opinion leaders in the supple- ment industry. Nocebo effects are adverse events produced by negative expectations and repre- sent the negative side of placebo effects. In effect people may have attributed certain symptoms, real or imagined, to their intake of magnesium stearate because they believe the unsubstantiat- ed criticisms of its use in food supplements and medicines. As with their placebo counterpart, nocebo responses demonstrate the powerful interaction between mind and body.2,3
The alleged negative and un- documented “risk” of magne- sium stearate has been so well distributed in the internet arena that I believe it is now genuinely responsible for a ‘nocebo’ effect. Nocebo effects and placebo ef- fects that have qualifiable impact on the functionality of a patient are the direct result of the psy- chosocial context or therapeutic environment on a patient’s mind, brain, and body. Both phenome- na can be produced and ampli- fied by multiple factors, such as written opinion, verbal sugges- tions and past experience. These
not only have relevance in clini- cal management but also compli- cate perceptions of validity when emotionally connected to unsub- stantiated hypotheses.
A fine balance must exist be- tween communicating important nutrient information and ensur- ing that every attempt is made to minimize unsubstantiated claims. So, the facts about mag- nesium stearate:
Magnesium Stearate Facts
Magnesium stearate exists as “plate-like” crystals (or lamel- lae) stacked together like a deck of cards. As the blending of food ingredients or drugs proceeds, plates continuously shear off and coat adjacent particles of ingredi- ents. The higher the concentra- tion of magnesium stearate used or the longer this blending con- tinues, the more complete this coating of the adjacent particles will become. For effective lubri- cation, you do not need and, in fact, do not want to coat every- thing too completely with the lubricant as it alters the speed at which the tablet and capsule con- tents are made bioavailable. So
the approximate 1% use of mag- nesium stearate in supplements and medicines is not only safe but produces an effective and bioavailable food supplement with consistent dosing across all batches. The FDA states: mag- nesium stearate is generally considered safe for human con- sumption at levels below 2,500 mg/kg of body weight per day. So, for instance, 1% of a 1000 mg pill would be 10 mg. As with all professional food supplements, concentration, grade and mix- ing parameters must be carefully controlled and respective food supplement companies will ap- ply their own ethos to these as well as meeting good manufac- turing compliance.
References:
1. Rose P, Kim JH. Self-Monitoring, Opinion Leadership and Opinion Seeking: a Sociomoti- vational Approach. Current Psychology. Volume 30, Number 3 (2011), 203-214, DOI: 10.1007/ s12144-011-9114-1. http://www.springerlink. com/content/k882x01m84407531/
2. Brody H, Miller FG. Lessons from recent re- search about the placebo effect–from art to sci- ence. JAMA. 2011 Dec 21;306(23):2612-3. PMID: 22187283
3. Finniss DG, Kaptchuk TJ, Miller F, Benedetti F. Biological, clinical, and ethical advances of place- bo effects. Lancet. 2010 Feb 20;375(9715):686-95.
Review. PMID: 20171404 A New Perspective: Why I Believe
Magnesium Stearate is Safe Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD
In 2009, I was interviewed by Jo- seph Mercola, MD, regarding my concerns about fillers and inac- tive ingredients in supplements.
26 Focus April 2013
My patient population is often highly sensitive — I see many patients with chronic Lyme dis- ease, chronic fatigue syndrome,
and multiple chemical sensitiv- ity. These patients often literally arrive at my office with shop- ping bags full of supplements.
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