Dietary Supplements: Do You Really Know What You’re Taking?
By Sue Roberts, MPH, MS, RD/CN, for Revive Your Life
Use caution when using dietary supplements...Photo by tacit requiem
Coenzyme Q10, creatine, ginseng, valerian, ginkgo biloba, milk thistle, chrondroitin, ginseng, chromium, pyruvate, vitamin E, rose hips, echinacea… the list goes on and on. Which to choose?
Its not easy to decide! In fact, chances are you are downright confused as to what to buy. With so many brands, names and dosages…which works best? How much to take? Are all of them safe?
Take heart, you are not alone in feeling overwhelmed!
Some folks think that taking a supplement is the equivalent of taking an over-the-counter product, or even a prescription drug. You can trust what you read on the label, right? Wrong…nothing could be further from the truth!
How so, you wonder? Let’s start with some background information about how supplements are regulated in order to get a handle on this.
The term “dietary supplement” was legally defined in 1994 as part of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. Under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), dietary supplements are more or less regulated as a food. This means that they are not subject to the same approval process that food additives and prescription drugs are. Food additives and prescription drugs must be proven safe prior to being marketed, however dietary supplements can be sold without prior studies proving their safety. What this means is a manufacturer can market a supplement without having to go through rigorous safety testing. Only after a supplement is found to be harmful is it taken off the market. Drug companies must prove a drug is safe before it is marketed.
This is a huge difference!
Of course, if the system worked as it was designed, the FDA should have adequate control over all supplements marketed, being able to prevent the unsafe ones from being sold.
Unfortunately, this is not the case, as you can well imagine. There are just too many supplements currently available for the FDA to keep close tabs on all of them. What this means is not every supplement on the shelf is safe to take!
So, what is actually considered a dietary supplement and what isn’t?
According to the FDA definition, a supplement is a “product (other than tobacco) intended to supplement the diet that bears or contains one or more of the following dietary ingredients:
(A) a vitamin;
(B) a mineral;
(C) an herb or other botanical;
(D) an amino acid;
(E) a dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake;
(F) a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of any ingredient described in clause A, B, C, D, or E.” (US FDA, 1994)
Quality control is another potential problem with dietary supplements. In other words, what the label says the product contains and what it actually does may be two different things. It is up to the manufacturer to give accurate information about the supplement ingredients on the label.
You must be wondering if there is anything you can use to guide your selection. Actually there is. Its called U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) Verified Mark. This mark, found on a supplement’s label, is a guarantee that the product has undergone testing to ensure that it contains all of the ingredients that the label says it does. Additionally, it means that no contaminants are present, that good manufacturing processes have been used in production, and also that the supplement will break down in the body to disperse the active ingredients properly. The USP is a non-profit organization totally separate from the governmental regulating agencies such as the FDA, however currently it is recognized by them as the official standard-setting body for the dietary supplement industry.
Another organization known for its careful scrutiny and testing of supplements is Consumerlab.com. Founded by a former FDA leader, this organization provides testing for and information about the effectiveness of a wide range of dietary supplements. If you are wondering which brands are the most reliable, the information on this site is worth checking into.
One other word of caution concerning dietary supplements…if a little is good, more is not always better. This goes against the grain of common thinking, doesn’t it? When it comes to vitamins and minerals, it’s very easy to overdo it. When you consider that many of the foods you eat on a daily basis may already be fortified with extra vitamins and minerals, taking a supplement on top of this can really be problematic. The fat soluble vitamins, such as vitamins A, D, E and K can be toxic when taken in excessive amounts over time.
What to do? Well hopefully this article has given you pause to consider your supplement-buying practices. Not that all supplements are bad or harmful, that’s far from the truth, but the take home message is this: weigh the pros and cons carefully before you decide to buy! Check for the USP mark…you may not be getting what you think you are.
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