Industry like the ‘Wild West’

MOST people don’t need to take vitamins or nutritional supplements because they can get all the nutrients they need by eating a healthy diet, underscores a new patient resource published in the Jama Internal Medicine journal.

Nevertheless, there are more than 90 000 supplements on the US market that include a wide range of vitamins, minerals and chemicals, and many of them don’t live up to their advertised health benefits, the author writes.

“Anybody who works in health care comes across folks who are taking supplements and spending a lot of money to do so,” said Dr Michael Incze of the University of California, who wrote the one-page primer for patients.

“Direct-to-consumer advertising and even popular media suggest benefits, but many of the claims have been disproven,” he said.

The primer offers practical advice and answers to questions about vitamins and nutritional supplements that patients often bring up with their doctors. The resource includes facts about how little safety testing and regulation there is on these products.

“The supplement industry is like the Wild West right now,” Incze said. “There’s not much regulation that happens before companies put these products on the market.”

The products often advertise health benefits such as improved thinking, better heart health and a stronger immune system. But medical research doesn’t tend to support the claims.

Most basic vitamins and minerals are presumed safe at the recommended doses, but bad reactions are possible.

About 23 000 emergency department visits each year are related to nutritional supplements, often resulting from toxic ingredients such as heavy metals, steroids and stimulants.

Over-the-counter drugs require label information about ingredients, directions for use and potential adverse effects. Supplements should have similar labelling, Incze said.