‘Health supplements could be a waste of money’

LONDON: Adults who take regular health supplements might be wasting their time and money and risking their health, according to a senior scientist.

Britons spend £421 million (R7.86 billion) a year on supplements and vitamin tablets but 90% of them are “unvalidated” and many “have no measurable benefits”, said Dr Paul Clayton.

The former adviser to the government’s committee on the safety of medicines warned the industry lacks robust regulations to ensure the products contain a significant quantity of the named ingredients.

Clayton, a fellow of the Institute for Food, Brain and Behaviour at Oxford University, is working with the University of Westminster to investigate what is in supplements. They are calling for improved rules to regulate claims made for them.

Clayton has a commercial interest in questioning the industry’s practices as he has recently been appointed director of science for LYMA, a luxury supplement that costs £149 (R2 700) a month.

He said: “A lot of good science has been developed in the labs, clinics and universities, but very little of this has made it as far as the consumer market. Instead, around 90% of the supplement industry consists of companies selling unvalidated, poorly formulated, over-hyped products which offer few, if any, benefits. You cannot be sure whether what you are buying will work or not.”

Health claims are based on clinical trials using the highest-quality samples. But Clayton, who has worked on supplements for 40 years, said: “Manufacturers can get away with using a fraction of that ingredient at a lower quality and still use the original clinical claims.”

He said fish oil capsules and multivitamins were the largest sector of the market but “both sectors have been proven to be ineffective”. Studies had shown that taking multivitamins did not reduce the risk of heart disease or cancer, rates of heart attack or reduce the risk of mental decline, such as memory loss, he said.

Dr Emma Derbyshire, adviser to the industry body the Health and Food Supplements Information Service, said the claim that 90% of supplements are unvalidated “appears to be putting things grossly out of context”.

“Food supplements sold in the EU must comply with all relevant food laws, making them one of the most regulated food products around.” |