Advantages and Hazard of Dietary Supplements

Supplements, such as vitamins and minerals, aim to enhance your daily nutrition intake.

FREMONT, CA: Nutrient supplements, such as vitamins and minerals, are designed to supplement your daily intake of nutrients. Most are safe and offer significant health benefits, but a few pose health risks, especially if overused. Various dietary supplements include amino acids, fatty acids, enzymes, probiotics, herbals, botanicals, and animal extracts.

Aside from vitamins and minerals, popular supplements include—Saw palmetto, Saw palmetto, Fish oil, Chondroitin, Echinacea, Green tea, Ginkgo, and Glucosamine.

Benefits

Most individuals should be able to obtain all the nutrients they require from a balanced diet. However, supplements can supply additional nutrients if your diet is deficient or if certain health conditions (such as cancer, diabetes, or persistent diarrhea) cause a nutrient shortage.

In most instances, a multivitamin/mineral supplement will deliver all the micronutrients your body requires. They are generally harmless because each nutrient is in minute quantities (measured by the daily value, or DV).

Specific nutrients are available as dietary supplements, typically in higher amounts than multivitamins. They can cure a deficiency, like iron deficiency, or minimize the risk of a medical problem, like hypertension. ​

Large dosages of vitamin B3 (niacin) may help raise "good" high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, but folic acid has been used for decades to minimize the chance of spina bifida. Antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, may mitigate chemotherapy medicines' toxicity (allowing patients to tolerate larger doses of chemo).

Unless a specific deficit is found, a supplement is typically unnecessary if you consume a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Using vitamins properly can help you prevent adverse effects and toxicity linked with overuse.

Risks

Dietary supplements are not controlled as severely as prescription medications in the United States. Manufacturers are not required to demonstrate that their products are safe or effective. The U.S. FDA does not evaluate the efficacy of dietary supplements before they reach store shelves.

The FDA does keep a list of contaminated or potentially hazardous dietary supplement products. Often, the worst offenders are weight loss aids, "natural" sexual enhancement medications, and bodybuilding supplements.

Manufacturers of dietary supplements must adhere to specific labeling standards, including what they may and cannot state about the alleged benefits. Even though there is little scientific evidence to support the claims, producers assert that their product may "raise the immune system" or "cure arthritis" despite the lack of evidence. In general, the FDA only takes action against the most severe violations.