How Safe Are Your Dietary Supplements?

The use of dietary supplements has become part of our everyday lives. Dietary supplements are on every shelf in every pharmacy across the nation and consumers are purchasing everything from Vitamin C to fish oils to the tune of billions of dollars per year. But how are all these product regulated? Who is making sure that what is claimed on the label is fact and who is making sure these products are safe? The answer may surprise you.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) leaves it to the manufacture of the supplements to make sure that what they are producing lives up to the health claims they are purporting. In other words, if a supplement is claiming that it provides you with the daily recommended allowance of any specific vitamin it is the responsibility of that manufacturer to hold true to that claim and to make sure it is safe. The following are direct quotes from the FDA concerning the regulation or lack thereof regarding dietary supplements: