Dietary Supplements Risks

Dietary Supplement Risks to Consider

Dietary supplements are more than just vitamin pills; they can be protein powders, herbs, bars, gels, teas and a whole slew of products straddling the lines between food, sport supplements and medication. Here we'll cover the most obvious supplements, the kind of pills and liquids found in the health aisle of your average grocery store, but much of what is said here applies to exotic herbs and other supplements as well.

Medical Conditions

Almost everything supplement contains tiny print about consulting your doctor before using. This is not something to brush off as mere legal butt-covering, especially if you have a medical condition. Diabetics and pre-diabetics have a problem managing blood sugar levels, for example. That makes supplements that have a direct impact on this area, such as chromium (often touted for weight-loss purposes) unsuitable for self-medication. When in doubt, show the bottle to your doc before you start popping pills.

Masking Deficiencies

Some vitamins and minerals have the ability to mask the symptoms of more serious deficiencies. For example, folic acid can not only mask the symptoms of vitamin B 12 deficiency, but actually worsen the situation by further hindering B 12 absorption. This can in turn lead to brain damage, color blindness, anemia, tremors, confusion and loss of coordination, to name a few possible effects -- which in elderly patients can then be misdiagnosed as Alzheimers disease or senile dementia.

Overdosing

On that note, most multivitamin pills come with a pre-balanced mix of vitamins that is safe to pop as-is for the vast majority of adults. However, if you compose your own vitamin cocktail using a dozen different pills, be sure to study up on how much is too much. Some vitamins, like B and C, are essentially harmless (except an upset stomach) no matter how much you chug, while others such as vitamin A and most minerals tend to accumulate in the body. Over time, this accumulation becomes toxic and makes you sick, or at the very least hinders your health from being at its best.

Impurities

"Made in USA" usually means paying a premium for better worker conditions and higher environmental standards than many other countries, but in this case the stakes are even higher. Remember the stories of lead in kid's toys, toxic milk powder, and countless other horrors coming out of dirt-cheap third-world factories? Many supplement manufacturers looking to cut corners get their vitamins from those areas too.

Who Controls This Stuff?

Pretty much nobody, it turns out. Pharmaceuticals are held to extremely high standards with extensive testing and purity guarantees, while over-the-counter supplements are classified as "foods". Since this label also applies to glow-in-the-dark cereals and borderline absurd chemical concoctions with barely any semblance to natural human sustenance, manufacturers have quite a bit of leeway.

In the case of foreign imports, it's even worse; unless a consumer watchdog or similar group blows the whistle, there's a good chance not even the importer has a clue of what really dwells in those opaque capsules made dirt cheap in some Chinese backwater town. Bottom line: to decrease dietary supplement risks, only buy top quality stuff from reputable manufacturers that have been tested by consumer advocacy sites like ConsumerLabs. Good luck!