The goal of the Office of Dietary Supplements or ODS is to strengthen knowledge and understanding of nutritional supplements.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is the Federal Government’s lead agency for scientific research on the diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine.

Dietary supplements:

do they help or hurt?

Harv Womens Health Watch] 2013 Jan; Vol. 20 (5), pp. 1, 7.

“Often the enthusiasm for these

vitamins and supplements outpaces the evidence. And when the rigorous evidence is available from randomized controlled trials, often the results are at odds with the findings of the obser-vationalstudies,”

FDA regulates dietary supplements under a different set of regulations than those covering "conventional" foods and drug products. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA):

The manufacturer of a dietary supplement or dietary ingredient is responsible for ensuring that the product is safe before it is marketed.

FDA is responsible for taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement product after it reaches the market.

National Institutes of Health (ODS/NIH) and other federal agencies has developed a Dietary Supplement Ingredient Database (DSID) to evaluate levels of ingredients in dietary supplement products.

WebMD - Vitamins and Supplements Lifestyle Guide

FDA- Dietary Supplements: What You Need to Know

Federal Trade Commission – Dietary Supplements

Dietary supplements don't undergo FDA review for safety and

effectiveness before they're sold. See Health Fraud Scams5 for general information on fraudulent

dietary supplements.

See the FDA's Tainted Supplements page6 for a list of some of the potentially hazardous dietary supplements marketed to consumers.

Ask your health-care provider for help in distinguishing between reliable and questionable information

Dietary supplements also may be appropriate if you:

Don't eat well or consume less than 1,600 calories a day

Are a vegan or a vegetarian who eats a limited variety of foods

Are a woman who experiences heavy bleeding during your menstrual period

Have a medical condition that affects how your body absorbs or uses nutrients, such as chronic diarrhea, food allergies, food intolerance or a disease of the liver, gallbladder, intestines or pancreas

Have had surgery on your digestive tract and are not able to digest and absorb nutrients properly

Dietary supplements: do they help or hurt? What you need to know before taking a vitamin or mineral supplement. (2013). Harvard Women's Health Watch, 20(5), 1.

U.S Food and Drug Administration. (2013). U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov

U.S, Department of Health & Human Services. (2013). National Institute of Health. Retrieved from http://search.usa.gov

National Institute of Health. (2013). Office of Dietary Supplements. Retrieved from http://htpp://ods.od.nih.gov

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2013). National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov

WebMD. (2013). WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com

Federal Trade Commission. (2013). Federal Trade Commission. Retrieved from http://www.consumer.ftc.gov

Mayo Clinic. (2013). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.com