Re: Re Vegetarian Question

[Guest guest]

Carla:

I've been a vegetarian for just a few years. I just checked my vitamins.

Some of them are in capsules made of gelatin. At this point, this doesn't

bother me either philosophically or physiologically.

Cheryl

[Guest guest]

Thanks for your reply Kendrum. I've found the problem of animal products used

in encapsulating

medical therapies to be even worse than I originally imagined. My current doc

is trying to get my

high bp down (which has come on rather suddenly since my myomectomy) and all of

the meds she has

attempted to prescribe thus far are either in gelatin caps or coated in

cellulose. Not vegetable

cellulose either. This is somewhat distressing to me as I've learned, through

trial and error, that

long-term vegetarianism has resulted in a body that cannot process gelatin

without pitching a wild fit

of gastrointestinal pain and discomfort. I simply don't " do " cow (or pig or

horse, etc.) in any

format!

I didn't know iron tablets had gelatin in them either. Perhaps that's why they

made me deathly ill

when I tried to take them eons ago? Hmmm. I resorted to simply living with the

anemia cuz I couldn't

handle iron tabs at all.

I wonder, as I continue to age and quite possibly find myself in need of more

meds over time, how to

deal with this? How do long term older vegetarians deal with this? I started

randomly asking people

in the health food stores around here this question and found that many of them

are unaware that

gelatin and cellulose (that which is not specifically identified on the label as

vegetable cellulose

may be animal based) are animal byproducts.

My biggest concern right now is getting a diuretic that will possibly help to

lower my bp. I've been

using dandelion leaf tincture for a couple of months now and it worked,

initially, quite well in

reducing edema. Over time, however, it seems to have lost efficacy. Given the

paucity of reliable

research in the area of alternative medicine, I'm finding little to no remedies

that I'd truly want to

try next (for this particular health issue) that aren't pharmaceutically

manufactured with FDA

approvals. But, the pharmys have really missed the beat on the issue of

vegetarianism and how that

might impact digestion/absorption of their products. Ugh.

Carla

Kendrum Daze wrote:

> Hi Carla,

>

> sorry this response is so late I'm very behind on my email reading.

>

> I'm a vegetarian and always check the labels of supplements and will not buy

> anything with gelatin in it. For example I considered soy isoflavins but had

> trouble finding one without gelatin. I decided in the end not to bother and

> try and eat as healthily as I could manage.

>

> It has come as a surprise to ALL the pharmasists in my area that ferrous

> sulphate (Iron tablets) has gelatin in it as they ALL assured me it hadn't.

> (It has). A kind nurse went to a fair amount of trouble to find me an

> alternative on one of my trips into hospital for a blood transfusion. For

> those interested I take the liquid iron supplement ferrous fumarate which

> has the trade name of Galfer Syrup here in the UK. Previously I was taking

> the gelatin covered iron since my anaemia was so severe and would have been

> an idiot not to.

>

> I haven't had any operation that requires colace so can't comment on this

> part except to say thanks for alerting me to this issue.

>

> KD