Sunday, April 4, 2010

Can Quercetin Help Reduce Asthma?

I was asked this by my older brother.  Actually, he asked me about FRS products, that have been endorsed by Lance Armstrong.  Let me say that I'm a big fan of Lance.  That being said though, I had to do this research.  The stated active ingredient is quercetin.  I did not know what that is. Although Wikipedia is not a 100% reliable site, and according to my daughter Wikipedia should not be cited as a reference, the entry on quercetin has at least 2 good references: the American Cancer Society's summary of quercetin and the FDA's summary essentially stating they have not approved any health claims about quercetin.  Quercetin is a naturally occurrring compound in many fruits.  A PubMed of "quercetin exercise" found some articles either showing no benefit and other articles showing a slight benefit.  One other point, quercetin is thought to be safe.

So in short, the Allergy Dude can NOT endorse this product, because there is not enough data to support supplementation.  If you eat fruits, you're getting some anyways.  When there is good data, I'll up my fruits, perhaps supplement, and tell you up front right here.

No comments:

This website is certified by Health On the Net Foundation. Click to verify. We comply with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.
 
My Zimbio Medicine Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory