According to the FDA, dietary supplements include anything that supplements your diet, and dietary supplements fall into the food category rather than the drug category. Usually, dietary supplements contain essential nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, herbs, botanicals, amino acids, metabolites, concentrates, and constituents. Legally, anything you ingest apart from what you consider your regular food intake serves under the title of a dietary supplement.
You can find dietary supplements in a wide variety of forms, such as tablets, liquids, capsules, soft gels, gel caps, and powders. You can buy dietary supplements in grocery stores, health food stores, on TV, by catalogue, or just about any other way the manufacturer can get to you.
The FDA categorizes dietary supplements as foods and not drugs because unlike drugs, dietary supplements can’t prevent or cure diseases, at least not directly. Before manufacturers market a new drug, they must have it approved by the FDA during a strict process. The FDA has to determine every drug’s safety, effectiveness, potential drug interaction, side effects, and dosage before the manufacturer can put it on the shelves. With dietary supplements, on the other hand, the FDA does not have to test or authorize them, so you need to exercise more of your own caution.
By law, the manufacturers of dietary supplements must include labeling on the product that identifies it as a dietary supplement. For consumers, this means to carefully consider the product because the FDA has less strict requirements on it. On the labels of dietary supplements, you can find information including a complete list of ingredients and contact information of the manufacturer if you have further questions.
A dietary supplements label may include three types of advertisements: health claims, which describe the relationship between an ingredient and a physical condition; nutrition claims, which describe the amount of nutrition in the product with words such as “high,” “low,” “lite,” and “free,” or a certain mg. amount; and structure/function claims, which describe the relationship between an ingredient and a specific health benefit. When reading the labels of dietary supplements, keep in mind that all of these advertisements describe very general characteristics of nutrients, and you must consider your personal health requirements, as well.
Getting too much of a vitamin or mineral can cause just as much harm as not getting enough, no matter how mild the product seems. Some common overdoses of dietary supplements and their effects include the following:
- Vitamin A: birth defects, bone abnormalities, liver disease.
- Vitamin B6: balance difficulties, nerve injury.
- Niacin: liver disease, heart injury, eye damage, muscle disease, stomach pains.
- Ephedra: high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, insomnia, tremors, headaches, seizures, stroke, heart attack, death.
Many more types of dietary supplements exist, however, and make sure to check them all out before you start taking them. Also, if you have specific health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, or abnormal cholesterol, then talk to your doctor before buying any dietary supplements. The same goes for pregnant people, people taking other medication simultaneously, and people getting ready to undergo surgery. Often, doctors will recommend that you stop taking dietary supplements 2-3 weeks before you have surgery.
By Lisa Zyga