The dietary supplement industry made $25 billion in the U.S. alone during 2009, according to information presented by the "Nutrition Business Journal." This is largely credited to a growing awareness of both health and alternative medicine within the U.S. Many nutritional supplements are beneficial, such as multivitamins and the popular immunity booster echinacea. However, dietary supplements also come with some serious risks.
Lack of Regulation
Unlike drugs, dietary supplements are not regulated by the federal government. According to health writer Thomas Moore, only 46 of the 20,000-plus dietary supplements on the market in 2010 were subjected to FDA safety review. This means that supplement distributors and manufactures are not being held to any claims they make about the safety and effectiveness of their products. It also means that dietary supplements are not being checked for the presence of harmful contaminants such as pesticides or mercury.
Potential Side Effects
Dietary supplement manufacturers are not required to list potential side effects of their products on their promotional materials. Although many supplements have little or no side effects, others have been shown to cause problems ranging from mild allergic reaction to high blood pressure. It is possible to look up common side effects on review and informational websites.
Inaccurate Labeling
The lack of FDA oversight means there is no systematic quality control of dietary supplements. According to research reported by Moore, independent testing has found wild discrepancies between what's on the label and what's in the supplement. Individual tablets were often found to contain none of the active supplement ingredients, while others were found to contain enough to produce a potentially dangerous overdose.
Interactions
When you buy a drug, even an over-the-counter drug, it comes with a sheet that lists any potentially harmful interactions it might have with other drug regimens. This creates a redundant warning system because the drug you are on came with its own list. Dietary supplements do not come with such a list, leaving those who take them at risk of discovering them the hard way.
Poor Research
Many of the claimed benefits of dietary supplements are based on tradition, folklore and urban myth. Although testing of many nontraditional medicinal practices is finding that many work very well, others have been found to be false -- sometimes even counterproductive. The lack of regulation over this industry means clinical testing of the claimed benefits of many dietary supplements has never happened. The supplement you take may or may not be doing you any good at all.
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