Safety Bulletin: Mad Cow and Chondroitin – An Important Message from Jean Carper
Concerns have appeared in the press over the possibility that supplements, including chondroitin, made from bovine tissue, might be contaminated with proteins thought to cause mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE.
Any such risk is highly theoretical and extremely remote, say experts. First, no case of mad cow has ever been traced to chondroitin. Further, BSE attacks the nervous system of cows and has never been detected in beef trachea tissue, the cartilaginous part used to make chondroitin.
Authorities of utmost integrity and knowledge have called the contamination of supplements, notably chondrotin, by BSE very unlikely, including a spokesman for Ralph Nader’s Health Research Group and Jason Theodosakis, M.D., of the University of Arizona, and a leading expert on chondroitin and glucosamine. See his excellent website www.DrTheo.com for more discussion of the subject.
As further demonstration of confidence in chondroitin safety, the National Institutes of Health is continuing a human study using chondroitin made by a Spanish company, which imports beef tracheas from non-BSE countries.
This EatSmart column is reprinted from USAWEEKEND Magazine and is copyrighted by Jean Carper. It cannot be reprinted without permission from Jean Carper.
