Diet supplements are an easy way to add vitamins that may be missing in your diet or boost your metabolism to help you lose weight faster, but are also associated with risks. Supplement manufacturers are responsible for conducting their own product safety testing. Under the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, or DSHEA, the Food and Drug Administration stated that supplements are regulated differently than drugs, and the government will only intervene to pull products from the market if proven unsafe. Therefore, consumers must exercise caution when using supplements.
Drug Interactions
Diet supplements can interfere with other medications you are taking, and this is an especially big risk because patients often do not think to tell their doctors about supplements they are taking. According to the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements, supplements can have dangerous interactions with medications. For example, vitamin K can interfere with the blood thinner Coumadin and prevent blood from clotting. Tell their physicians about any supplements you take.
Inconsistent Formulations
Supplements may not always contain consistent amounts of their active ingredients. Although MayoClinic.com states that supplement manufacturers should follow Good Manufacturing Processes to ensure standardization of ingredients, this does not always happen in practice. Imported supplements are especially risky, as some have previously been found to contain widely varying amounts of active ingredients and contaminants such as lead.
Substitution for Medical Care
Dietary supplements are cheaper and more easily obtainable than traditional medical drugs, which means that people such as the elderly and those without health insurance are sometimes tempted to diagnose themselves and treat medical conditions with inappropriate supplements. Government Accounting Office investigations determined that many unregulated supplements make inappropriate claims to treat serious illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease. Consumers should not use supplements as an alternative to seeking medical care from a qualified physician.
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