needless to say, this supplier was not used.
Most retailers and distributors of vitamin supplements have no way to test their products to see if what is on the label is actually in the bottle. Therefore, they are not aware of the toxicity of the products they are selling and mistakenly claim 100% purity for their products.
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Let Food Be Your Medicine And Medicine Be Your Food.(Hippocrates)
Stearates are basically oil salts. When you digest mag stearate, the stearate ion will just coat things and make them impermiable. You can take stearate salts (mag or zing) and rub your body with them and jump in a pool. When you come out, you will be dry, the water just rolls off. But likewise, to have absorption, the water (or digestive juices) need to wet the intestinal and stomach walls. The stearate will minimize this wetting.
Saved1986,
That us OUTRAGIOUSLY maddening! I just threw away a bunch of bottles of vitamins with magnesium stearate but I just purchased 2 broken cell chlorella boxes (already ate 1) to help chelate out mercury and other metals in my body after I eat a cilantro pesto. And it was not cheap!!!
Saved1986,
That us OUTRAGIOUSLY maddening! I just threw away a bunch of bottles of vitamins with magnesium stearate but I just purchased 2 broken cell chlorella boxes (already ate 1) to help chelate out mercury and other metals in my body after I eat a cilantro pesto. And it was not cheap!!!
There is a relationship with how much stearate there is. I will try and find out how much they put in vitamin tabs.
Magnesium Stearate is added for the benefit of the manufacturer, not for the consumer.
Whether or not it is safe or harmful is beside the point. It is an additive I don't want. At the very least, the vitamin manufacturer is "diluting" your supplements, and worse case senario, they are poisoning us slowly.
It probably wouldn't be so bad if you only took a couple supplements that contain magnesium stearate, however, in my case, I take alot of pills each day, and I don't want to be coating my intestines with this "grease"...
...which, by the way, is made from hydrogenated oils, and that is another discussion altogether.
Manufacturers say magnesium stearate is safe because its been used in pills for over 50 years now.
I say so has mercury in fillings, fluoride in drinking water, and 9 doctors out of 10 prefer Camels.
It seems to me that if there is a dispute over magnesium stearate, it should be removed, even if its just a precautionary act..
After all, what if it is harmful?
Last edited by pinballdoctor; 12-01-2010 at 07:38 PM.
Magnesium Stearate is added for the benefit of the manufacturer, not for the consumer.
Wheather or not it is safe or harmful is beside the point. It is an additive I don't want. At the very least, the vitamin manufacturer is "diluting" your supplements, and worse case senario, they are poisoning us slowly.
It probably wouldn't be so bad if you only took a couple supplements that contain magnesium stearate, however, in my case, I take alot of pills each day, and I don't want to be coating my intestines with this "grease"...
...which, by the way, is made from hydrogenated oils, and that is another discussion altogether.
Manufacturers say magnesium stearate is safe because its been used in pills for over 50 years now.
I say so has mercury in fillings, fluoride in drinking water, and 9 doctors out of 10 prefer Camels.
It seems to me that if there is a dispute over magnesium stearate, it should be removed, even if its just a precautionary act..
After all, what if it is harmful?
I would rather it not be in there either, but I was just researching it and came upon that from a reputable source.
[QUOTE=pinballdoctor;173462]
I say so has mercury in fillings, fluoride in drinking water, and 9 doctors out of 10 prefer Camels.
That's it pinballdoctor.....and don't forget vaccines. Most doctors will say they have saved our children horrible diseases.
I believe everything matters. Every little bit of good and every little bit of bad. Over time it will add up and I want there to be a whole lot of good and very little bad.
The most recent anti-magnesium stearate propaganda comes from several smooth-talking alternative health “professionals” (product sales-hype specialists) who state that magnesium stearate forms biofilms in your digestive tract and thereby interferes with absorption of nutrients and even food. No proof is offered, just their opinions.
Almost comically, the actual science says just the opposite. Stearic acid actually helps prevent the formation of biofilms (click here for study).
...
The thing is that Byron Richards in the above article actually cites(and gives a link to or the abstract) several research studies saying it is harmless, while there is only bs articles with no sources that you can find stating that magnesium stearate is harmful. Also I noticed that Gary Null's supplement line contains this ingredient, and I cannot imagine him being uninformed enough to include it if it was really harmful.
Pinball, the problem is you found several articles that talk about it being a problematic substance with no evidence or published studies to back it up, alot of the articles are from places where anyone can write an article. What does this tell you?
The Ray Sahelian article that saved1986 posted and the Byron Richards article I cited seem much more credible sources written by people with much deeper knowledge. The ones problematizing magnesium stereate seem like amateurish conjecturists with no solid proof. IE: In the Mercola article/video: Why Taking Supplements Could be Hazardous to Your Health with Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, he just briefly makes mentions of studies with no specifics at all as to the parameters, institution or name of the study. In other words he sounds like he is making up claims and just claiming "studies" or "science" to create the illusion of proof of argument.
