
What Dietary Supplements Should I Take?
Author: Betty Kovacs, MS, RD
Medical Editors: Ruchi Mathur, MD, and Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Viewer question: I started taking dietary supplements a couple months ago, but I don't really feel any different. What dietary supplements should I be taking to maintain a healthy lifestyle overall?
Dietitian's response: Many people use dietary supplements with the hopes of improving their health without knowing that there is typically little proof, if any, that a supplement will do what it claims to do. The truth is that supplements are not monitored for their safety and efficacy the way that prescription and over-the-countermedications are. Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) is responsible for ensuring the safety of drug products (prescription and over-the-counter). Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), manufacturers of dietary supplements are the ones responsible for ensuring the safety of their own products. This means that the companies making the supplements do not have to report to anyone but themselves. There are many reasons why this becomes a problem...