Role of the Health Professional

When asked about supplements, health professionals should emphasise the importance of consuming a diet based on healthy eating guidelines. This is a diet rich in starchy, fibrous carbohydrates, including fruit and vegetables,and low in fat, sugar and salt. Dietary supplements do not convert a poor diet into a good one.

Health professionals should be aware of dietary standards and good food sources for nutrients. They should be able to assess an individual’s risk of nutrient deficiency and need for further referral, by asking questions to detect cultural, physical, environmental and social conditions which may predispose to inadequate intakes.

There is a need to be aware of the potential for adverse effects with supplements. Thus, when a client or patient presents with any symptoms, questions should be asked about the use of dietary supplements. Individuals will not always volunteer this information without prompting because they believe that supplements are ‘natural’ and therefore safe. Health professionals should make their clients aware of the existence of badly worded claims and adverts and of the dangers of supplement misuse. Pharmacists have a particular responsibility, simply because they sell these products. When supplying any supplement with perceived health benefits, pharmacists must be careful to avoid giving their professional authority to a product that may lack any health or therapeutic benefit and has risks associated with its use. In accordance with the Code of Ethics of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, this may involve not stocking or selling the product.

Pharmacists must not give the impression that any dietary supplement is efficacious when there is no evidence for such efficacy. However, providing a product is not harmful for a particular individual, the freedom to use it should be respected. What is important is that consumers are able to make informed and intelligent choices about the products they buy.