Dr Oz: Vitamins & Supplements: What’s in Your Supplements?

Doctor Oz did a segment on Vitamins and Supplements.  Do you know what is in your supplements?  Dr Oz reviewed a variety of different Vitamins and Supplements including Green Tea Extracts, Weight Loss Pills and Chondroitin.  What Vitamins and Supplements are safe and which have illegal ingredients in them and are not safe? 

Dr Oz said 150 million people take one of 70,000 different dietary supplements on the market, spending billions of dollars each year.  The FDA does not require testing of Vitamins and Supplements before they go to market.  And 50,000 people have adverse reactions each year to Vitamins and Supplements – some people even die from them.

Dr Pieter Cohen, from Harvard Medical School, did a study and found that supplements can be addictive and often contain contaminants such as tranquilizers and amphetamines.  Dr Oz gave us the following Vitamins & Supplements Secrets list to helps us avoid falling into dangerous traps.

Vitamins & Supplements Secrets from Doctor Oz

Vitamin & Supplement Secret #1: Illegal Hidden Ingredients

Dr Oz said that since the FDA does not require testing on any supplements before going to market, due to a law passed 15 years ago, we must be very careful and cautious.  Amphetamines, which are often hidden in supplements, can literally cause your heart to stop or give you a heart attack or stroke.  Dr Oz tested 3 Weight Loss Products and found that 2 of the 3 were fine, but Pai You Guo had Sibutramine, a dangerous and illegal hidden ingredient.  Pai You Guo was recalled, but it is still available online.  Dr Oz said it is a major warning sign that your supplement is not legit if you cannot contact the company you are buying the product from on either via the phone or e-mail.  Also, all ingredients must be listed on the product, otherwise do not take the supplement!  Ephedra, a weight loss drug, was banned because of the high risk of having a heart attack while on it.  One woman on Doctor Oz’s show took Ephedra for years, and it took her many years once she quit taking Ephedra to return to a normal sleeping and eating pattern.

Vitamin & Supplement Secret #2: Potency Problems

Dr Oz said that the second problem with certain Vitamins and Supplements comes from potency issues.  How do you know that you are getting what you paid for?  Dr. Oz tested four different Chondroitin products, which is a chemical found in cartilage and helps people with joint pain by increases the cushion between your femur and tibia bones.  Tod Cooperman from Consumer Labs said that 1/4 of the products on the market do not meet quality standards and have less of the supplement in them than they claim to have.  Doctor Oz’s test found that of the fours Chondroitin samples, three of them only contained this much of the supplement that they claimed to have: 2.7%, 68%, and 87%.  Only one supplement has anything close to what it should have in it.

Vitamin & Supplement Secret #3: Purity Problems

Dr. Oz said the third problem with Vitamins and Supplements are impurities found in the pills.  For example, of the Green Tea Extracts supplements tested, 2 of the 3 pills had fewer Catchans than the label said they had, and one pill had 50 Mg of caffeine added to it!  Another problem with herbal supplements is that herbs absorb lead, and you don’t want high levels of lead in your diet.  One solution is to drink Green Tea rather than taking the supplement.