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September/October 2006 Alternative Health
How Safe are Your Supplements?

by Sundara Delphini

The never-ending maze of products, marketing campaigns and media reports on health supplements can be overwhelming. Nutritional supplements and herbs should be manufactured with the highest quality and safety standards, but not all products are created equal.

Unfortunately, the majority of products on the market are unscrupulously manufactured with unregulated cheap raw materials, often sourced from heavily polluted countries. Even products that may be produced with high quality raw materials usually contain additives. This explains why some people may not feel significantly better when taking supplements and why some actually feel worse.

Many of the ingredients found in discount lines of nutritional supplements come from India and China, where regulatory controls are severely lacking. Independent laboratory analysis reveals significant differences in purity and potency between herbs and vitamins from sources like China and India versus sources like Europe, Japan and the U.S.

Arsenic, lead, mercury and bacteria are commonly found in herbal and vitamin products from poorly regulated countries. But even some manufacturers who purchase raw materials from dependable sources will then add manufacturing lubricants like stearic acid and magnesium stearate derived from beef, palm oil or cottonseed oil. These lubricants are not soluble in our bodies and can interfere with absorption, promoting allergic reactions over time. Shellac is often used, listed as pharmaceutical glaze or film glaze. Mineral oils or refined vegetable oils containing disease-promoting trans fats are often added. The list goes on to include potential allergens like zein, talc, antifreeze and dyes.

Most naturopaths, Chinese medicine practitioners and other holistic health care practitioners use practitioner line/brand products. Practitioner lines are of higher quality, often provide the practitioner with independent third party analysis of their products, and quality guarantees. Practitioners know that the patient’s health is more likely to improve when using higher quality products. It may cost more per bottle, but in the long run, the benefits surpass lower quality products.

Health Naturals in NW Portland performs their own quality control procedures. It’s not uncommon for them to reject shipments due to quality issues most retailers would ignore. At one time Health Naturals was the only retailer in the country that frequently rejected shipments of a particular fiber supplement because they detected rancidity. The manufacturer thought the store was being unreasonable until Health Naturals convinced them to do a lab test on their product. The test proved the product was rancid—the manufacturer did a national recall and eventually reformulated the product to prevent rancidity.

Why take unnecessary risks in safety and efficacy just to save a few dollars? Big warehouse supplements are often popular because of their price, but cheaper is not better for your health. Lower quality forms of calcium from oyster shell and calcium carbonate can cost half as much as calcium citrate-malate, but the low-cost forms are five to 10 times less absorbable. Some of the less expensive calcium products as well as other cheaper supplements have also had the most trouble with lead and other heavy metal contamination.

Similarly, many people have wisely started using probiotics like acidophilus to promote intestinal health. However, an independent analysis revealed that only three out of 12 probiotics actually contained what their labels claimed.

The bottom line?

Buy high quality practitioner brand lines if possible. For other brands, ask your health care practitioner to evaluate your nutritional supplements and herbs. Ask for recommendations for other high quality products.

Dr. Sundara Delphini is an integrative medicine health care practitioner at Health Naturals in NW Portland. Visit www.healthnaturals.com.