FDA regulation of nutritional supplements is different from those covering “conventional” foods and drug products; it takes on a post-marketing responsibility by way of monitoring safety and product information.
1. Monitoring safety, FDA regulation of nutritional supplements involves monitoring the safety of a supplement product that is out on the market. Before the FDA can take action to restrict the use of a nutritional supplement, it has to show the hazards associated with the use of the said nutritional supplement.
FDA regulation of nutritional supplements can be initiated in the form of studies, reviews, reports, scientific literature, and public comments. This was what happened in 1997, when the FDA proposed to limit the amount of ephedrine alkaloids (also known as ephedra, Chinese ephedra, Ma huang, and epitonin) in dietary supplements, as it was found to cause a range of side effects such as dizziness, nervousness, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, chest pain, stroke, hepatitis, seizure, psychosis, and even death. For more information on other potentially dangerous dietary supplements, you can visit the FDA website.
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Vitamins are crucial nutrients and substances of an organic nature that are vital for our health. Vitamins serve as components of enzymes and coenzymes. Enzymes are essential for speeding up our chemical reactions that take happen within our body.
Such reactions are responsible for our metabolic processes, so because of this, consuming vitamin nutritional supplements is vitally important. If one has a vitamin deficiency, then consuming such a supplement becomes even more imperative.
Vitamins and minerals control and help with our metabolic processes, because of this, they are very important when it comes to helping us produce energy. They also help with the reproduction and health of our internal cells. If someone has a deficiency in a certain vitamin or mineral, this can actually lead to some serious health problems. This is because the nutrients often work synergistically – together with other vitamins, minerals, enzymes and coenzymes. To summarize, vitamins and minerals are vitally important for your health.
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Under current US laws, even some hormones may be categorized as nutritional supplements. Supplements are referred to as supplements because they are meant to supplement or complement a person’s daily, healthy diet.
As mentioned above, parts of plants are also labeled as supplements. These are sometimes referred to as phytonutrients or phytochemicals (the prefix phyto means plant). Examples of phytonutrients include beta carotene, lutein and lycopene to name a few.
Supplements that are said to help people become stronger, faster or jump higher are grouped into a special class of called ergogenic aids. Creatine, is probably the best known ergogenic aid.
How did so many things come to be known as supplements? In my opinion, things really started to change in the late 1980s when newspapers started reporting on a rare and mysterious blood disorder called eosinophilia myalgia syndrome (EMS).
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