Finding Credible Information on Supplements

I just finished taking a course on supplements for performance and there are 3 steps that you need to take in order to evaluate a supplement and to see if it is safe to take. The first one is gathering information. You can gather this information from labels, brochures, advertisements and website materials. The second is to find scientific evidence on the supplement that follows a research protocol that seeks to reduce bias and increase objectivity. It is during this process, that you should able to answer these 2 questions regarding a supplement: Is it Safe? Is it Effective? The third way of evaluating a supplement is checking its safety and effectiveness. To check on a supplement's safety and effectiveness, you can visit some of these websites, the National Library of Medicine's searchable database ( http://nccam.nih.gov/ ), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/. An even better site than the National Library of Medicine is the CAM medline website that focuses only on articles that are related to complementary and alternative therapies, including dietary supplements. The address is http://nccam.nih.gov/. You can also check out Quackwatch, which is a nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to combat health related frauds, myths, fads and fallacies. Their website is http://www.quackwatch.com/. The last website comes from Supplement Watch, Inc which is a self  funded privately held corporation consisting of a small group of scientists, physiologists, nutritionists and other health professionals dedicated to educating people about the pros and cons of dietary supplementation. Their website is http://www.supplementwatch.com/.