“Over-used, poorly researched and potentially very harmful”. So says a New York doctor about our over-reliance on pills.

Pills to make us feel better, pills to protect us from illnesses, and pills to help us get through the day.

Dr Claudine Petrowski, a medical practitioner from New York city, is however not referring to the over-reliance by Americans on prescription medications. Petrowski is in fact quite concerned about our over-reliance on supplements. Yes, those pills that you buy from health food stores that are supposed to be good for you.

Petrowski, who is the editor of website Supplement-Wise, has a passionate interest in health supplements and has been studying their use and abuse in the USA for over 10 years now.

“The un-regulated nature of supplements in the USA makes them particularly dangerous”, she says, “and allows the myth to continue uncontested that these formulations are unquestionably good for our health.”

Petrowski however claims that in many cases the opposite is true.

“Many supplements, if taken in large doses can be very harmful, even lethal”, she says.

“Some supplements do not even contain the ingredients they claim to, while others contain cheaper and sometimes poisonous substitutes“.

“I am particularly concerned about the use of dietary supplements, Chinese herbal supplements and the recent obsession with anti-oxidants” says the doctor.

Researchers are only now starting to realise the potential dangers of supplements, which have long been huge cash cows for large health conglomerates, generating over $25 billion a year in revenue from the US alone. These supplements however have rarely been adequately researched in a clinical setting, as is the strict requirement by the FDA for medical treatments.

“If these supplements were required to comply with the strict rigour for safety and efficacy as imposed by the FDA, not many of them would be on the shelves of health stores today.” says Dr Petrowski.

Supplements have been responsible for many serious health risks such as stroke, heart attack, cancer and diabetes for at-risk people such as the elderly, by they have also posed serious problems to the young and healthy.

Dr Petrowski adds that “in many cases supplements have been found to clash with conventional medications, making vital medication less effective. In other cases, supplements have been found to contain high levels of toxicity, rendering them particularly harmful to even the most healthy, especially when taken in high doses or over long periods of time.”

Although sounding quite ominous, Petrowski claims that supplements still have a very important role to play in optimising health, not only for pregnant women and the elderly, but for all people seeking a healthier lifestyle.

What is required is informed decision making and a reliable reference to the integrity of the ingredients, and credible scientific testing that shows genuine benefit in a research/non-commercial setting.

Dr Claudine Petrowski decided to set up a website as a “source of truth” about supplements and their health benefits and dangers, as reported by genuine scientific research.

“With all the snake oil refernces to supplements out on the web, claiming to cure every condition under the sun, I thought it was about time one website avoided all the hype and simply stuck to the facts, and tis is whatSupplement-Wise does.

Visit out website now & get Supplement WISE on www.supplement-wise.com