By: Thomas Pickering, MD, DPhil, FRCP, Director of Integrative and Behavioral Cardiology Program
of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

Americans spend $14 billion a year on dietary supplements, which include vitamins, herbs, and minerals for the treatment of symptoms and illnesses, including high blood pressure. Unlike prescription medications, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate the quality of the supplements, and the consumer has no way of knowing if what they are buying actually contains the ingredients that are stated on the label. About ten years ago, the FDA was considering the possibility of regulating these products, but there was a powerful lobbying action by the manufacturers, and the result was the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act of 1994, which created a new category called dietary supplements that were not subject to the regulations of prescription drugs, nor to the manufacturing standards of foods.

Several companies have now started to analyze the ingredients of dietary supplements and to publicize their results. One such is ConsumerLab.com, and Consumer Reports are also publishing reviews of analyses of supplements. ConsumerLab.com will be posting its results on its web site. The National Institutes of Health have set up office of dietary supplements which will provide fact sheets summarizing what is known about the effectiveness of various supplements. Another piece of good news is that the United States Pharmacopeia, which sets standards for doses of drugs in coordination with the FDA, is developing standards for herbal remedies.

ConsumerLab.com reviewed several formulations of saw palmetto, which is obtained from the berries from palm trees and is used for treating prostate enlargement in older men. It found that 10 out of 27 brands tested were deficient in their contents. Another test of different brands of glucosamine and chomndroitin, used to treat arthritis, found that some brands had only 25% of the stated ingredients.

People should be aware that taking herbal remedies for long periods of time is not without risk. There have been reports of adverse effects from some of them, such as an article in one of the medical journals recently that a particular type of Chinese herbal medicine causes cancer. Scientifically-controlled studies are underway to examine the effects of some dietary supplements, but even if these show positive results, it will be necessary to specify which brand of supplement was used, since it cannot be assumed that other brands will be equally effective

Source