Mixed
Dietary supplements are generally safe and pose significantly lower risks of adverse events, hospitalizations, and fatalities compared to prescription drugs and even common foods.
You do not need to fear that taking a standard dietary supplement will cause you to end up in the emergency room or suffer a fatal outcome. The data shows that serious adverse events from supplements are extremely rare compared to prescription medications and even foodborne illnesses. However, you should still choose products from reputable manufacturers that undergo third-party testing (like NSF or Informed Choice) to ensure purity and avoid adulterated products.
a 2013 Annual Report (released in 2015) of the American Association of Poison Control Centers revealed zero fatalities occurred due to dietary supplements compared to 1692 deaths due to drugs [5]. ... a 2015 report by the Centers for Disease Control suggesting 2,287,273 emergency room visits were due to prescription drug-related events which dwarfs the 3266 emergency room visits due to dietary supplements
Why this rating
The claim is supported by large-scale observational data from the CDC and Poison Control Centers, though these are retrospective reports rather than controlled trials.
Source
ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: research & recommendations
Chad M. Kerksick et al. · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12970-018-0242-y
More from this paper
- A nutritional supplement is considered ergogenic only if peer-reviewed human studies demonstrate it significantly enhances exercise performance or muscle hypertrophy with long-term ingestion, not just acute effects or preclinical data.Strong
- Consumers can verify supplement quality and safety by seeking products that undergo third-party testing (e.g., NSF, Informed Choice) and adhere to Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs).Good
Related findings · Mixed
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