1. Self Regulated Dietary Supplements
You may not realize the multi-vitamin you pick up at your local health food store may or may not have been tested for safety and effectiveness. This is because according to Federal Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, the manufacturer is responsible for making sure dietary supplements are safe before they market them. After they are on the market, then the FDA can step in and take action against any dietary supplement that has been shown to be unsafe.
2. Potentially Contaminated
Although dietary supplements must meet the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) for foods, there is no testing in place to ensure that these supplements are pure and contain no contaminants. You simply do not know if your bottle of echinacea has St. John's wort in it or not, unless the company has voluntarily gone through batch testing. Some do this, but you had better prepare to pay more for their products because the testing is costly. However, if you suffer from things like food allergies, it may be well worth the cost.
3. Get It From the Horse's Mouth
The only way to know the safety and effectiveness of dietary supplements is to ask the manufacturer what testing they have done. Some supplements claim to be "standardized" which means they have taken the time to test how much of an active ingredient is in each dose of their product. There aren't any FDA regulations on standardization, so claims may not be what they seem. Be sure to ask if an independent lab has done batch testing to verify the contents of their product and what research they have done to substantiate the claims of their product. You may also want to ask if there have been any adverse events reported on their product as well.
4. Dietary Supplement Gone Wrong
Dietary supplements taken of the market periodically occur if it's learned they may be harmful. These products, which might be "all-natural" can still cause detrimental short or long term health affects. For instance, the FDA investigated ephedra post-market for its connection to heart problems and subsequently took it off the market. The FDA dietary supplement laws say the FDA can investigate any dietary supplement for safety after it has gone to market.
5. Do Your Own Research
You should do your own research on a supplement before ingesting it so you know what risks come along with taking it. You can also look on the FDA website (http://www.fda.gov/) for supplements that are currently being investigated. Here you'll find FDA-issued alerts on questionable dietary supplements . For instance, the supplement Liqiang 4 is currently being investigated for it's potential problem in diabetics because of its interference with blood sugar levels.
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