inseng, Echinacea, St. John's Wort - these and other natural supplements have become a dietary staple for many people. There's a different supplement for virtually every health issue, from mental alertness, to weight loss, to the common cold. Yet though it's a billion-dollar industry, it is not regulated by the FDA, which often means these products are not all they're cracked up to be. Some - like ephedra or fen-phen, which was pulled from drugstore shelves - can be dangerous and even deadly. Others just don't work. What can you do to make sure the supplements you're taking are helping, not hurting? We talked with two nutrition experts for some basic guidelines.
Q: What should people be most concerned about when taking nutritional supplements?
DOUG KALMAN: As with anything, let's say a medicine, you would like to know as a consumer that the product you wish to take has been tested in a scientific setting for both safety and efficacy. Safety always comes first. Before I want to know if it works, I want to know "Is it going to hurt me." So that's why safety becomes first.
HEIDI SKOLNIK: Then there's the question of whether or not what's supposed to be in the product is actually in there. In one study, a hundred bottles of ginseng were sent to labs to be tested, and in 50 of these bottles, there was no ginseng.
If you open a bag of pretzels and you look inside and there are peanuts, you know because you can tell the difference between peanuts and pretzels. But in many supplements, you can't assess what's in them. Sometimes active ingredients are missing, and in some cases, athletes think they are taking something safe and over the counter, but the products actually contain illegal ingredients. Since these products are not regulated, the manufacturers will never be "found out". Nobody is tracking that what's on the label is actually in the bottles.
Q: Companies that make these supplements say they do studies of their own. How reliable are the studies and how can you check to see that they are actually real?
HEIDI SKOLNIK: Sometimes studies are applied and extrapolated. For example, a study on boron in postmenopausal women increased testosterone. Then they say, "There have been clinical studies done to show increased testosterone." They are marketing it to a young, athletic male population. Yes the study has been done. They are not lying. But it wasn't for that population.
DOUG KALMAN: In order to know whether the specific product that you're taking has been tested, you have to do two things. You have to call the company and ask them if this product has ever been tested. If so, ask, "Can you send me a reprint of the paper?" The second thing is also to be a good consumer and use the resources that are available to you, such as ConsumerLab.com and Supplementwatch.com, as well as Medline [at www.medlineplus.gov].
HEIDI SKOLNIK: But the Web can be very confusing. I really also advise that you seek out somebody more knowledgeable than you to evaluate it.
Q: What about supplements interacting negatively with prescription drugs?
HEIDI SKOLNIK: You need to be careful about that. You really want to be sure that you inform all of your healthcare providers of what you're taking. Those interactions can work against you and not for you.
DOUG KALMAN: Pharmacists are also educated about this. You need to ask your physician or pharmacist "Can I take this?" And you should also become educated about what you're taking. What usually happens is that if you listen to everybody and then you get a consensus, that's probably going to be the right decision for you.
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