About half of the US adults population takes one or more supplements regularly. We spend more than 35 billion on these products each year.
While its important that your doctor knows what you're taking, there are many supplements out there, and its likely your doctor won't know what advise to give you about a lot of them. There are a number of reasons for this but the two biggest are :
1- Most supplements are not rigorously tested as a prevention or treatment for conditions for which they are promoted.
2- The supplement industry is not regulated the way prescription drugs are. The ingredients on the label may not accurately reflect what's actually in the supplement.
Studies find tainted supplements or misleading labels are common. One recent report looked at three memory supplements : Two of them contained none of the active ingredient, and one of those contained unidentifiable chemicals that raise serious questions about safety.
What should you do as a supplement user ?
1- If you don't have a condition requiring treatment with a dietary supplement and if its not recommended by your doctor , it might be best to rethink the use of them.
2- There are also organizations that certify supplements and can provide a measure of confidence in their ingredients. These include the NFS International Dietary Supplement Certification and the US Pharmacopeia (USP) Dietary Supplement Verification Program.
Before becoming a pharmacist I never knew to make sure my supplements were alcohol free, citric acid free and didn't have mystery fillers. So some of the supplements I was taking before might not have been approved by the organizations mentioned above.
There are also resources on line such as labdoor.com & medicalmedium.com That show the ratings/ purity of certain supplements & vitamins .
In the meantime, the safest thing is to stick with the true and tested products , and also ask your doctor or pharmacist if you have questions. Stay well and healthy. Dr. Naghmeh
The content of my page is for Informational/Educational purposes only. Nothing should be constructed as Medical Advise.