Natural health buyer's guide: shopping for supplements: lost in the supplement aisle? Follow our 6-step guide to finding the perfect herb, botanical, or vitamin

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IT'S EASY to get overwhelmed in the supplement section by the dazzling array of capsules, tinctures, and tablets--and the promises that come with them. And because the industry remains largely unregulated, manufacturers aren't required to prove their products are safe or effective. How, you ask as you stand there pondering your choices, do you know which products actually provide the ingredients and benefits their labels claim?

We headed to the experts to get some answers and compiled this cheat sheet of tools and strategies to help you become a savvier shopper.

1. Know the pills you need

Consider your needs before you start shopping, says Woodson Merrell, M.D., chairman of the department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.

To support your diet "If you want to be sure you're getting nutrients that may be missing from your diet, then do your homework and check with your healthcare provider," says Merrell. "Buy a brand with proven quality control and follow the label instructions."

To treat a medical condition If you want to treat something like migraines or high cholesterol, you need to work with a healthcare practitioner, cautions Merrell. Otherwise, you may buy a product you don't need.

2. Do your homework

The best way to avoid indecision is to learn all you can about a product beforehand. Use the following resources.

Find a supplement guru Get advice from someone who deals with the latest supplement products on a regular basis and can easily recommend the most reputable companies. "Develop a relationship with someone you trust," suggests Cheryl Myers, R.N., vice president of health sciences at Enzymatic Therapy, a supplement maker.

Ask a supplement buyer "For mild to moderate health concerns--like indigestion--ask the supplement buyer at your local health food store," Meyers recommends.

Talk to an integrative physician For more serious issues--such as hormone imbalances--get recommendations from an integrative physician, she says. Visit American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (naturopathfc.org).

Use reliable websites ConsumerLab .com (annual subscription, $30) publishes the results of its independent tests for purity, quality, and effectiveness on its website. Since 1999, the company has tested more than 400 different brands of dietary aids like vitamins and minerals and has found that "25 percent of them fail," reports president Tod Cooperman.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine's Dietary Supplements Labels Database (dietary supplements.nlm.nih.gov) gives you product label information and includes links to fact sheets, clinical studies, warnings, and recalls.

Medline Plus (nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus) is a user-friendly guide to health topics, drugs, and supplements. It's operated jointly by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Check out the supplement maker The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires supplement labels to bear the maker's address and phone number. Call the company to find out if it follows the FDA's Good Manufacturing Practices, hires a third-party lab to certify its products, or has an on-site laboratory. (Companies with labs on their premises are better able to control their ingredients, which lowers the odds of contamination, says Myers.) "You can also ask the company to put the response in a letter or an e-mail," says Cooperman. "They may be more careful, and may even refer the question to someone with more expertise."

3. Look for a seal of approval

If a supplement features a seal from one of three third-party certifiers, you can feel confident about its ingredients. Of the three, NSF International and U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) are voluntary programs (companies choose whether or not to participate). ConsumerLab .com is independent: To conduct research, it purchases products off the shelf and tests them without the input or cooperation of manufacturers. The company has found multivitamin and herbal products contaminated with more than 15 micrograms (mcg) of lead per daily serving size; 0.5 mcg per day is the limit above which the State of California requires a warning on the label.

Another seal, the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), indicates that a product meets new FDA supplement-manufacturing standards, which are being phased in over a three-year period. But because the FDA's standards are limited to manufacturing practices (and some experts feel they are not strict enough), the value of the GMP seal is not yet as clear as that of third-party certifiers.

4. Know the key ingredients

Sometimes one component makes all the difference between a product that works and one that doesn't, and it's not always the main label ingredient. Cooperman cites turmeric as an example: Its anti-inflammatory activity is directly linked to a little-known substance called curcumin. "People in the know buy turmeric that will deliver at least 1,000 mg of curcumin per day," he says. (For more information, see "Check the Ingredients" on page 96.)