Spotting False Claims

The sheer volume of available dietary supplements makes it difficult for the FDA to monitor all of these products. It is important to recognize these limitations and become an informed consumer. Products making unrealistic statements, claiming to be all-natural and therefore harmless, or claiming to contain "ancient" or "secret" ingredients should be viewed with extreme caution.
As discussed in chapter 2, the DSHEA states that dietary supplements cannot be claimed to treat or cure disease and that doing so identifies the product as a drug. For example, manufacturers of coral calcium, a calcium supplement said to be derived from living coral reefs, claimed their product could be used to treat ailments ranging from cancer to lupus to multiple sclerosis. While the people making these statements have been contacted (and are prohibited by the Federal Trade Commission from claiming that coral calcium cures a range of diseases and/or is absorbed easier than other calcium supplements), dietary supplements violating this regulation continue to be available to consumers. Dietary supplement safety should be ascertained using multiple resources. While dietary supplement labels contain vital information for consumers, a lack of cautionary words on labels should not be considered a statement of absolute safety.
Even after a recall has been effected, there is a risk of consuming harmful substances in products still available for purchase. In addition, substances that belong to the same class as a recalled dietary supplement may cause similar effects. Bitter orange (Citrus aurantium), for example, mimics certain characteristics of ephedra. Now that ephedra-containing products have been removed from the U.S. market, bitter orange is commonly found in weight-loss dietary supplements.
In conclusion, each piece of information about dietary supplements should be considered another piece of data. Educated decisions based on information from a variety of sources allows consumers to place recent developments in the appropriate context. Information should be continually updated as new data become available.