Why supplements are (almost always) a waste and often risky

Some people have vitamin or mineral deficiencies and rely on supplements to manage them, said Pieter Cohen, an internist at Cambridge Health Alliance who studies supplements. But beyond that, experts tend to be skeptical.

Supplements can come with risks, Dr. Cohen said. According to one paper, medical reactions to supplements send an estimated 23,000 people to emergency rooms each year in the United States.

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“The supplement industry is essentially unregulated … ,” said Brian Hitt, assistant professor of neurology at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine.

Even when they aren’t harmful, they might not do anything at all, Dr. Hitt said. “You’ll find across the board that science-based providers don’t recommend dietary supplements,” he added.

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Supplement manufacturers are not permitted to make what’s called a disease claim, Dr. Cohen said. They can’t, for example, say, “‘This supplement will cure Alzheimer’s disease,’ … he explained.

But on social media, there’s little enforcement, Dr. Cohen added, “so if some influencer decides to start saying that their grandmother’s Alzheimer’s was cured using this botanical, there’s nothing to stop them.”

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