Nutritional Supplements

Office of Dietary Supplements

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

National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine

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-vational studies,”

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

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. 

Dietary Supplement Ingredient Database

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.

Educational Resources

WebMD - Vitamins and Supplements Lifestyle Guide

FDA- Dietary Supplements: What You Need to Know

Federal Trade Commission – Dietary Supplements

Recommendations & Precautions

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

Benefits of Dietary Supplements

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

Resources

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