Is It Worth It? Vitamins, Herbs, and Supplements

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Recently there was a widely publicized article in the Annals of Internal Medicine titled, "Enough is enough: stop wasting money on vitamin and mineral supplements," which referenced a few studies and inferred the claim the vitamin supplementation is not helpful in maintaining or improving one's health.  My own bias as a Naturopathic physician is the opposite of this claim, and I appreciate the well researched response of Dr Alan Gaby, MD, which points out the mistakes of the article's claim and then references many instances where vitamins do indeed lead to improved health.  Follow the link to read on about Dr Gaby's article.

I do agree that in the unregulated market of herbs and supplements, consumers can fall prey to unsavory companies looking to make a lot of money on a low quality product or making health claims that aren't based on research or clinical experience.  For example, a study done by Bastyr University found that the quality of many probiotics is at best poor and at the worst, harmful, stating that, "some of these products do not contain viable bacteria or are contaminated with other potentially harmful bacteria raises concerns about the safety and efficacy of these products."

Its important that the products you buy are held to high quality control standards and testing to ensure that there is not chemical contamination, that the contents of the bottle match the label claim (ex: actually has the right amount of active constituents and not sawdust . . . ) , and that the ingredients are at reasonable and safe doses.  For these reasons, consumers must either do their own research by contacting companies and asking these questions, or asking their doctor what research they have done in the products they sell.  A good rule of thumb is that you get what you pay for- do you think that $8 bottle of probiotics sold at the grocery store are the same as the $40 bottle sold in the refrigerator section of your doctor's office?