A flaky article you cited to seed this topic wrote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apical Nutrition
... Studies by the University of Texas Health Science Center and the East Carolina University School of Medicine reveal that these toxic excipients cause a rapid collapse of T-cell membrane function and cell death; therefore suppressing the immune system. (Immunology, 1990, Jul.)
...
The rebuttal citing the actual study, its parameters, and even providing a link to the study abstract:
The main “study” quoted by this collection of anti-magnesium stearate con artists is a 1990 cell study titled “Molecular basis for the immunosuppressive action of stearic acid on T cells.” Sure, the study title sounds incriminating. The study has nothing whatsoever to do with magnesium stearate or dietary supplements – and is totally irrelevant. If you like, you can read the entire study by following the above link.
The study is a preliminary cell study done by researchers who are trying to make new immunosuppressive drugs for people with organ transplants. In the experiment they expose T cells and B cells to a lab concoction they brewed up which is a mixture of stearic acid, diatomaceous earth, and bovine serum albumin (a far different compound than magnesium stearate). The T cells and B cells were prepared in an antibiotic-rich medium and exposed to inflammatory toxic challenge prior to exposure to the lab-concocted test brew. The whole intent of the study was to injure T cells in some way, meaning that direct exposure of the T cells to the amount of the concoction had to be adequate to damage the T cells or the researchers weren’t going to bother with the experiment.
You can readily see that such an experiment has absolutely nothing to do with dietary supplements. It is falsely represented as “proof” that dietary stearic acid is immune toxic – which the study does not prove at all. Remember, stearic acid is widely consumed since the beginning of human evolution every day by almost everyone and this study does not begin to approximate how stearic acid behaves in your body nor was it intended to demonstrate that issue.
Under experimental conditions, it would be just as easy to expose T cells to water and produce the same result. The reason the researchers didn’t do that is because they were trying to figure out some type of concoction they could use as a new immuno-suppressive drug for organ transplant patients. The study was obviously preliminary, and never even meant anything to the field it was intended to impress (as no drug in this line has been produced in the 19 years following the study).
The ludicrous notion that this study has anything to do with human health is simply absurd. Those using and quoting this study as “proof” that magnesium stearate is a problem to your health are so deficient in integrity that anything they are trying to push off on you is of questionable value.
The following quote is from the site you posted by Byron J. Richards:
"I use as little magnesium stearate as possible when formulating products."
How can the guy be credible when he uses Magnesium stearate to formulate his capsules. That is a conflict of interest.
Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, on the other hand, is not selling or formulating any products, thus, is not biased.
I am curious to know why you are defending the use of magnesium stearate, considering it is not necessary for this substance to be in supplements in the first place.
You are creating an issue out of nothing. One person in this thread even said they threw out their vitamins because of this fake issue, several commentators also said the same in the comments of the Mercola article! In other words at least one person wasted likely perfectly good supplements that my have cost a decent amount, just because of this thread. That Mercola article is not credible, infact Dr. Mercola used it to pimp his own supplements which he is proud to remind do not have the substance. Klinghardt, has no sources or anything to back him up other than the illusion of mentioning vaguely "studies". I will take the arguments of someone who formulates supplements and vitamins that knows and demonstrates his knowledge and mastery on this topic over such circular vague crap. Apical Nutrition which you used as a source in this thread, sells many overpriced liquid vitamins that Richards was talking about, but you had no problem with that conflict of interest.
Here is the best point to debunk this non-issue created with no backing up from studies or clinical problems:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ray Sahelian
...
I have been taking dietary supplements for more than thirty years and I know older patients who have been taking a handful of vitamin capsules with magnesium stearate every day for more than 40 or 50 years and they are in their 80s and 90s (even a few who are over a 100 years old) and in good health. If MS was so toxic as some claim, how come none of these vitamin users have become ill after consuming these ms-containing capsules daily for several decades?
...
Also if you scroll down that article you will see that Ray unlike the others making up ridiculous claims of its danger, cites the research and interprets it properly.
As to why vitamin companies use magnesium stearate, it was mentioned before. If you ever try to transfer honey from one container to another, you will lose some honey that gets stuck in the original container. I sometimes use my powerful Vitamix blender to make my own peanut butter, but every time I do, I waste quite a bit of peanut butter(especially if it is small batch) that I cannot scoop out of the blender carafe. If supplement companies use a little bit of magnesium stearate to lower costs, waste less, then I am all for it. The average pill is very tiny and from experience in life you should know that everytime you transfer any subtance from one place to another, one container to another you will lose some of the substance that you cannot scoop up, and with capsules which are very small, I am sure the losses can add up. That is in addition to how it was mentioned that the machinery needs a little lubrication. What this crackpot Klinghardt said about you may as well eat chalk instead of taking vitamins/supplements or that long-time vitamin users have biofilm problems that lead to difficult nutrient absorption is total bunk. So many peer reviewed studies have been published about vitamin supplemention alone reducing the risk of most diseases and otherwise boosting health, that I don't know how anyone on this forum could have been swayed by such a faulty argument.
Magnesium Stearate
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