By Leigh Siergiewicz
Dietary supplements are very helpful when they are good quality, used correctly, and dosed appropriately. Unfortunately, this is often not the case, making them either a waste of money or potentially harmful.
I always tell people not to buy supplements from third-party sellers on Amazon or other websites. I have personally had a patient use a high-quality herbal supplement I recommended that she originally bought through my supplement distributor, then subsequently bought on Amazon for less. She told me when it arrived it was immediately obvious that the product did not look or smell the same, and the label looked slightly different. This was right around the same time this company had sent out a warning that they were aware of counterfeit products.
High-quality herbal products can be expensive but are effective. Taking an unknown product from a counterfeit seller is scary. I have heard similar stories from my colleagues. Please, do not buy online from third-party sellers.
I have also had patients tell me many times that a particular brand of a supplement I recommended worked for them, then they switched to a cheaper brand and no longer experienced the beneficial effects. Many less expensive products don’t have a dose that is adequate to have an effect.
For example, zinc is commonly used for a cold or mild acute illness. I have read packages of zinc lozenges that have as little as 3 mg of zinc, when an effective short-term dose for acute illness is more like 50 mg. I imagine part of the reason zinc lozenges are dosed so low is they can give a strange mouthfeel, but if the dose is ineffective, it’s pointless. Capsules easily provide a large-enough dose. Always take zinc with food; it can cause an upset stomach alone.
Vitamin D is extremely important for the immune system, cognition, bone health, and so much more. It is impossible to know the correct dose for you without a blood test. When someone is very low in vitamin D, a large dose for a few months can make them feel dramatically better. You should re-test after a short-term large dose regimen to measure the effect. It is possible, but difficult, to overdose on vitamin D and cause significant harm. Back when I was a student, a patient at the teaching clinic misunderstood dosing instructions and accidentally overdosed himself on vitamin D. It caused calcium deposits in his muscles and other very unpleasant symptoms.
Some of the worst offenders of low-quality supplements are multilevel marketing companies. Their products often have the highest prices with the lowest doses. Some claim their products are “certified pure therapeutic grade” or something similar. If you know what company I am talking about, that phrase is a trademark with no backing. They are the only company certified like that because they own the trademark, and it is not verified by any third party.
In general, I advise against buying big box store brands, or anything from a compelling online sales pitch. There is a short list of direct-to-consumer brands I approve of on my website. This is a topic I wish more people knew about because supplements often get a bad name when it’s actually a product quality issue.
