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THERE ARE INACCURATE INGREDIENT LISTS. The company may promise a product that has none of the ingredients you were paying for or you may suffer a serious health consequence because you
unknowingly took a potent drug. Thirty products marketed to boost immune function were tested for a 2022 study published in the _Journal of the American Medical Association_. Fewer than
half had accurate labels — some listed ingredients that were not in the product, some contained ingredients not printed on the label and some committed both offenses. UNSCRUPULOUS SALES
TACTICS. Some scammers will only sell you the supplement if you pay a lot of money for a several-month supply upfront, says Brigid Groves, vice president of professional affairs at the
American Pharmacists Association (APhA). Or they may sign you up for a monthly subscription when you intended to only buy one bottle. “Requiring you to subscribe and potentially buy a large
portion at once is really suspicious,” she says. HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM A SUPPLEMENT SCAM Supplements can interact with your current medications or may not be a good idea for people
with certain health conditions “Anybody who is thinking about taking a dietary supplement should have a risk-based conversation with a health care professional about why they want to take
it,” says Amy Cadwallader, director of regulatory and public policy development at US Pharmacopeia (USP), a nonprofit organization that focuses on medication safety and quality. It’s
critical to know what’s in the supplements you’re taking, “There is a potential that taking too much of it can be harmful,” Groves says. “Kava kava, for example, has been taken in large
doses and caused irreversible liver damage.” If after talking to your doctor, you want to purchase a supplement, here are how experts recommend you find them BUY FROM A MAJOR MANUFACTURER.
Many of them are also making OTC drugs, like aspirin and ibuprofen, that have to follow stricter FDA rules, and their supplements may stick to the same standards. “It’s not a guarantee, but
they’re much more likely to be using good manufacturing because they’ve got deep pockets,” McQueen says. LOOK FOR A SEAL OF APPROVAL. Some supplement makers contract independent, third-party
labs to test their products and follow the FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practices and bear a seal with the lab’s initials on their label. “These are seals that products can put on their labels
if they’ve been tested in a laboratory to verify that they don’t contain certain contaminants and bacteria,” Cadwallader says. Some labs to look for include ConsumerLab (CL); National
Sanitation Foundation (NSF); UL Solutions, previously Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL); and US Pharmacopeia (USP)