Dietary Supplements

Instructions: Respond to peer discussion board. Include any sources used

Peers Discussion Board

Question: Part 2. Unit 8. Dietary Supplements (pp 383-386).

What enables a product to be labeled a dietary supplement?

Safety of Dietary Supplements. Explain the effect of regulations enacted in 1994 by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) on the FDA and manufacturers for the safety of supplements. Does this make you feel safe when you take supplements?

Guidelines For Choosing Supplements. Discuss three of the guidelines that consumers should use caution when considering whether to use a dietary supplement (pp 386-388).

For a product to be defined as a dietary supplement, it must contain one or more of the following: a vitamin, a mineral, an herb or a botanical, an amino acid, a dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake, or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract or combination of any ingredient mentioned above. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act established in 1994 was put in place to prohibit manufacturers of dietary supplements from making false claims on supplement labels. This pretty much allowed supplements to be sold and marketed without scientific backing of their health and medical claims. It also ensured that consumers would have access to a wide variety of dietary supplements and that they would also have more information on how to use dietary supplements. This act established does not make me feel safer when taking supplements because if you think about it,  this gives supplements industry the freedom to market untested products leaving the public to research any studies done on a specific product for any scientific information. So basically this act allowed for readily access to supplements, regardless if they work. When you are choosing a dietary supplement you should always talk with your health care professional, they can help you decide which supplements are right for you. It is important to only take the supplement as prescribed on the label, some ingredients can be harmful if taken in high amounts, and last but not least, do not substitute a dietary supplement for a prescription medicine or for a variety of foods that are important to a healthy diet.

Reference:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Office of dietary supplements – dietary supplement health and education act of 1994. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Retrieved November 22, 2022, from https://ods.od.nih.gov/About/DSHEA_Wording.aspx