Tips for safe shopping
To make sure supplements and other over-the-counter products are safe to use, Dr. Tsourounis recommends that consumers:
- Buy products from well-known retailers like Target or large pharmacies like CVS or Walgreens.
- Avoid buying products with labels in another language that you cannot read or products with no drug label.
- Be cautious of buying products online or from other countries.
- Look up suspicious products on the FDA’s health fraud database.
- Be wary of any product that offers miracle cures or relies on personal testimonies without evidence.
In general, do not base purchasing decisions on any health claims on a product label because companies selling supplements making these claims “don’t have to have any clinical data to back them up,” Dr. Cohen said.
Dr. Cohen also recommends sticking with individual ingredients. “If you want echinacea, buy echinacea. Don’t buy a complicated mix that is supposed to be good for arthritis with 10 different botanical [ingredients]. That’s more likely to run [you] into trouble,” he said.
Last, Dr. Cohen recommended buying supplements that are certified by NSF International or United States Pharmacopeia, both respected third-party testing organizations. “If it has an NSF International or USP stamp, that gives us more certainty that what’s in the bottle is going to be what’s listed on label,” he said.
Dr. Tsourounis noted that if you are skeptical of a product, you can also try calling the manufacturer number on the product label.
“I always encourage people to call that number to see if somebody answers,” she said. “Sometimes, you can tell a lot about that company just by calling that number.”
Dr. Cohen has received research support from the Consumers Union and PEW Charitable Trusts and royalties from UpToDate. He has collaborated in research with NSF International. Dr. Tsourounis disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.