The risk of dietary supplements

It's estimated there are over 85,000 different products being marketed and sold as a dietary supplement in the United States today. From vitamins, to energy boosters to workout aids, they're sold in stores all over the country. And because they have attractive packaging, are sold in reputable stores and look like prescription drugs, we buy them; at our own risk and sometimes at great risk.

Generally we are a trusting nation. When people tell us something, we believe it to be true until it's determined that it's not. Some people would use a more pejorative name like gullible, na*ve, or even stupid but regardless of the name used, we buy things if there doesn't appear to be a reason not to. There are, of course, reasons not to and I'm going to write about some of them today.

First and most importantly, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does no review of dietary supplements which means no testing is carried out to determine the supplement's safety or effectiveness. The only thing the FDA has jurisdiction over in the case of supplements is that companies who make or manufacture them have to do it safely. But because there are so many companies and so few regulators, even this requirement can't be held to a very high standard.

Because of that, we're seen several cases in the past few decades where a significant number of people suffered either serious bodily harm or death because of a product in the supplement that was dangerous and sometimes deadly.

So the bottom line here is you don't know what's in that pill you're about to take. Yes, you can read the label to try and find out but substantive research has shown that often the label is misleading and sometimes it's an outright lie. In other words, sometimes the main ingredient is not found in the supplement at all and ingredients that aren't listed on the label are.

Now there should be an easy fix to this. Dietary supplements should have to meet strict standards of manufacture and production similar to that of prescription medicine so the buying public will know for sure what they're getting. This hasn't happened and isn't likely TO happen because the dietary supplement industry has one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country with many publicly elected officials on their side. That combination has successfully defended the industry for years from stricter requirements and controls and continues to do so.

One of the things you often see at an auction is a mystery box; a box filled with things but it's sealed so no one can see what's inside. That requires everyone to bid blind; expecting very little if anything but hoping for a treasure like we do when we play the lottery. Of course one usually ends up buying nothing of value but occasionally the buyer gets lucky and finds something of value in the box, at least for him or her.

That's the status of dietary supplements today. When you buy a bottle, you're essentially buying a pig in a poke; a mystery box whose true contents are concealed and you have no idea what they are.

So the best thing you can do if you're a dietary supplement user is to do your research. Check the manufacturer and see if they have any complaints or either civil or criminal actions filed against them. Check their records with the better business bureau in the town the manufacturer is in and, if possible, find out who the manufacturer is making the supplement for and check them out too.

You can say what you want about whether we need more or less regulators and regulatory agencies than we currently have but there's never anything wrong in checking out things on our own. In fact, sometimes we're more thorough than the regulators are because there's a vested interest behind our research.

In the meantime, BUYER BEWARE!