NPR | Why is there a supplement craze if they don’t even work?
94 claims analyzed
Claims94
Dietary supplements do not have to contain the ingredients listed on their labels.
Collagen helps with hair thickness.
Congress received more letters about the FDA's proposed supplement disclaimer in the 1960s than it received during Watergate.
Vitamin D is not a vitamin.
Dietary supplements are unregulated with respect to the safety of their ingredients.
No one checks whether dietary supplements contain what their labels state unless someone sues the supplement company.
Seventy-five percent of Americans take dietary supplements.
Collagen helps with hair growth.
Dietary supplement sales have increased around 50% since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 1920s and 1930s, vitamin-enriched yeast products claimed to treat furry tongue.
In the 1970s, the FDA's official position was that dietary supplements were nutritionally irrational.
Some health food stores covered supplement aisles with black curtains during the early-1990s supplement-regulation backlash.
Green tea supplement extract is usually made with ethanol.
Turmeric supplements often contain 10 times the amount recommended by the World Health Organization.
ConsumerLab tested turmeric supplements and found that some contained more turmeric than advertised.
An NSF or USP mark on a dietary supplement indicates that the ingredient amounts are not at harmful levels.
In the 1910s, a popular supplement claimed it could cure malnutrition using strychnine.
Supplement-industry organizers got people to write thousands of letters to President George H. W. Bush opposing supplement regulation.
The Prevagen shake was called NeuroShake.
Companies can ignore FDA concerns about food ingredients if the companies self-certify the ingredients as safe.
Green tea in dietary supplements is rarely the actual tea leaves found in tea bags.
Turmeric supplements may not contain turmeric.
Food product ingredient lists are accurate.
The FDA sometimes spot-checks food ingredients to verify food labels.
Supplement-related liver failure increased eightfold over most of the last 30 years.
Dietary supplement bottles with health claims state that the claims have not been evaluated by the FDA.
U.S. supplement regulations do not require supplement makers to prove that products do what their labels claim.
The supplement industry is a $70 billion industry in the United States.
Green tea provides energy benefits.
There is no evidence that dietary supplements make healthy people healthier.
A New York tycoon lost his jaw after consuming radioactive water sold as a cure for fatigue.
In 1966, the FDA proposed a supplement disclaimer stating that there was no scientific basis for routine supplement use.
In 1966, the FDA proposed requiring a prominent disclaimer on supplement bottles.
Congress received more than 2 million letters about the FDA's proposed supplement disclaimer in the 1960s.
In the early 1990s, the proprietor of an alternative medicine clinic in Kent, Washington was accused of illegally injecting patients with high-dose vitamin concoctions.
In the early 1990s, the proprietor of an alternative medicine clinic in Kent, Washington was accused of illegally injecting patients with high-dose mineral concoctions.
The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act allowed dietary supplement makers to make health-improvement claims on product labels if they avoided disease-treatment language.
Companies must notify the FDA when a dietary supplement contains a totally new ingredient.
In the 1990s, Mark Underwood developed an idea for a memory-improving supplement using jellyfish.
Jellyfish do not have brains.
The FDA initially said Prevagen's jellyfish-derived ingredient did not meet the agency's safety threshold.
The company behind Prevagen formally notified the FDA that its jellyfish-derived ingredient was being introduced as a food ingredient.
The Prevagen pill remained on the market while the FDA was expressing safety concerns about its ingredient.
People reported strokes to the company behind Prevagen while taking the supplement.
Green tea supplement extract is typically made by bathing tea leaves in a solvent.
The human body gets vitamin D from exposure to the sun.
Dietary supplement labels do not always match the contents of the supplement packages.
Dietary supplements are supposed to contain the ingredients listed on their labels.
ConsumerLab tested turmeric supplements and found that one contained essentially no turmeric.
ConsumerLab found that more than two-thirds of elderberry supplements sold on Amazon did not contain authentic elderberry.
An NSF or USP mark on a dietary supplement indicates that the supplement contains the ingredients listed on its label.
An NSF or USP mark on a dietary supplement indicates that the ingredient amounts are accurate.
U.S. law requires additional paperwork for dietary supplement ingredients that have never been used before in supplements.
U.S. food makers can declare a new food ingredient generally recognized as safe without prior FDA approval.
Green tea is typically found in weight management products.
Dietary supplements in the United States do not have to undergo testing to prove they work before being sold.
The 1906 law creating the Food and Drug Administration did not mention dietary supplements.
The FDA repeatedly told a Kent, Washington alternative medicine clinic that its high-dose vitamin injections were unsafe.
The FDA raid of a Kent, Washington alternative medicine clinic made the front page of The New York Times.
Under U.S. supplement law, supplement labels cannot claim that a product cures Alzheimer's disease.
Under U.S. supplement law, supplement labels can claim that a product helps improve memory.
U.S. law generally does not require supplement makers to prove that a supplement is safe before selling it.
U.S. law requires new dietary supplement ingredients to be reasonably expected to be safe.
Prevagen uses a synthetic version of a protein found in glowing jellyfish.
The FDA again said Prevagen's jellyfish-derived ingredient did not meet the safety threshold when the company resubmitted it several years later.
Supplement industry lawyers advised clients to put new supplement ingredients into food products first to avoid the FDA's new ingredient review.
The company behind Prevagen self-certified its synthetic jellyfish-derived ingredient as safe to drink in a shake.
Between 2007 and 2015, the company behind Prevagen had more than $165 million in sales.
People reported chest pain to the company behind Prevagen while taking the supplement.
People reported seizures to the company behind Prevagen while taking the supplement.
The maker of Prevagen claimed that Prevagen was clinically proven to improve memory.
The FTC said one clinical trial did not show that Prevagen improved memory.
High concentrations of lab-processed green tea EGCG extract are linked to acute liver damage.
High concentrations of lab-processed green tea EGCG extract are linked to death.
Scurvy is not a major public health problem in the United States.
Vitamin D is a hormone.
Some dietary supplements contain lead.
A 2017 study found that supplements were tied to 20% of liver toxicity cases.
Supplement-related liver failure has led some people to be placed on liver transplant waitlists.
An NSF or USP mark on a dietary supplement indicates that the supplement has been third-party tested.
Dietary supplements can have a placebo effect.
EGCG is an antioxidant extracted from green tea leaves.
Folic acid decreases the risk of certain birth defects during pregnancy.
Iron supplements can help people who are anemic or iron deficient.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services.
FDA agents raided an alternative medicine clinic in Kent, Washington in the early 1990s.
Mel Gibson appeared in an advertisement opposing supplement regulation.
Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in 1994.
Jellyfish do not have hearts.
The Federal Trade Commission can bring false-advertising cases against dietary supplement companies.
The FTC sued the maker of Prevagen in 2017.
Some dietary supplements contain arsenic.