How can we be sure we’re getting what we pay for from nutritional supplements?
There are many places where you can buy nutritional supplements, and there is an overwhelming number of brands for sale. Prices and options vary widely.
How can you make the best choices to fulfill your nutritional supplement needs? And why might buying the least expensive supplements available end up costing you more?
Is there really a difference?
Several studies have investigated the nutritional supplement market. A recent one was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last month. It reported that a team of researchers analyzed 25 melatonin products from different brands, and found that 22 contained different amounts of melatonin than what were listed on their labels, while one contained no detectable melatonin at all. Unfortunately, this is not that uncommon.
Several reports have cited counterfeit nutritional supplements sold on Amazon, under multiple fraudulent labels, with missing active ingredients and unknown additions. In fact several companies have stated that they will not stand behind their products if you have bought them on Amazon. And in multiple cases, laboratory investigations have found several herbal formulas from China to be tainted with added pharmaceutical drugs.
As the author of the JAMA paper stated: “You are at the mercy of the dietary supplement industry.” And, sadly, it’s true. The supplement industry is an unregulated “jungle” without any regulatory oversight. The market is full of fraudsters, and we need to be careful.
Nutritional supplements can be life-changing
Throughout my years of practice I have found nutritional supplements to be indispensable for the treatment of a wide variety of health conditions, both because modern agricultural procedures have depleted the soil, rendering much produce inferior in nutritional content, and because supplements used judiciously can remedy many health problems.
But fake supplements might not work due to lack of potency, might do harm because of adulterated ingredients, and might dissuade people from using the products that could be the only things that might give them relief, because the fakes didn’t help.
That’s why we use professional quality, pharmaceutical-grade supplements
We only use supplements and herbal products from reputable and legitimate manufacturers. They are tested and certified to contain the ingredients on the label at the specified potency and concentration, and to be free from adulterants.
We take nutritional support seriously. We know you get what you pay for, and we want to make sure that you get what you need, with no unpleasant surprises.
On the surface, our products might seem to cost more than the cheap products you can buy from Amazon, Costco, the drugstore, or even the health food store. However, in terms of actual ingredients that are in the most metabolically compatible and bioavailable forms, the supplements we carry can actually be less expensive per effective ingredient dosage.
I carefully curate the supplements we carry
Our distributors handle a huge assortment of products from multiple manufacturers. I review each supplement we carry to ensure it represents the best value available in a verified professional quality supplement in terms of potency per dollar.
In addition, I always do my best to recommend only what will serve your needs.
Nutritional supplements are an important part of what we offer
Functional medicine uses leading edge laboratory and reflex testing together with dietary and nutritional supplement programs to deal with many health problems. Often the functional medicine and nutritional approach can help when conventional treatment can’t.
Ask us how this work might help you.
To find out more, call us at 303-394-4204.