What's Really in Your Vitamins and Supplements?

Do you take any multivitamins or dietary supplements? If so, you are among the three quarters of Americans who do and the growing number in the rest of the world. The supplement industry is estimated to be worth $40 billion in the US alone. Although so many people are routinely taking these supplements, they are not really regulated. In fact, the last major legislation regulating supplements in the US was nearly 25 years ago with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). This Act essentially formally defined a dietary supplement, required ingredients to be listed and for a disclaimer to be present that the FDA had not evaluated any claims of the product.

Unfortunately, not all supplements and vitamins are as they seem. They could contain less (or more) than what they claim or even include harmful ingredients or contaminants. I recommend checking out Labdoor.com to find out which supplements are actually what they claim. Labdoor tests a bunch of products at a FDA-registered laboratory for a detailed chemical analysis and publishes the results.

However, the FDA may be looking to provide more oversight to the supplement space in the coming future according to a written statement from February 11, 2019. It seems that the oversight may come in the form of increased enforcement to current rules and regulations, though, instead of new legislation. As part of the written statement, it was announced that 12 warning letters and 5 online advisory letters were sent to companies that were illegally marketing dietary supplements as new unapproved drugs including claiming to cure or treat Alzheimer's.

References:

1) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30406-4/fulltext

2) https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm631065.htm

3) https://labdoor.com/about

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