Are your supplements safe?

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Nov, 2003 by David Schardt

* The Less Objective. Healthnotes' short summaries of more than 700 supplements appear on touchscreen kiosks in more than 6,500 pharmacies, supermarkets, health food stores, and vitamin shops in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom. They're also a popular feature on Web sites that sell supplements. In general, Healthnotes' descriptions are shorter, less objective, and more superficial than The Natural Pharmacist's. Maybe that's because the service is designed to be "a powerful selling tool" for stores to "drive sales" and build "healthy profits," according to the company. Healthnotes is available free at dozens of sites, including www.gnc.com and www.drugstore.com.

* The Ugly. Intramedicine, Inc., provides a short encyclopedia of information on close to 200 dietary supplements for the Web site of the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance (DSEA), an industry coalition that claims to promote the responsible use of supplements. The DSEA Web site portrays a fantasy world where all supplements have proven benefits, all side effects are manageable, and no supplements are poorly made. Intramedicine overlooks important scientific research, presents hypotheses as facts, relies on 30- and 40-year-old weak studies to justify unusual uses for supplements, and ignores important safety information about beta-carotene and other supplements. Intramedicine is available at www.supplementinfo.org.

Smaller Useful Sites

* The FDA's Warnings and Safety Information and Dietary Supplements site lists the supplements that the FDA advises consumers not to use. (www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/ds-warn.html)

* The National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements provides links to fact sheets on two dozen supplements, including garlic, vitamin A, and St. John's wort. Missing are ginkgo, chromium, kava, and many others. The fact sheets are written by different government agencies, so the quality and detail vary. (dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/showpage.aspx?pageid=90)

* The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine provides fact sheets on a handful of supplements. (chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/dhpw/Wellness/dietary/factsheets.aspx)

* Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Integrative Medicine Service has brief information on the effectiveness and safety of more than 100 supplements, mostly to inform cancer patients about potential interactions with their treatments. (www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/11570.cfm)