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FDA partners with IOM to help physicians evaluate supplements

Physician Practice Advisor, April 13, 2004

Since the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health Education Act classified over-the-counter dietary supplements as food and not drugs, manufacturers have not been required to provide safety information about these products before they sell them.

But now the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Research Council of the National Academies to help develop a process to aid physicians in assessing the effectiveness of supplements.

In early April, IOM released "Dietary Supplements: A Framework for Evaluating Safety." The report gives physicians a process to help them evaluate how the ingredients in supplements patients are taking might affect them, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Visit http://books.nap.edu/books/0309091101/html to view the IOM report.

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