Essential Supplements

Not so long ago, vitamins, minerals and herbs were not mainstream supplements. Health food stores were not as prevalent as they are today, and people who used dietary supplements were often regarded as “health nuts”.

How things have changed. According to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, more than 150 million Americans take some sort of dietary supplement annually, whether that supplement be a multivitamin / mineral formula, a homeopathic remedy or an herbal preparation. This means that close to half of the United States’ population uses supplements – to prevent disease, to treat a condition or simply to promote overall health.

Until the early 1990s, supplements were regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which made it difficult for manufacturers to introduce new supplements to the American market.

In 1994, Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which allowed nutritional supplements to be regulated under a different set of rules. DSHEA made manufacturers responsible for the safety of their products and allowed the FDA to remove a product from the market should it prove unsafe.

Under DSHEA, any product with a history of safe use before 1994 can quickly be brought to market. If a product has been used for thousands of years by herbal healers in other cultures, or for decades in other countries where the product is regarded as safe, then that product can be produced and sold in this country without undergoing FDA approval.

Blessing or Burden?

On one hand, this new freedom in the supplement industry has been a boon to consumers. In 1995, the first year after the new laws took effect, an astounding 20,000 new supplements were introduced to the American marketplace. Each year since, thousands more have been introduced. A simple stroll through the aisles of any health food store clearly demonstrates the widespread effect the new regulations have had on the availability of nutritional supplements.

On the other hand, this new freedom has created an interesting dilemma for consumers, especially for those new to natural health products. It might seem that more products and more choice would benefit the consumer, but things aren’t always so simple.

Since the passage of DSHEA, there has been a virtual avalanche of nutritional supplements. And like any industry that presents an opportunity for profit, the natural products industry has attracted some unscrupulous manufacturers, advertisers and marketers who mislead consumers with miraculous health claims and unsubstantiated hype. Whether you’re reading the newspaper, watching television or surfing the Internet, you’ll find no shortage of products claimed to “fight cancer”, “relieve PMS”, “provide an amazing energy boost” or “give you the figure you’re always wanted”.

This is not to say that there aren’t nutritional products that deliver what they promise. The problem is that the sheer quantity of new products and their accompanying claims leave many of today’s consumers feeling overwhelmed and uncertain of which supplements they should be taking. It seems that only people with the time and resources to wade through the incessant flow of health claims and research could have a reasonable understanding of which supplements provide real and lasting results.
It is the current state of the nutritional supplement industry – the influx of new products, the barrage of conflicting “expert” advice and the promises of miraculous results – that sparked the idea for the educations books on nutritional supplements.