What Is a Supplement?

Supplement Overview

Dietary supplements are pills, tablets, capsules, powders, energy bars, liquids, and other products that are meant to be taken by mouth, and contain a dietary ingredient. Dietary ingredients may include vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, amino acids, or other substances meant to supplement the diet.

There are many types of supplements available for consumers to purchase.

• Enzyme supplements: Enzyme supplements contain complex proteins that speed up biochemical reactions and help the body to digest food. For people who have a hard time digesting lactose, protein, or fat, enzyme supplements may boost their digestive system and prevent uncomfortable gastrointestinal symptoms.
• Vitamin and mineral supplements: Vitamins and minerals are essential, naturally occurring substances that the body needs in order to develop and function. These essential substances include B vitamins, calcium, iron, potassium, and folate or folic acid. While it is recommended that people meet their vitamin and mineral requirements through healthy food choices, some people may need to supplement their diet.
• Botanical and herbal supplements: Botanical and herbal supplements may include materials from plants, algae, and fungi. These supplements may be used to boost energy, lower stress, encourage sleep, lower anxiety, or promote relaxation.

Supplement Uses and Side Effects

While dietary supplements cannot treat, cure, or prevent diseases, they may be effective in reducing the risk of some diseases or relieving symptoms.

However, mixing supplements with other supplements or prescribed medication, or replacing prescribed medication with supplements may be harmful to patients. Patients should inform their doctors of all supplements they take, as some supplements may interact badly with medication or pose a danger during surgery.

Additionally, some testing has shown that vitamins and mineral supplements are often mislabeled, contain low levels of the substances listed on the label, or contain unlisted ingredients.

Legal Issues and Supplements

Although federal law requires that dietary supplements are labeled appropriately, there are no requirements concerning supplement safety or FDA approval prior to market release. However, once a supplement has been released to the market, the FDA is responsible to monitor any adverse effects reported by consumers and health care professionals. The FDA also reviews product labels for accuracy.

According to recent consumer reports, some supplement brands selling SAME-e, or S-adenosylmethionine, supplements may be fraudulently labeling their products. SAM-e supplements are often used to combat the effects of osteoarthritis and depression, and are consumed by thousands of consumers each year.

Testing of several brands has shown that some of these supplements may contain as little as 12 to 18 percent of the amount of SAM-e advertised by the bottle.

Brands accused of fraudulently labeling SAM-e supplements include:

• Vitamins Because You Are Worth It
• NusaPure
• aSquared Nutrition
• We Like Vitamins
• BoostCeuticals
• Healthy Way
• Mental Refreshment

These brands may be sold at brick and mortar retailers or through online stores such as Amazon. Consumers who have purchased SAM-e supplements from one of the retailers listed above may have been sold fraudulent or mislabeled products. Consumers who believe they may have been misled about their supplements may qualify to join a class action lawsuit and pursue compensation and reimbursement for their mislabeled supplements.