The real danger lies when the supplements contain items that are not listed on the labels – different types of herbs, fillers or drugs that can truly harm the body. That’s why self-medication and listening to friends or salespeople about the wonders produced by any supplement are dangerous – they haven’t spent years of research and have no real professional stake in the outcomes. They’re often touting products that aren’t backed by any research or human studies, and certainly no medical history of anyone is taken before items are recommended.

The Dangers Are Real

While some may dismiss cautions about using supplements as a product of the nanny state that’s always warning about something or other, there are measurable reports of how supplements can have adverse effects.

The FDA does keep track of reactions, injury or illness caused by supplements, and it requires supplement makers to report any harm that their products may have caused.

FDA reports indicate that supplement problems are on the rise. In 2009, there  more than 1,000 reports of dietary supplement adverse effects, defined as moderate to severe reactions to ingesting supplements, including illness and unexpected side effects. By 2012, that number had risen to more than 2,800 reports of adverse dietary supplement reactions.

It was also reported ingesting supplements that included herbs, vitamins, protein powders and botanicals resulted in more than 100,000 phone calls to poison control centers across the nation, with about 1 percent of those incidences having moderate to severe outcomes. Because only a tiny number of people who have a problem are likely to pick up the phone and call a government agency, it is believed that those numbers are but a fraction of the actual cases.